The Philippines: Not Quite a Skip and a Hop from Thailand

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Thailand is really only a skip and a hop from The Philippines, a four hour flight. It amazed me how we managed to take two full days to get there!



First, we had to get off Ko Lanta and get to a major hub. We left our hotel at 8:40am on a minibus, which took us to the airport for our flight down to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. In no time at all we were landing, just as a huge storm struck with fork lightning and torrential rain. With the one hour time difference, we didn't get to our hotel in KL until gone 6pm. Just enough time to eat dinner at Pizza Hut (Malaysian food isn't our favorite!), feed the kids some free toast at the hotel (as they are the only kids on the planet who don't eat pizza), and then get ready for bed. Day 1 of travel done!



The next morning (if you can even call it that) we set our alarm for 4:30am, ready to get our 5am ride to the airport. After an indulgent Starbucks breakfast at the airport, our plane set off on time at 8:25am and arrived at Manila four hours later. We then had a huge layover in Manila until our flight down to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan.



Manila's domestic terminal isn't the best place in the world to spend five hours of your life, but it was made better by a kids' corner and a Chinese New Year dragon performance. Our flight finally left at 6:30pm after being delayed an hour, and Jake and Kyla were both asleep even before takeoff! They were exhausted but had somehow managed to avoid a single meltdown for the second travel day in a run. Maybe they're getting better at this travel thing?!



We finally landed in Puerto Princesa and got a tricycle to our hotel. It was 8pm by this time. We'd done a 10 hour day followed by a 16 hour day, all for what seems on the surface to be an easy-peasy four hour plane ride. It reminded us why we are traveling so much more slowly this time around!



Scott's dad, Tom, was at the hotel when we arrived and immediately produced a box full of homemade chocolate chip cookies brought all the way from California, much to the kids' delight! That night we went to the restaurant right next door for our first San Miguel of the trip. The kids ate basically nothing. I think this country will be harder to feed the kids than the last! We went to bed after dinner but Tom went out bar hopping!



The next two days we were being tourists in the scruffy little town of Puerto Princesa. On the Saturday we went to Baker's Hill as we'd heard there was a playground there. It turned out to be so much better than we ever could have imagined, with character statues everywhere, an aviary, and beautiful bowls of floating flowers, which I got obsessed with photographing. The kids were in love with the playground as it's something they've been deprived of for a long time.



The next day, Sunday, Scott stayed behind and took the kids to Bakers Hill again while Tom and I did the underground river tour. Scott did this tour eight years ago, before it was named one of the "new seven natural wonders of the world." Since then, it has dramatically increased in popularity. It took two hours to get there by minivan and then we had to wait almost three hours to get in due to a completely inefficient system of ticketing. Everyone had to wear ill-fitting life jackets and hard hats which seemed completely useless, and everyone was given a personal audio system which told you about the river as you were paddled through. Rather than geological facts, it was more like, "Here's what we call the Sharon Stone rock." It would have been much more personal with just your guide telling you about it in my opinion. Also, when we were two miles deep into the cave, the boatman turned off his light so we could see how dark it was but it didn't really have the desired effect because of the line of boats with their lights on behind us and due to everyone's cell phones lighting up! The caves themselves were beautiful but the trip was marred by the long waits and the level of commercialism.



The next day was a big travel day again. We had to take a minivan for six hours up to El Nido, our final destination. We decided it was worth the extra 300 pesos each ($6) to hire our own private van than be stuck with up to 7 other tourists. One reason is that we had to go to the immigration office that morning to get our visa extended, and we had no idea how long it would take. Secondly, it's easier to be in control of the schedule with little kids. You never know when you'll have an emergency bathroom run or a stinky diaper! Also, Jake has a tendency to fall asleep right before scheduled breaks, and then gets woken up, making for a crappy rest of the trip. As it turned out, our driver had his own agenda and pulled over for lunch when Jake had been asleep only an hour, despite our protests. I was a little miffed but I think it was to do with the fact that he got a free lunch with all of his driver buddies if he took his tourists there.



We finally pulled into the town of El Nido after a scenic but generally uneventful trip and our minivan negotiated the narrow crowded streets to our hotel. We were finally at our destination!

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