Hello everyone back
in the States!
I hope you all had
a wonderful 4th of July. I had to work on the 4th, but I was able to eat at a 50s
style diner. It was good although not completely the same. The oils and
seasonings are not the same over here. I had a hamburger and although the meat
was 100% beef the taste was different.
I see that it was
extremely HOT! Now you all know I how feel here. It is actually about 5-10
degrees cooler over here, but I do feel your pain. It has become much cloudier
and rainy here now. The hot sun isn't making it so terrible.
Last Friday
morning, Megan and I headed off to the Island of Palawan. It is an island
southwest of Manila. It is a very natural area with quiet tranquility and
beautiful scenery and a few adventure excursions. Everyone in Manila has said
that Palawan is a great place to see the Philippines and has always been one of
the recommendations.
The domestic
airport in the Philippines was by far the nicest airports I have seen. It was
about an hour flight on Philippines Airlines to Puerto Princesa. We found some
great shops near the airport with extremely decent prices. We ended up buying
some pearls, jewelry and cheap souvenirs.
We had a 1 ½ hour
drive to our resort at the Sheridan Beach Resort and Spa. The reason why it
takes so long is because they usually have one two lane road where all motorbikes,
trikes, buses, trucks and cars drive. We end up having to stop for people
turning and wait to pass the slower cars. Once we got out of the city it was
winding roads, zig zags, uphill and downhill, and damaged roads. I can liken it
to Mr. Toads Wild Ride and Space Mountain combined into one for roughly 1 hour.
The driver would drive as fast as possible when he was not waiting behind a
slower vehicle. The views of the tropical forest were beautiful, but I was very
glad to get out of the van in the end.
The beach resort is
everything you imagine and see on the website. We had a poolside room on the
second floor. The pool is magnificent with three Jacuzzis, a kiddie pool, a
lounge air with a line of chairs in the water, and a swim up pool bar. They had
a restaurant and a spa on the side. We became familiar with the restaurant as
there were not many places to eat unless we wanted rice and meats. The
restaurant had pizzas, sandwiches, salads, pastas, and American cuisine.
We relaxed the
first day in our room as we both had not slept the night before due to work. We
had a full body massage that led us to pure relaxation. On Saturday morning, we
woke up to the view of blue skies in the horizon and we were excited for some
sun and lying in the pool. We had to cut short our pool time to head off to the
Underground River. In November, it was named one of the 7 wonders of nature. It
has become very bureaucratic and we needed to have a permit beforehand to get
into the park and river. It took us probably three hours to get into the
Underground River, but it was well worth it. It was discovered in 1937 and was
very interesting. The formation of the stalactites and stalagmites were so
interesting and they were very colorful with their imagery of the formations.
It is a vast underground river spanning a few miles in and the bats are
plentiful.
After the tour, we
relaxed in the room, rented some movies while it rained for the first time on
our trip. The next day we hoped for sunny weather, but took the light clouds.
We actually received a little bit of sun on the cloudy days, although it felt
cooler. We were planning an afternoon excursion to see the mangroves and ride
on the zipline, but we were rained out. We rented a few more movies and relaxed
again with some popcorn and mini bar snacks! Thankfully they have a good
assortment of movies that we had not seen before. It was not our perfect idea
of relaxation, but it was something, nonetheless. We had pedicures that
evening. I know I really needed it.
On Monday morning,
we awoke to clouds again and were disappointed with the weather. We were able
to get into the mangrove paddle tour. It was beautiful and very interesting to
see these tall trees coming out of the water. After was a zipline for 800
meters over the water, which was great. Monday afternoon was our wild trip back
to the airport and last minute shopping at the cheap stores.
It was a great and
much needed vacation although not perfect and much less sun then we wanted. I
think we will take it. Now I am finishing up with work, meeting the new
employees that will begin next week, taking the time to pack a little.
I come home on
Monday and cannot be more thrilled about it. Although, this experience has had
its struggles, long hours at work, not much sleep, and sense of loneliness; I
believe it will turn out to be a good experience for me. I have learned more
about myself, what is important in my life and added strength to keep myself
happy in a difficult place without the comforts and support.
Much love to all of you have who enjoyed my blog and have been my support. I may send one final blog if I end up doing anything special this weekend. No set plans yet.
