Quezon City to Los Banos

Today we woke up around 9. I could have slept more but the roosters outside were going crazy. Plus I could hear other people getting up. So I woke up Don and he was a little hungover. We ate breakfast and then got ready. Once everyone was ready we all went to the cemetery to see Lolo's resting spot. It was very emotional. You could see how much their grandfather was and still is loved.

After that we went back to the house. We looked at Tito Rom's chickens and roosters. He has a lot. I believe he is raising them in hopes of putting them in fights...Then we had lunch and hung out for awhile. Then we got back in the van so we could be taken to Los Banos. Tito Boni had helped us book a resort in Los Banos. We will be staying there for 2 nights. It's called the 88 Hot Spring Resort and it's a Korean owned resort. We got to Los Banos around 2 and we checked in. The place was really nice looking. There were a lot of pools and the resort was beautiful. After we got checked in we went over to Tito Mar and Tita Doree's house. There we visited with them and saw Jonas and Eunice. We were also able to see Tito Boni and his wife.

Tito Rom wanted to go back to Quezon City so we stayed a bit longer with Tito Boni. He let us try coconut water straight from a coconut. After we drank all the juice we put ice cream in the coconut and scraped off the edible pieces. It was very good. This was the first time I had eaten fresh coconut and drank coconut water. After we had this Tito Boni took us back to our resort. On the way we were able to stop at a pharmacy. I needed new deodorant because mine broke and some first aid stuff for my foot. It is still not healing from when I cut it on the rock in El Nido.

Once we got to the resort we wanted to check out the pools. There were so many of them! We have one big one right outside our room. When we got in we were surprised that it was warm, like hot. But it felt really good. Then we moved to the next area where there were 9 round hot tub looking pools. They were very hot, I couldn't even get in them. The sign said you were supposed to stay in each one for 5 minutes. We didn't want to do that! We tried out all the pools we could find. We found one that was colder but still warm.

After we were done with the pools we got cleaned up to go to dinner. They have a restaurant here that is Korean food. We ordered bibimbap and a noodle dish along with some spicy beef. But then they brought all these little plates with things on them. It was a little weird, I've never seen anything like it. I was also very surprised when I got my noodle soup and it was cold and it was supposed to be this way. Like really cold. I wasn't expecting that and I didn't like it really at all.  When I first saw the soup I thought "oh that's weird there's ice cubes in my soup." I do not remember the name of this dish and did not mention it was cold noodles so needless to say I was disappointed haha.

After dinner we relaxed in our room. It has been the best room we have had all trip. We splurged a little for this hotel. It is our own little bungalow. The room is very nice and the TV actually works! The shower is great and the water gets hot! Ahh...love this place. Only thing is, the bed is very hard. Like sleeping on a floor haha, maybe the Koreans like it this way.

Leaving El Nido Headed to Quezon City

This morning we got up and made sure we were packed because we were leaving El Nido. It was sad to leave. This place was so beautiful and relaxing. We got our breakfast and then our van came to pick us up at 9.

I was worried what our van experience would be like since our trip here was not so good. Luckily, the company we were originally supposed to do our transfers with got their van fixed. The hotel booked our ride with Day Tripper.

The van was really nice. The seats were roomier it was just more inviting and friendly. There was a water bottle for every passenger and even a little snack! The snack was dried pieces of banana...they were kind of like eating chips. It was really good. There was one passenger in the front seat and then one passenger in the next row of seats. We sat in the next row. Later though Don moved to the row behind me since there were only 4 passengers we could all have our own space! It was awesome!

I was able to look out the window more on the trip home because the driver was much better. I didn't feel car sick. It was a complete upgrade from our previous experience. It was comfortable and it made the 5 hour ride back to the airport much easier.  Here's some pictures from the ride.

You can see in the last picture that people would ride on top of buses. It was crazy.

When we got to Puerto Princesa Airport there was a line outside the door. I thought that this would mean it would take a long time but it really didn't. Once we got checked in we realized our flight was later; it had been moved. That was a little annoying for me because I hate waiting. But we made it.

Tito Rom and Tita Nitz picked us up at the airport in Manila. We picked up Robbie on the way to their house in Quezon City. Once we got to their house we got settled into our room and saw RJ and Regan. Regan showed us his pets. He has a ball python named Sally, a tarantula named Brownie, and a scorpion (can't remember his name). Crazy pets! I held the snake but wouldn't touch the tarantula. After we had got settled in a bit we decided it was time to go out.

We got to meet Robbie's girlfriend, Bambi, and we also met up with Franz. Then we went out to the first bar, it was on a rooftop and had a view of Manila. It was a nice place. Then we went to the next place and we all drank a lot. RJ ordered 2 Filipino cuisines, pig ears and pig intestines. Of course he made us try them before he would tell us what they were. The ears were okay. But I did not like the texture of the intestines. Very weird haha.

After awhile Regan kept saing we should do karaoke. People were ready to leave though so he said he had karaoke at his house. So we went back to the house and started up the karaoke video. Regan and Don were singing songs. They stayed up to around 5 am. I went to bed at 4....so tired.