In the Philippines - Puerto Princesa

After catching my flight from Hanoi at 01:15 am, I finally arrived in Manila, Philippines at around 05 am in the morning...filled out an immigration card and got a free stress-free visa on arrival (30 days for free).

Since the check-in time at the hotel was at 2 pm, I had to kill some time. But I found a café with sunbeds at the airport and "took a rest" for a little while👍

Then around noon, I went to the hotel, but unfortunately, the room was not ready yet. So I made a detour to the Mall of Asia (5 minutes walk), the third largest shopping mall in the world. It was pretty crowded with queues of people at the entrance...in the end, it was the same old stuff, just bigger...

Actually, I only walked 20 meters, bought pants, a shirt, and ice cream, and went back to the hotel to check-in.

In the evening, Anna also arrived well after a long flight from Hungary👍

I didn't see much of Manila, but overall it made a better impression than I expected. My GRAB driver (GRAB=Asian UBER) said that there has been a new president for two years who cleans up properly and that the drug problem and the associated street crime are being fought vigorously and that nowadays you can easily walk on the street without being robbed immediately🤓

Next day, our flight to the island of Palawan also started with a 2-hour delay. Thanks to some "inconsistencies" (= my own stupidity) during baggage check-in, our luggage was driven to the plane and loaded into the plane again, 5 minutes before departure and for a bargain price of €25 per piece of luggage. Surprisingly, we also received food during the flight, which I actually did not want to book (it tasted really awful - chicken with rice)...but whatever, after 1.5 hours, we were in Palawan, more precisely in Puerto Princesa. From there, we took a TukTuk to the hotel for €1.

Puerto Princesa is also quite smoggy and the streets are mostly filled with TukTuks and minibusses. But we managed to find a few decent restaurants👌 The cuisine of the Philippines is considered the worst in Southeast Asia...a lot of fast food, a lot of sugar, but at least fresh fruits and seafood (which is not my thing)😒

Here in Puerto Princesa, there seem to be standard excursion tours for tourists (Underground River, island hopping...). We booked the Underground River for tomorrow, which is apparently the number one attraction here...let's see if it convinces me...🤔

Update:

Today, we visited the Underground River, which is basically a river that runs through a centuries-old limestone cave...it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site for several years.

So far, so good... The plan: Pickup by minibus at 7:30 am, 2 hours drive, boat ride to the cave, in, out, eat, and return...

But it turned out differently. During the drive to the cave, the guide received a phone call and afterwards told us that the boat ride to the cave had been canceled today because there were high waves in the South China Sea😬 But as an alternative, we could hike a 3.6 km jungle trail to the cave🤔 Some (smart) guests decided to cancel the tour, but we decided to go on the hike (STUPID -> Fail).

So, the guests who canceled were brought back. We had a delay of 1.5 hours, which the driver made up for with his reckless driving maneuvers with the fully occupied minivan carrying 15 people🚐💨

During the car ride, the weather got worse and worse until we finally arrived at the destination in heavy rain🙈

Luckily, I was able to buy a yellow full-body condom as a rain protection on-site, otherwise, I would have been screwed! (in a way I was screwed with that thing).

Before we started the hike, there was a "health test" (which should have made me skeptical). Then we went through the "jungle" with a guide...it was quite a distance and due to the rain, it turned into a real "Tough Mudder" run😄

Arriving at the cave, we took a short boat ride, a kilometer into the cave and back out. What can I say, it was dark, wet, full of bats, and interesting to see. But it was clear that we still had to hike 3.6 km back through rough terrain, so the cave didn't necessarily create a cheerful mood for me😜

On the way back, the rain finally stopped, but it was still slippery. In the end, we returned without a guide and waited for everyone to come back at the All-Inclusive buffet (the hunger made us go there😬)...

It took another hour until everyone from the tour group was back, and after a 2-hour car ride back to Puerto Princesa, it was evening.

Well, overall it was an "experience", it was fun! Tomorrow we will continue to Port Barton around noon. It is currently the rainy season in the Philippines, but I still hope for decent weather!🙏