02.08.10
Final Palawan Ho!
We finally got back from Bangkok with another set of adventures under our belts. Andrew, you know how Grandpa jokes. . . He’s now exclaiming to Aaron with a chuckle, “Tell Andrew that you’re now one Floating Market (where we got to ride on one of those long boats that James Bond rode in on one of his movies, heheheh), one elephant ride, and one duckling hubading ahead of him.” Ha ha! You know how grandpa loves to tease! I told Grandpa that once Andrew finishes college, he’ll be able to quickly catch up!
Anyway, it’s now Monday evening (we’re practically a full day ahead of you guys in Los Angeles). We arrived back from Bangkok at 6PM, got back to the condo around 7PM, finished dinner around 8:30PM, then I threw in a load of laundry. It’s now almost 9PM Monday as I sit here to try to update and let everyone know that we arrived safely back in Manila from Bangkok. There’s so much to write about! But before I go there, I want to finish up my Palawan Ho! story. . .
After we got our massages, we rested up a bit before heading down to dinner. A quick little story about our massages. . . At breakfast time the next day we were chatting and discussing how nice the massages were. Mom said with a twinkle in her eye how they complimented her on being “puti.” Auntie Lit’s said with a twinkle in her eye how they told her that she didn’t look like she was 72, but rather that she looked more like in her 50’s. Then I laughed and said with a twinkle in my eye how I got a compliment, too!, and they told me that I didn’t look 45, either, but rather like I was 28! LOLOLOL We all laughed and agreed that maybe we got all those compliments (bola bola) because they wanted a nice tip! But even so, we all still loved the compliments and left our massages giggling like little girls. After that it became a running joke whenever someone gave out a compliment how much tip they wanted. Tee hee!
Our last dinner there was a BBQ by the beach. Oh my gosh! Meat, meat, and more meat! I’m sure you all know what BBQ pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, and fish look like, so I’ll forgo those individual dish shots. Instead I’ll just put one dish pic up of the sea veggie that they served. I’ve had this before in the Pines, and we had it again with the BBQ. I add this pic because I haven’t had this kind of sea veggie anywhere else, but here in the Pines. It’s kinda poppy like fish roe.
Here’s a pic of us during our dinner with a group of the staff that came out to serve us.
After we had dinner that night we went up to our rooms and found the staff had left us little notes and flowers on our beds!
The little gestures like that really made us feel pampered.
Here are a few miscellaneous photos. . . Mom and Dad dancing. . .
Aaron’s turn playing pool. I was really horrible! Ha!
Aaron trying to demonstrate how tiny the napkins were.
Now keep in mind this is the size of the napkins we got during our meals. . . But even this picture didn’t quite give it justice. We got a chuckle out of this because anyone who has been to the Pines from the U.S. might appreciate the luxury of “paper” while in the Pines. We figured at least it was big enough to wipe our mouths. But really, maybe this picture will give better perspective to the size of our dining napkins!
If you ask me, I’d say that table napkin was just about the size of one toilet paper square, ha ha ha! That’ll teach you to be a neat eater! And a tip for anyone thinking of traveling to the Philippines. . . always have tissue paper handy because many public bathrooms are not well furnished with toilet paper.
On the day we left Palawan, we managed to squeeze in a little shopping time. I liked to find the native handicrafts. Here’s one of the stores Aaron and I walked to near the airport (remember the airport in Palawan is kinda tiny, so it’s not a long distance to walk to the small stalls). The owner of the store was working on one of his carvings.
And these were his adorable little kids with their dog!
Aaron doing a little shopping in their store. . .
Not long after that we headed back to Manila. We arrived Thursday evening. We one full day on Friday to rest, do laundry, and then pack up again for a weekend at Hidden Valley in Laguna. I’ll post next about our trip to Hidden Valley.
More of the Philippines next post. We still have a few more days here, so I’ll see how far I can get while here. From what I’ve read, there’s a lot more to see in Palawan and other islands of the Pines. Hopefully I’ll be able to visit more places one of these days.
Marlakins
brian said,
February 8, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Glad you are all in one piece!
Matthew said,
February 8, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Just when it’s time to sleep– they put leaves on your bed!!
That really is a small napkin– considering how much food Filipinos eat . . .
What item is Aaron looking at in the shop?
Administrator said,
February 8, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Morning, Matty! Or is it afternoon or evening there now? You are so funny! You sure point out funny “oddities.” Hee hee! And just to let you know, we didn’t find any nice gamelans or things like that to pick up for you, although Aaron did pick up a couple “little” things that he thinks you might like. It also seems like if we had more time in Thailand, there would be more stuff there to pick up for you instrument-wise. You’ll see what I mean when I show you the pics later.