The domestic airport in Manila is really outdated, very small, and is desperately in need of a major upgrade. The one common area sits maybe 2,000 travelers, 2 small bathrooms, and a couple of eateries. I grabbed a vegetable rice dish, but an hour later, the food came back to haunt me.  The air conditioning wasn’t keeping up with the sheer number of passengers waiting for their flights. All told, pretty grim airport setting for such a large city. (The Manila international terminal is much more modern).

The flight was on time and uneventful. While I didn’t see it, there must have been a Krispy Kreme donut shop at the airport, as just about every local had carry on boxes and boxes of donuts (I’m guess they don’t have any in Puerto Princesa).

PP has a cove/small bay very close by, and is surrounded by a dense tropical forest.

Our first stop was at a crocodile farm, which featured both fresh water and salt water crocodiles. They have 7-very large rescued crocodiles, with their pens a bit depressing. We also saw a small selection of snakes, a few bearded pigs, and a small variety of birds as well.

We then briefly stopped at a hilltop viewing point overlooking Honda Bay. It’s called Rancho Mitra, named after a local politician, who still lives in the property, and has also donated some of his land to those in need.

Bakers Hill was right next door, which is a combination of a bakery, and a mini “theme park”.

Stopped at a souvenir market, selling all kinds of chachi items. I don’t buy any gifts or presents, so I wandered around the area for a few minutes.

The Palawan area is known for their cashew nuts, and supplies much of the country, plus some exports as well.

It was in the mid 80’s, overcast and rainy, with the air heavy with humidity.

The tour bus took about 30-minutes to get to the Honda harbor area, which is where we hoped on a small outrigger boat, that took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes, ending up on Dos Palmos Island.

Dos Palmos is a private Island resort, where you can choose to lodge, or just make a day trip, which is what I did. They have all kinds of outdoor activities, including tennis courts, basketball courts, swimming pool, bikes, snorkeling, kayaking, … It appears most of these activities are included in your tour costs, with a few exceptions.

A smaller outriggger boat dropped me off on a floating platform, which is where I started off with some snorkeling. The water was warm. Lots of small fish swimming around the coral area, although much of the coral looked to be in bad shape. I swam over to a small island beach for a bit before returning to the platform to get picked up.

After about an hour snorkeling, I ate lunch, and then rode a bike around the small island.

All in all, a very relaxing day

We started off with a 90-minute drive, with many tight turns, bumps, and then we drove on a dirt road, which was barely passable

While waiting for our subterranean river tour, I  took a 45-minutes mangrove tour, which was very nice.

The  subterranean river is 8.2 KM long, under a mountain range. Today’s trip was 1.5 KM long.

Side notes: I ended up with a runny nose, so I stopped by a pharmacy. They sell over the counter medicine by the individual pill Vs prepackaged from the pharmaceutical company.

In Palawan, trash and litter is considered a crime here, with the first offense fine of USD $5, 2nd offense is USD $10, plus 1-month in jail. Third offense, 3-months on jail. I’ve seem little to no trash or litter (it’s working)

We started off for about an 1-hour at Starfish Island, with some snorkeling.

The second island was called Luli Island. While eating lunch, a heavy rain passed through. Went snorkeling in the rain.

And the 3rd island, Cowrie, has similar types of activities. I just chilled out for the hour we were there.

I’m on the 37th floor (40 floors in total) of a 2-tower apartment complex. Lots of amenities at this facility, including 3 swimming pools, tennis court, basketball court, weight room, several restaurants, and a roof top bar, which has nice views of downtown Manila.

Around noon, I walked on one of the major streets for about a mile, and boy o’ boy, sensory overload, as the streets of Manila are loud, lots and lots of people walking around, lots of traffic, cars and buses zipping by, often honking their horns for no apparent reason (sometimes no cars in front of them, but they still give a quick honk), all while the temperature was a steamy 90 degrees, mostly bright sunshine with an occasional cloud, and very high humidity (kinda standard course for this part of the world at this time of year).

I walked into the SM MEGA MALL, which in this case is no exaggeration, it’s huge, and very confusing to walk through. I’d guess it’s several city blocks wide and deep, has 5 floors in total, plus a basement area as well. Each floor has a large number of restaurants, plus on a couple of floors, there’s an amazing food court, but not like the ones in the US, with 10 or so food court restaurants, but each of these food courts have 30-50 different restaurants, with just an over the top variety of international food options (I really wish I was a foodie).

I decided to try “Dads Buffet”, a stand alone restaurant, which seems to seat well over a few hundred people at any one time. They feature, well about 8 or so sections of regional foods (Japanese, Korean, Thai, Western, European..), with each section having 15-25 different types of these regional foods. They also have several desert sections, drink section, plus they have a roaming mini band playing top 40 hits (they were actually pretty decent, and not overly loud). The food was delicious, as I tried a tiny morsel from many of the different food sections. Total cost was USD $13, which I thought was reasonable, but I think it’s pricey here.

After lunch I tried to navigate the endless corridors of the SM MEGA MALL, but to be honest, it’s just plain confusing. I did find a number of interesting stores while walking around, including an archery store, bowling alley, ice skating rink, movie multiplex, VR store, escape room experience, lazer arena, bingo pallor, plus in the basement were a wide variety of over the top kid and teenager arcades and entertainment centers.

I also found 3 different comic book specialty retailers, a couple of hobby gaming retailers, one of the smaller Fully Booked bookstores (my friend Kenny at Kino said their main Fully Booked retail store is a must visit place, and I hope to meet up with Jamie, who I’ve meet over the decades at comic book trade shows events in the US).

I picked up groceries at the crazy large supermarket inside the same mall, and walked back to the apartment.

A weird way to spend a day, as I normally do not go into malls, but have found myself going into them to take a break from the heat and humidity.

We started off at the State Mosque, which features a a large gold dome, with many other smaller domes, covered in gold, with a grey background. I had arrived right as prayers were taking place, so out of respect, I didn’t go inside. The entrance fee was USD $2.

I then visited the state museum, which had a number of artifacts, and replica displays, including their history of head hunting. The entrance fee was USD $1.20.

Next up was a visit to a Chinese temple complex, which is open every day for free. Everything you’d expect to see was there, including a huge Buddha statue, several ornamental buildings, gardens, and places to pray. Quite nice.

I was pretty tired after hustling all afternoon and into the early evening visiting most of the sights in and around the city