I woke up this morning still fighting a cold.   These early mornings haven’t been helping me either.

My flight out of Puerto Princessa wasn’t until 5pm but Methzie’s flight back home was leaving at 10am so we both got up early to get her to the airport by 8am.

I went with her to the checkin and we said our goodbyes.   She’s sad understandably as I really do believe she loves me even if it’s only been a few days together.

Me, I’m just not in that place.   Sorry if that sounds cold but I’m ready to get on with real travelling – backpacking by myself, staying in dorm rooms and not hotels, meeting people and experience whatever comes my way.

My time in the Philippines has been great but it’s not the kind of travelling I’m used to.   In the first 16 days I’ve only stayed in a dorm room one night and it just doesn’t feel right.   I’m actually really looking forward to leaving and going on my next leg to Vietnam in just over a week.

In the meantime though, I still have another week here in Philippines starting with today.

As I said earlier, I was feeling under the weather so after going back to the hotel around 9am I decided to just hang around there until it was time for me to checkin at the airport at 3pm.

I really didn’t feel like going out into the dusty and humid city and figured I would just relax in the nice garden setting here at the Deep Forest Garden Inn instead.

I finally got some decent internet and caught up on the things I hadn’t done the last few days including figuring out what I’d be doing the next couple of days in my next stop Cebu.


Huge bowl of soup – I put the salt & pepper shakers next to it to show how big it was

I sat in the hotel outdoor restaurant for breakfast and then later on for lunch while I tapped away at my netbook.

It was nice to have some peaceful, relaxing time to myself.   For lunch I had a big portion of Minestrone soup (good for the cold) and a pizza style hoagie.

The soup was really meant for two people but they didn’t have a smaller size so I packed half of the soup and half of the sandwich to take on to Cebu with me.

At 3pm the free hotel van drove me to the airport.   After waiting in the humidity in a queue to enter the airport, going through security and then getting to the checkin counter I heard the man at the front say something you never want to hear:

The flight to Cebu is delayed two hours

Nooooooooooooo…..

So, my one hour flight was delayed two hours… how is that even possible?!?   After more than a dozen flights this last year, this is the first one I’ve had delayed and of course it happens when I’m tired and under the weather.   Oh well, gotta roll with the punches, I guess.

I chose to hang out in the tiny little airport for two hours instead of heading back out into the hot, humid city where thankfully I was able to tether my phone to my netbook and use my data plan to get me some internet.

The two hour delay became 2 1/2 hours and we finally boarded the plane at 7:15pm, four hours after I entered the airport.

At just before 9pm our flight landed in Cebu and after a quick bag pickup and a half hour taxi ride to the hostel I was finally able to put my things down and just breathe a sigh of relief.

The hostel isn’t much to write home about and it’s kinda in an off the beaten path neighborhood but I didn’t come here for Cebu – I came here for a day trip to Bohol Island tomorrow.

I booked a private room even though there are dorm rooms available.   The pictures online made the dorm rooms look really cramped and not air conditioned so I decided to upgrade.

The hostel notes they do laundry so I asked the girl about it.   Instead of 50 pesos per load that I’m used to she said they charged by piece and showed me a list I’m supposed to check off.

So basically I’m supposed to go in my dirty laundry and count how many socks, underwear, shirts etc I have.

I glanced over the pricing and when I saw it was 20 pesos for just one pair of socks   I kind of laughed at the absurdity of it and I guess I’ll have to wait til I get to Boracay in a couple of days to do my laundry.

Anyway once I was all settled in it was 10pm and I was ready to call it a day.

I basically spent the day waiting for a flight – a one hour flight at that – and did nothing.

Ah well, tomorrow will make up for it!

Asia Trip 2014, Trip Journal

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