On Tuesday the 21st we got up early in the morning to catch a flight to San Francisco.
Gary picked us up at the house, and we left by 3:30 am to catch our flight that left at 6:00.
We grabbed some breakfast in San Francisco and waited for our Korean Airlines flight to board.
Our flight to Seoul Korea was a total of THIRTEEN HOURS! UGH! It was so long.....but we made it and had another layover to catch our three hour flight to Manila.
We arrived an hour late to Manila, but luckily we had a driver from the Sheraton waiting to pick us up. We stayed at the Sheraton close to the airport and it was super nice! We were upgraded to the Jr. Suite and let me tell you...It Was Posh!! We had a good night's rest (thank you, magic pills;) and got up early for a BIG day!
This is the pool as seen from our ELEVENTH story window! It was so beautiful!!
Alas, a little cool to swim in, dang it. Rick loved it after his work out in the morning while I enjoyed my big beautiful spa-like bathtub in the room!😁
Our big day consisted of catching a GRAB (like Uber) to get to the Manila Temple to do some initiatory work. The temple was built in there '80's and so has that '80's look like some of the temples do from that era.
But what a wonderful time we had there! The Filipino people are just so lovely and kind!
After our time in the temple we met our driver for the day (arranged by the hotel).
His name was Edgar, and he was there right on time and stayed with us the whole day.
First we had to get some grub at an Asian place called Tim Ho Wan.
We grabbed some food to go because we had a long drive ahead of us.
Both Rick and I had the chow mein, and then Rick shared his bbq buns and spring rolls with me.
We got some food for Edgar as well, and we all ate as Edgar maneuvered his way out of the busy Manila traffic.
We drove three hours to the North to the town of Urdaneta where another temple had been dedicated just about nine months ago. As we walked in the front doors, Rick scanned his recommend, and the lady at the desk said, “Phelps?? There was an Elder Phelps and his wife who served in this area a while ago, and they had to go home after five months because of a medical emergency in their family”. Then Rick said, "Well, that was my brother." She started crying and then stood up and hugged us both. She told us of how close that she and her (now deceased) husband had been to Brad and Ruth while they were here. It was really sweet to see how much seeing Rick, who looks much like Brad, affected her. We decided to catch up after the initiatory session and take some pictures.
After doing more initiatory work we did just that.
Here is a picture of the new Urdaneta Temple.
Here is Maryville Mendez with Rick.
After taking pictures, we got back with Edgar, who had waited for us, and we made our way back to Manila. After an hour and a half we stopped at a roadside Burger King for a fast food dinner.
After dinner I got bored, so I turned on some old 70's-80's love songs. I started singing along, and then Rick started singing along, and we sang songs the rest of the way home. Edgar was quiet all the way home and I have to laugh at the thought of us singing unabashedly from the back seat for an hour and a half!😆
I'm sure by the time we got back to the hotel Edgar was SOO ready to have the singing Phelpses out of his car!! HAHA!!
Anyhoo....we were glad to get back to the hotel after a long drive. I was excited for the pool at this point but it was too cool for me. That's when I opted for a nice hot bath while Rick enjoyed the cool pool.
The next morning we packed up and left that beautiful hotel.
We caught a plane to El Nido on the island of Palawan. We have been so excited to see this place. The videos that we have seen were amazing.
We arrived a little after noon and got our rental car (Suzuki Jimny).
We headed directly over to Lio Beach right close to the airport for some much needed grub.
We found a nice spot on the beach called Saboria Kitchen. I had a brunch bagel and Rick had some chicken adobo.
Here is a shot of that beautiful beach!
We then had an hour drive to get to our air b&b.
The drive was really nice, and as we got to the other side of the island we got a peak of the ocean.
It was just gorgeous!
We knew that the road getting there was going to be rough the last couple of kilometers, but the road seemed long, and of course it seems longer when you have no idea where you are going. We came to a sign (on laminated poster board) that said Playa Encantada Resort, and the road to it was even smaller and overgrown with vegetation. We weren't sure, but that's what the sign said so we pulled down, and after a few meters we came upon a small family compound with a few small huts. Rick was like "No way. We are not staying in one of those."
Well, guess what. I thought to myself, "This is what we paid for, and the reviews said it was wonderful so, yes, we are staying here."
Rick was totally expecting a resort, and I knew it was going to be rustic, but...let's face it, it's pretty rustic.
Our "villa" has no AC and no hot water, but other than that we are managing just fine.
Rochelle, the owner, lives on sight and is taking pretty good care of us. She made us a nice dinner after we arrived, and really we can't complain. The separate building that is the kitchen is open air and we are right here living like the natives, so to speak.
After our first impression wore off, and we actually got a decent night's rest, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise! It was so peaceful with waves lapping up on the beach as the sun came up.
I mean...it truly is amazing to be out of the hubub.
Here is our little villa.😌
Here is the view just steps from our room...
...and this sunrise was awe-inspiring!
Playa Encantada "Resort"
After watching the sun rise we drove the hour back to El Nido for our Boat tour.
There are lots of rice patties and small towns along our drive.
We see lots of water buffalo with the egrets near them.
We opted for the Group C tour.
The Group C tour took us to five different beaches. We got to swim and snorkel at each different place.
The beaches were Helicopter Island, Hidden Beach, Matinloc Island (where we were served up a delicious buffet lunch), Secret Beach, and the last one I can't remember. At the last stop we actually didn't get up onto the beach. We just anchored and got to snorkel in some really great reef!
All in all it was a great day and we got to see some of the beautiful islands off of
El Nido.
