Day 2 Philippines

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Day 2

We had complimentary breakfast and needed to be there before 9am, so had set an earlish alarm. The buffet consisted of rice, noodles, deep fried sweet hotdogs, fried eggs and a slightly spicy dish and mushroom soup... it was good.

A swim in the rooftop pool for an hour felt like we were officially on vacation. The weather was a balmy 32 degrees, slightly humid but exactly what we wanted.

Packing our suitcase back up (We travel lightly, 17kg suitcase between us plus carry on) and we got a Grab to the airport.

Air Asia asked us to check in 2 hours before and over an hour of that was spent in line for the bag drop.

A quick lunch of sweet doughy buns filled with pork and a donut kept us saited. Our flight was delayed and I checked out the coffee shop; basically an expensive American looking coffee joint and saw they served avocado espressos. I was in heaven and didn't care that these were $6 each, I NEEDED it! Sooooo good!

Finally on the plane and less than an hour flight, we arrived at Puerto Princesa, a cute, not busy airport and we were greeted by Phil our host, who took us back to our accomdation for the night. We had just missed a massive storm and the power was out, apparently the power went out at least 20 times a month there..

He told us about a cave down the road that had a man made pool filled with natural cave water that was 500 metres away and we took the opportunity to check it out.

Part of the 'Cave' tour was looking at the 'Face of Jesus' rock formation. The whole place was shrine after shrine dedicated to the Catholic faith. It was way over the top and gaudy as heck and I kinda liked it.

You have to wear a helmet and I'm glad I did because I banged my head at least ten times and probably would have ended up with a concussion.

We were then taken to another cave, the one with the pool and of course I had to mermaid in that. The water was cool and soft and although the pool was small it felt magical to swim around.

Heading back out of the cave we found the fish spa and I put my feet in so that the little fishes could, well, suck on my toes? Eat my toe jam? Dead skin? I actually have no idea why but it was an experience. I convinced Kym to do the same and ended up in fits of laughter from some of his facial expressions. One "ate " too much on his ankle and we are not sure if it ate a scab or took a bite of him but he was bleeding, a tiny bit.

Back at our accomdation, our hosts brought out refreshments, a sweet pork thing called and a nice piece of cake downed with organic orange juice and a beer.

Our ride picked us up for our firefly tour and we were packed in a van for a half hour drive to a river to see the fireflies. A long boat with catamaran type sides (And super uncomfy seats) took 4 of us along the river. The river was quiet and peaceful, the moon, a waxing crescent, threw off light that bounced across the leaves of the trees that skirted the river and at first the reflection was what we thought were the fireflies but they weren't. These tiny fireflies were spotted. In my head I did wonder if someone had stuck up some fairy lights in a few trees to trick us, because the little twinkling lights looked just like that. But then one flew infront of Kym's face. The whole time I had the fireflies song stuck in my head too, 'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they try to teach me how to dance..'

We stopped in front of a tree full of them and our guide carefully caught one that he placed in my hand. I cupped my hands gently together and carefully opened them to see a tiny insect, about the size of a ant with a light up bottom crawl over my hands and I stared in wonder at the magnificence of it and how amazing our world truly is. I gave my little friend, which Kym named 'Kevin' to Kym to hold so I could film. On the camera the light coming from his butt was a incandescent yellow instead of a warm white. The night felt special just to hold this little firefly.. and then I got misty eyes as they waved farewell...

A buffet dinner filled us up and we made the windey journey back to our accomdation listening to classic hits on the radio like Country Road. Arriving back the power was out again, we sat in a Cobo; a bamboo outside structure and enjoyed a beer with our host Phil before going to bed, in the dark, with no aircon.. it wasn't unbearable and I was exhausted.

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Photos

Avocado Espresso
Sooogood!!

The Face of Jesus
Look inbetween us and you might see a face!

Mermaiding in natural mineral water
Man made pool with natural mineral water

Fish Spa
Kym's face as he braves the bitey fish in the fish spa pool