Philippines - Land Days

We arrived in the Philippines after two bare-bones flights on Cebu Air. Anything over a paper cup of water cost money ... ugh.  We were pretty hungry by the time we got to Manila.  Some of you know that hungry Alsguths are not the most pleasant people!  We managed to avoid an international incident, but it was a close thing!

Anyway, we woke up to a small problem, we had no Philippine Pesos (cash).  We had tried three different ATMs in Manila but had no luck.  Now we were at a hotel with no cash.

We talked to the front desk when we checked in and they said they had an ATM.  This is what we found:

Unplugged and un-helpful!

I sent several panicked text messages to my "small gang" - they were super helpful.  Linda offered to wire us money, Joni said that it had sounded like an internet scam ... "I'm stuck in the Philippines and need you to send me cash!" LOL  

We kept bugging the people at the desk, finally this nice lady changed $5 US for 250P.  This enabled us to take a tuk-tuk to the mall and find an ATM.

We got some cash and bought our US money back from this helpful young lady!

This is a tuk-tuk.  It is a motorcycle with an elaborate, yet uncomfortable, side-car. Costs about $2-3 to go just about anywhere we needed to go.

After the day dealing with the money situation we went on an all-day trip to see the Puerto Princessa Underground River.  It is a UNESCO Natural Site as well as one of the "new" 7 Wonders of the Natural World.

It was very beautiful and unlike anything we have seen before, and we have seen a lot of caves.

This shot is actually of the mangrove tour we did before the cave.  

scenic overlook

elephant mountain - a couple of episodes of Amazing Race were filmed here.

to get to the cave you first have to take a little motorized boat like these:


after switching to a quieter boat (no engine) we entered the cave.

The cave system goes 8.5km (5 miles) but the tour covers only 1.5km (about 1 mile). Each passenger gets an audio guide so that there is no talking while in the cave - talking would disturb the bats!


The Italian Cathedral Room is one of the largest cave room in the world.

It was a long day, backseat of a van, squished in with another couple, driver thinking he is Mario Andretti, but the caves were worth it!

Today we board the Philippines Aggressor and dive the Tubbataha National Marine Park for a week.  We shall see what we shall see!

Take care,

Sheri & Carsten



   

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