A day of burgers

I was super sleepy when we got off the plane in Manila so when a man stopped us I was a little confused. We hadn't written where we were staying in the Philippines on our arrival cards so he wanted to question us about that. We said we hadn't booked anywhere yet, both worrying slightly that that could be a problem, but he very sweetly said it was fine and instead started asking us if Irraland was part of the UK. Already the Filipino people seemed lovely!

We collected our bags and went to a macdonalds for breakfast as that's what we both fancied. One sausage mcmuffin later and we were checking in for our next flight to Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan Island. The whole journey seemed to be going very smoothly which worried me slightly. After an hour nap we boarded our plane and a short one hour flight later we arrived in Palawan at around 11am in the smallest airport I've ever been to. Considering this was the capital I started to wonder what the other airports on the island would look like. After reading up on places, our desired destination was El Nido, a small town on the north of the island. We knew it would take about 6 hours to get there from where we were but we weren't sure where to get a bus from so we asked at a tourist office. The kindest man told us all we needed to know (he also asked if we understood the Scottish accent) and so we got on a minibus that was about to leave from the airport and go straight to El Nido. 

We stopped after only 5 minutes to wait for other passengers to arrive so we had some lunch. The only thing that was available was a burger which we happily said we'd eat. The bread was a bit plasticy but the burger was obviously homemade and tasted delicious! It had onions and decent beef in it although it was slightly thin. Topped with a bit of mayo and lettuce just made it all the better. Back on the minibus we drove for a good two hours through breathtaking scenery of tree covered hills, palm tree forests and seaviews before the problems started. The journey had been going too smoothly so we were waiting for something to happen. It seemed that a bridge had been partially demolished and was being rebuilt so no vehicles could cross it. There was already a large build up of buses when we arrived but we actually found it rather amusing. Our bus company eventually organised to swap us onto another minibus that was on the other side of the bridge so we precariously crossed over wooden planks with our bags on our backs. It was all quite fun. 

Back on the road we kept going for a while until a girl in the back of the bus started to feel unwell. Apparently she had been throwing up for the whole journey and she continued to do so at the side of the road. She was in a lot of pain and her friend kept rubbing some kind of ointment all over her body which I didn't understand. She was sat in the front with her friend but there was some disagreement that went on as she was actually travelling with a rather old English man. She was probably in her twenties and he was probably in his fifties at least. We decided not to judge as we didn't know the situation but basically the girl didn't want the man to sit next to her and instead wanted her female friend to stay with her. She was either very ill or was a massive drama queen. This meant that the bus had to go slower and so the five hour journey turned into a seven hour journey. The rest of the people on the bus were lovely. There was a family (mum, aunt, two teenage daughters and dad) who were the most bubbly and cheerful people. The mum and aunt just seemed so wise and helpful. 

We arrived in El Nido after dark and so decided to just listen to a tricycle driver (similar to tuk tuks but with a side car) and stay at his recommended hotel. It was clean and cheaper than most other places so we thought it would do for one night. I realised that we were right beside some ridiculously big cliffs which weren't very visible in the dark. It took Matt a while to have this realisation so it was very funny when he finally looked up and saw their size; the phrase 'shitting hell' was used. We knew we were also right by the sea but as it was dark we couldn't see it. Instead we had some food. The cheapest thing on the menu were burgers so to mix it up a bit I went for a fish burger. I was offered big or small so obviously chose big. It was huge! It filled the whole plate but it didn't come with anything so I easily ate it all. This burger was also homemade but I couldn't quite pin what fish it was. Maybe mackerel. This burger also had lettuce and tomato but was topped with tomato sauce instead of mayo. Filipino food doesn't seem very Asian so far so we'll have to see what tomorrow brings.