After our full day of boating, swimming and snorkeling we stayed in El Nido for some dinner at the
High Tides restaurant..
The view from the restaurant was Ah-mazing!
On our way back to the car we passed a crepery. Rick couldn't resist.
He chose banana with caramel. It was yummy!
After dinner we made our way back to the villa, showered then fell into a deep sleep!The next morning we woke up bright and early. Rick said, "I just checked the time for church and it starts at nine!” (we thought it was ten). We knew it was going to be quite a drive to get there so we quickly got up and got ready.
It WAS quite a drive...TWO AND A HALF HOURS! The funny/not so funny thing is we followed the GPS all that way to the location, and it led us to a dead end out "in the bush" where no one spoke a lick of English and THERE WAS NO CHURCH! We had to turn around and drive ALL THE WAY BACK!!
We brought some makings for lunch, so by that time I was ready to eat, so we stopped along the side of the road and made pb&j's out of the trunk of our car. Adventure indeed! Like I said funny/not so funny. I know we will both laugh about this sometime soon but since it just happened a few days ago, I am not quite ready to laugh yet.😐
After getting back to our villa we rested a bit and just enjoyed the beauty of our surroundings:)
That evening Rochelle, our host (and mostly her cook, Caro) made us a fabulous Filippino dinner.
We had noodles with pork, chicken spring rolls with vinegar sauce, green beans, eggplant w/egg, a chicken sandwich, and fried shrimp. It was enough to almost feed a whole family but we did our best to eat it all!
After dinner and lounging it started to get dark, so we went inside. After a while the rain started to come.
It was pounding on our roof and reminded me of when we go camping and the rain pounds on the roof of our trailer. It was nice and loud like that. Just as the rainstorm was ending I was laying on my bed and I saw something move up in the rafters by the wall.
IT. WAS. A MOUSE!!!!!!!!
I kinda freaked out and jumped out of bed and scared Rick half to death.
I pointed up and cried, "There's a mouse!"
Rick immediately took out his phone and tried to get a video of it while I am standing there in shock!
It climbed down the wall on the beams and made its way back outside thru the opening where the roof meets the top of the wall.
It really freaked me out, and I had to reassure myself that it was going to be ok. We had been there couple of nights already and had been fine. Rick tried to reassure me by saying, "We have mice in our room at home." Uuummm....what?? Are you trying to make me feel better???
Anyway...long story short... I took a sleeping pill and slept just fine. For the next three nights I just had to put it out of my head and move on. What else could I do??
The next morning we had planned (and paid) to go on the island Tour A out of El Nido but had heard that it was REALLY a crowded one, so we decided to cut our losses and take the D tour the next day (Tuesday). That left Monday open. Rick had been talking to another guest, and he said he had recently taken a private boat with Rochelle's neighbor to the island just to the east of us. We decided we would do that.
Rochelle organized it with her neighbor, Angelo, and we left late morning for a boat ride across the water to Darocotan Island. We stopped at a beach that had a sunken ship just a short swim out. It was really cool and had some beautiful coral and fish all around it. The ship looks like it's been there a long time and had quite a buildup of coral and beautiful fish around it. We got to see a lion fish which freaked me out because they are poisonous. I have seen them before and haven't been bothered much because they were close to the coral on the ocean floor. This fish was out in the open swimming and the surf was rough and I was worried that I would be pushed into its way and get stung. Thus my freaking out.
I swam back to the other side of the ship and finished my snorkel adventure there.
Rick came back in with me a few minutes later.
Our boat guide, Angelo and his friend Jake next took us to the other side of the island. We walked through the jungle to see a rustic resort. It was the one we could see the lights of from across the water at Encantada at night. This place was even more rustic and remote than where we were staying, and there were actually tourists there. They were staying in little yurts or huts which actually looked pretty cool. Would I want to stay there? Heck no, cause I would like an indoor bathroom, which none of these had, but they did look interesting.
After visiting there we went back to the first beach and had lunch. We ordered so. much. food.
Actually I just ordered a chicken sandwich and a bowl of fruit. The bowl of fruit they brought out was enough for four people. Rick ordered the chix rolls and noodles with chicken, both which had huge portions. For dessert he had ordered mango rolls. We for sure had our fill!
Afterwards we headed back to the resort.
Here is our boat that we got to ride on.
That evening we drove over to Nacpan Beach which is rated as one of the best in the world.
It was VERY windy but we got to see the sun set. I can imagine that it is a very nice place to be on a good day without wind.
The next was our anticipated Tour D day. It really turned out nice.
We stopped at five different places. The first was a snorkel stop. I believe it was called Pansandigan Beach. It was murky water, and it was rough water while we were snorkeling. Two strikes so I got out of the water and just enjoyed the swimming closer to shore while Rick continued to snorkel.
The next place we stopped, Cadlao Lagoon was a kayak experience. The ocean was a little rough but together we made it into the lagoon. It was a really cool place. The rock formations reminded me of Star Wars where Rey goes and meets up for training with Luke Skywalker.
Here are some pictures...
Next we stopped at another kayaking experience, the small lagoon. Before we got into our boats we took some time to have a fantastic lunch on board the boat. Here are the delicacies of the lunch.
The small lagoon was really fun! The water was so still, and the rock formations were super cool! We got to see coral just under the surface of the water along the rock walls. We could see it very well.
We got to see a small sting ray in the water, as well.
After our excursion we drove over to Lio Beach to eat at the Saboria Kitchen again. We loved the food when we first arrived, and so we thought we'd try it again.
We stepped out on the pier to see this beautiful sunset.
What a way to end our time on Palawan. It was a beautiful and adventurous place to visit!
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