Philippines: Day 1

First off, let me continue from my last entry. In Canada, we get on the plane, right? So far so good, right? The plane starts taxiing down the runway. We're getting ready to take off. Suddenly, the pilot comes on the PA and says that one of the passengers is not feeling well and we need to go back to the gate. So we do.

We wait until Paramedics come in and give her the whole once over. Blood pressure, thermometer, the whole nine. Determination? Really high blood pressure. Which will only go up as the plane climbs in altitude. Not a good sign at all. But the paramedics can't tell her to get off the phone as "technically" she is ok. "Just great." I'm thinking, flashes of my dad's episode the last time I was on a trans-Pacific flight start playing in my head. Fortunately, the big wigs with the Airlines tells her, in so many words, that she needs to get off the plane, and this plane needs to get off the ground.

So total time lost? About 1 hour. Fantastic. Add another hour on the plane to an already 13 hour flight. So anyway, once she's off  the plane, we start over again with the taxiing and finally, LIFT OFF.

We get a little bit of dinner that tasted pretty good for real food, let alone airplane food. First movie on the trip: Twilight Eclipse, much to Courtney's pleasure. I pop in a Tylenol PM and knock out. For people flying on long trips, I strongly recommend doing this as it helps you sleep and also passes time. I slept for about 8 hours so only had 5 to really contend with. Woke up, had breakfast, then sat out the last 4 hours til we touched ground.

Manila was a bit of a blur. Got our transfer stuff, hit customs, then basically got on another plane. Pretty soon, we were in our destination: Palawan.

Our hotel is a bit on the rustic side. It's on the beach. No AC in the lobby and the hallways. Giant windows allow a good bit of airflow through the place, with fans providing back up. We check in and they present us with iced orange juice and a cold hand towel to refresh us. So cool.

The room is pretty standard. Two queen beds. Bathroom. Flat screen. But most importantly, AC. The beds are comfortable enough and  the view is fantastic. We look right out onto the beach and the ocean. It looks like paradise here.

We got some lunch at the little restaurant on the property. Overall, the food was great. I had some fried chicken, my sister the grilled shrimp skewers, and Courtney had this chicken in a mushroom and dijon sauce. It tasted incredible. After that, we took a shower and got ready for our tour. I might do a restaurant review later on in the week.

First stop on the tour was this Politicians ranch. The view overlooked the city and the countryside. It had begun raining at this point so things had cooled down but surprisingly the rain didn't mar the view at all. You could still see miles away.

Next stop was this combination penal/farming colony. Talk about odd. Palawan is all about progressive thinking, particularly on ecological matters. So they have made this prison that has this huge farmland attached where the inmates actually work the farm. They also recycle plastic and styrofoam from the local fastfood places to make souvenirs, which they sell at a gift shop. All inmates get stipends from this work that they in turn send to their families. Kind of cool.

After that was the crocodile farm. Saw all kinds of freshwater and saltwater crocs. The highlight of the place? Taking pictures holding a baby crocodile. I didn't know that they would be so warm and soft. It was really expecting something rough, scaly, and cold to the touch. We got a bunch of cool pics of both me and Courtney with the baby croc. CJ was too chicken to actually hold the thing so bleh.

We then drove through the city with a stop at this old Cathedral. By that time, we were pretty exhausted and hungry so we just went back to the hotel. The rain had stopped so we lounged in the pool for a while. Got up to take another shower then back down to dinner at the hotel restaurant. After that, bed time. Hitting the sack never felt so good.

Tomorrow is our adventure to the underground river. Can't wait for that!