Palawan

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I met up with Cha in Manila last Wednesday evening and we had a late night chilling and catching up about our travels. It's really nice to see a familiar face and to share my stories with someone in person.
By 11am on Thursday morning we had checked into our flight at the new cenntenial airport in Manila to catch our flight to Puerto Princesa in Palawan. Apart from being slightly delayed the short flight went off without a hitch and we were like giddy school girls from the excitement of being in a new place.

We checked into a hotel near the bay in Puerto and spent the evening exploring the town. We heard the seafood here is great so we were both up for getting our hands on that for dinner and we agreed that the reputation is well deserved. We ended up in a bar chilling out some more before we took a late night walk along the bay. It's still being developed, but the atmosphere is still great. It's definitely worth staying in Puerto before heading off for some island hopping.

This morning we were up at 3am and getting ready to get a tricycle to the bus terminal in San José. From there we waited for one of the Shuttle buses to take us to El Nido in the North. We had to wait until 6am, which was painful on an empty stomach and with very sleep. The journey was about 7 hours and was definitely 'adventurous'. The road was BUMPY and we had to stop several times on the way because the van was well past it. On one occasion broke down briefly, but the locals in the area immediately ran over to help give us a push start. A couple of times we lost some luggage so had to stop to tie it back on the roof. Thank God, it wasn't my bag!!!

Once we arrived in El Nido we made our way to the beach and easily found a reasonable place to stay. The beach isn't the best I've ever seen, but the limestone cliffs surrounding the bay and the family atmosphere definitely make it a great place to chill out. Cha and I looked over our Lonely Planet guide to plan the next couple of days. We really aren't planning more than a day ahead at a time, which is GREAT! Totally flying by the seat of our pants. In the end we decided to go to Miniloc island tomorrow. There's only one place to stay on the island and it's expensive, but all actvities including island hopping and a sunset cruise is included in the price so we it works out reasonable in the end. The guide says Miniloc is even more beautiful than the Phi Phi islands, which I just have to with my own eyes because Phi Phi islands was one of the most beautiful places I've seen.

We met a cool guy who works in a dive shop here so were going out to a bar with him tonight before we catch a 9am boat out to Miniloc from the pier in the morning. Looking forward to it muchly!

xx
(Photos to follow)

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