Life: Reimagined and Unrehearsed: Holiday Weekend in Palawan...Pt. I

Thursday, August 21st, and Monday, August 24th, are non-working holidays in the Philippines, so it turns in to one long non-working weekend for most! August 21st is Nino Aquino Day and August 25th is National Heroes Day. The streets in Makati have been pretty quiet! However, we, too, managed to get away for a bit to soak up a little more of this beautiful country! This time we took our first flight together to visit the island of Palawan. Palawan sits between the Sulu Sea to the east and the South China Sea to the west. Palawan is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world, and we have to agree!! We also think it must be one of the friendliest places on earth. We had a wonderful time!
Thursday morning we took a cab to the airport at around 7:30AM. We weren't sure if it would be easy or not to catch a cab because of the holiday, but it was no problem. We walked out of our apartment to the street, and it was as if he were there waiting for us! With tip our cab ride was 150Php (about $3.35). We decided not to check baggage since we were only going for two nights, so we hauled our backpacks along for the ride! The airport was organized and quick. We were WAAYY early, so, of course, we found a coffee shop and something to munch on while we waited. The flight to Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, would only be about 50 minutes long. Quick trip! When we arrived, there were trikes everywhere. That is the prominent mode of transportation throughout Puerto Princesa. It was a bit rainy when we first arrived (after all, it is the rainy season here), but it didn't last too long. We stayed at Hotel Fleuris in Puerto Princesa. The location is terrific - right in the heart of Puerto Princesa - restaurants, shopping, nightlife, etc. The hotel is clean, well maintained for the price point, has a cute little piano bar, and a small, pleasant pool area, super comfortable bed, and bad karaoke on tv. We really enjoyed our time at this hotel!

What? Eric at Seattle's Best Coffee? Surprised? :)

Airport waiting area.

Excited to take off!

Now, this is service. It was just drizzling a little bit when we got off the plane, and the crew at the airport handed each one of us an open umbrella as we got off the plane.

We are excited to start our trip in Palawan!!

BatTrike.

Thank goodness "God is [Arthurs's] co-pilot"! That's the little printed sign behind Eric.

Arthur, our trike driver. He followed us all over the city trying to drive us around when all we really wanted to do was walk around and check things out at our own pace. But he was SO nice that we finally took a ride with him.

Trikes everywhere.

Hotel Fleuris

Great little pool surrounded by fleurs.... :)

At the hotel.

Great little veranda area out front of the hotel. Perfect for staying out of the drizzly weather.

After we got checked in and settled, we were ready for lunch. The front desk person at the hotel told us about a new restaurant that had opened up the street, so we headed out in search of some good food. However.....Arthur picked us up in his trike and took us to a spot he knew of called Badjao Seafront Restaurant. SOOOOOO glad for Arthur! This place was just what we were looking for, a seafood place in a harbor town!

Pretty cool place right on the water!

Our view as we ate lunch. :)

Crabs, calamari, fish, seaweed, clams, and more....with a side of garlic rice. Everything comes with rice in his country!

Inside the restaurant

Arthur waited for us to eat lunch and then took us back to the center of Puerto Princesa. He dropped us off at a souvenir shop. We shopped for a bit, found a coffee shop where they make coffee with cashews (a major export of Palawan), and walked in and out of quite a few shops up and down the streets. It was a wonderful day! Later that evening we went to the original restaurant we had planned to go to for lunch. It had a cool outdoor atmosphere, but Arthur was right on the money with the restaurant he took us to. After dinner we went down to the Baywalk for a bit. It's very much like Manila Bay. Lots of boats in the harbor. A few rides on the boardwalk, lots of food tents, an ice cream vendor, bikes to rent, and two things Manila Bay did NOT have: about 35 men taking some kind of dance lessons or practicing dance routines on the boardwalk and a giant Christmas tree. And we thought we started decorating early?!? It's not even September and the tree decorations have begun!!