Today started at 5am as I wanted to be on the 6am bus out of El Nido going back to Puerto Princessa.

Like I said yesterday, I was done with El Nido.   I had done the snorkeling and there wasn’t much else to do in town.

Oh yeah, and I really wanted out of the hotel we were staying at.   I could envision the beautiful hotel we stayed at in Puerto Princessa on the horizon.  Plus there was that 6am to 2pm power blackout looming, so, yeah – I was ready to get outta dodge!

I woke up this morning still feeling not so right.   The tickle in my throat was now a full on sore throat.   I took some more cough medicine and just hoped for the best.   Worse comes to worse, I can heal while I’m on Boracay Island in a couple of days.

By 5:30 we were out the door and triking it over to the Roro bus area.   Time for another 6 hour bumpy trip down the island.

At our first pit stop a couple of hours later I got off and picked up some pork adobo with rice and juice for 95 pesos ($2) just to get something in my belly as I really wasn’t feeling that great.

After 6 hours on the road I checked my GPS navigation do-hickey on my phone and it said we were still an hour away.

Sigh.

An hour later, at 1pm, we pulled into the bus terminal in Puerto Princessa and grabbed a trike into town.

The half hour trip was made longer because of the trip as their was an accident (shocker!!)   in the middle of the busy street.

We actually didn’t give the trike driver our hotel as our destination as we both had a certain place we wanted to hit up first…

Yup – Jollibee!!!

After getting some fried chicken, spaghetti and ice cream into my belly I felt a little better after the rough morning.

We got to our hotel around 2pm and were shown to our room passing by their beautiful garden, terrace and swimming pool along the way.   We didn’t get to actually see that the first time we were here earlier in the week as it was dark when we arrived and rainy the next day.

This place is actually pretty sweet – a true paradise away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

If you’re staying in Puerto Princessa, I highly recommend the Deep Forest Garden Inn!

Once in the room we freshened up and napped for a bit before heading back into the city around 5pm.

First stop – Mercury Drugs.   I went in there looking for some Halls cough drops knowing full well they probably don’t carry them but just hoping they know what the hell I’m talking about.   To my delight, the clerk pointed over to the pharmacy counter and told me to ask for Strepsils.

Ah, heaven – this would help my sore throat alot!

Methzie wanted to print some photos from my memory card so we popped into a photo shop and in just a half hour they printed 70 photos for her for only 370 pesos ($9).

The sun had set by now and we just walked down the street to see what was out there.   I remember passing by a restaurant in the trike that looked good so I was walking back up the street to see if I could find it.

A short walk later we came upon Bilao restaurant.   The restaurant is all outdoors on a bamboo deck with a fish pond in the middle.

On the tables I noticed a little bell on the table to summon your server over.

I’ll just say this now – if we gave people little bells at the table to ring for their server back home I surely would have strangled someone by now.

I actually think this could be worse than snapping your fingers to get your server’s attention.   But if that’s the way they run their place – so be it.

So, after reading the menu, I rang the little bell and, sure enough, our server popped right over…

I ordered the cheap 139 peso combo ($3) of sweet grilled pork with veggie kare-kare, rice and soup.   So yummy!   I also ordered a couple chocolate/banana frappuccino to help soothe my sore throat.

By 8pm we were both pretty spent.   It had been a long travel day and I was fighting a cold and a very sunburnt back.

We headed back to the hotel and by 10:00 we were snoozing.   Another early day tomorrow as Methzie’s flight back home leaves at 10am which means an 8am checkin time.