The Philippines- Day 8

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We were up by 6:15 to eat breakfast and catch our van to Honda Bay. Named for the Spanish name “Hondo Agua” (Deep Water), it’s apparently a popular tourist destination for snorkeling, fish-feeding, swimming, and eating. Our first stop was a floating dock in the middle of the bay where you could swim or snorkel. We didn’t stay there long before heading on to Snake Island (named for the shape, not the inhabitants) where I read and wrote, everyone else tanned, and we ate lunch (more grilled tuna and cucumber salad!)

After lunch we headed to one last island before heading back to town with the other tourists on the 5:00 flight back to Manila. We learned that if you pronounced Palawan “PAH-lah-wan”, it means someone from Palawan. “pah-LAH-wan” means the island.

When we got back, a special van took us directly to our hostel instead of stopping at the souvenir shop again. We had 20 minutes to change into our warm clothing before heading to the airport. I couldn’t find one of my socks (I only had one pair), so I had to borrow a pair from Dave. I also thought I had lost my notebook because I put it down on a side table and then David put the guestbook on top of it. Luckily the woman running the hostel has eyes like a hawk. She also gave us complimentary rainsticks!

We had to check our bags at the airport (scam!) and had to pay the Southesast Asia standard “terminal fee” (double scam!) and took the short flight back to Manila. Brittney, Sam, and I had to re-check our bags and we got family-style pizzas at the airport. We ran into Josh (another teacher from Dongtan, works with Sam), so we exchanged stories. He went to Cebu and saw much fewer tourists because of the flooding, which he says barely affected his trip. Once we got through security and paid a ridiculous 750 peso international terminal fee (over 15 dollars!), we waited for our flight at the airport bar, watching (and over-analyzing) “The Bodyguard” with the rest of the foreigners from Korea. At midnight, we counted it down and then everyone moved to the windows where in a complete panoramic view across the Manila skyline there were fireworks. Everyone was really quiet. It was a moment I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life.

One the plane, I had to keep my ankle elevated because of the sprain. Joel had a row to himself, so he let me put my leg up on his knee because we didn’t have space. Then I laid down and put my leg up on the armrest. He went up to use the bathroom and when he came back, I had apparently completely taken over the row. He said I looked too peaceful to move, so he went to sit with Brittney and Sam. What a good friend.

Immigration took no time at all, even though they had just implemented a new security system for foreigners only hours before. Now, when foreigners enter Korea, they take our fingerprints and photo. We exchanged our money, caught the bus to Suwon, took a cab to Dongtan, and went to sleep in bitter cold since our heat was off all week. But, as always, it was nice to be home.

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