BLeroy

The past few days just seems to be a blur of stores and shopping. I thought we were coming back lighter than we were leaving but it looks like we have bigger, heavier boxes than we arrived with.

In Palawan, I bought a whip made of stingray tail. Dad decided he didn't like the handle so we went to Tandang Sora to see Uncle Erning who used to do all of dad's upholstery stuff here. Apparently at one point, he also decided that he didn't want to paint a car so he had Uncle Erning cover the car in leather. Now that's all good and fine except Uncle Erning has moments where he's completely blind because of sinusitis or something and that he hasn't done any leather work in years but after a few hours, he managed to put a handle on the whip.

Yesterday I went to have dinner with a friend at her house. I was really impressed with her place. The cab drivers (both to and from) were telling me about how affluent that gated community was. But the cool part is how nice everyone was there. People like them made me really enjoy this trip

Anyway we're coming home. We're leaving tonight (Wednesday night here) and arriving there... Wednesday night. I also like this emoticon.

We went back into the consumer jungle known as Greenhills. I bought some stuff there to bring back as Pasalubong but I kinda wish I didn't. Instead, we went to Divorsoria right after. I bought 6. 6! NBA Hardwood classic jerseys for less than 40$. I even bought a Pau Gasol Espana one. We didn't really do a whole lot today.

Though After church, Lauryn came to tell me that she wishes she could catch a leprechaun so she could give the gold to all the poor people in the Philippines. Then she wants to ask Santa Clause to give gifts to everyone here and for her too. Mom just commented that she really is Aqui's daughter.

We went to visit Kuya Lawrence's grave today. I came to realize that its the first time that I can actively remember seeing it and for some reason, I was overcome with a sense of... well actually I don't know how I felt. It was like being sad that I never knew someone but at the same time, knowing that he was watching over us. Lauryn spent most of the time after we left talking about her rabbit that was killed by a cat.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to Quiapo to look for some army surplus patches and then heading over to Banaue for possibly finding some car/motorcycle parts. Then finally its off to National Bookstore to look for flags and then Green Hills last time.

Lauryn went to go watch Aliens Versus Monsters tonight with Tito June's kids. She keeps talking about the one eyed alien.

Lauryn with the crocodile

Me

Lauryn at the bay with her bike

Lauryn posing with her new shades, hat and bag.

Me with mom's friends

Lauryn on a horse in Tagaytay

Me and Lauryn playing with a monitor Lizard

Me and the Boatman going snorkeling with Lauryn.

The monkies that we were playing with. They kept stealing food from other people. They're called Long Tailed Macaques.

I have a few more pictures that I'll put up intermittedly.

So we flew back into Manila this morning and then had dinner with some of mom's old classmates. Its kinda weird sitting there and listening to them comment about being sexy to each other. They ordered something called Adobo flakes which tasted a lot like dried out corn beef.

Yesterday we went all over the place on our last day in Palawan. First we went to the crocodile farm again because Lauryn wanted to hold another crocodile. The lady was telling me that they catch stray dogs and feed them to the crocodile so there aren't any stray dogs in Palawan. Mom wanted to see the bearded pig but they weren't there. I commented to her that probably the crocodiles had Lechon for lunch. Lauryn and I took more pictures holding the crocodiles.

Afterwards, we went to a penal colony. It's like a big prison town where the prisoners farm up their own food and what not for rehabilitation after they actually leave the main prison. There is a post exchange where you buy their goods so that they can make some money to buy their toiletries. I bought some hardwood sticks that are shaped like bolos from some of the prisoners just chillin by the gate for 2$ each.

Then we went to a butterfly farm. Mom was kinda laughing because Lauryn was running away from all the butterflies even though she was fearlessly holding the crocodiles, playing with big lizards, and monkies. Mom bought Lauryn a butterfly clip but not before proceeding to baby wipe everything. With the amount of baby wipes mom's used, I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to sanitize the entire island of Palawan.

Then we went back to a palenke to find some random pasalubong. We ended up continuining on to the pier not far from it where Lauryn rented a bicycle for an hour for 25p (50 cents) while we sat around and talked and she biked. I think about 50 people tried to sell us balut while we were sitting around. I was going to buy some fish balls to eat like we did when we were kids but dad commented that my stomach probably wouldn't be able to handle it anymore and that I should wait until I'm back in Manila in case it made me violently ill. I ran into mom's distant cousin again and I got a whip made of stingray tail from him. Dad said that it still had some thorns on it - the old wives tale (pun not intended) is that if you are sting by one it will make you thin (though he actually meant frail) so I offered to whack him with it. He just laughed.

It's weird here how people are really touchy, at least in Palawan. Like I had a random person about my age stop me as he was passing by me and stretched out my shirt from the shoulder to look at what it said (Its the shirt I'm wearing in the crocodile picture) then said "A" and kept walking. I had to ride on the back of our cousin's scooter to go to the bank with him and some random person pulled up next to us and just started having a conversation with me about the traffic in Manila. It's really odd.

Afterwards we went to dinner. Lauryn said she wants to come back there with Lana so that they can share mango and watermelon shakes together because they're good. Then me and Tito Boy went out to some bars while everyone else went home to pack. Some chick named Jie gave me her number though I never asked for it. I poked fun at mom for it after and her comment was "Of course. You're an American citizen." Then she quickly changed her answer to "Because you're very handsome." haha Still, after wards, we went back to the hotel and I passed out until the early morning (thankfully without a hangover) so I could pack the last of my stuff.

In the morning, we met with the owner of our hotel. He told us that he wants to run for Mayor next year and wants to invite dad back as a consultant because Palawan is having some big bug problem - its destroying their mangos.

We're kinda coasting by on the last of our vacation money (at least I am until I get paid again on Monday when I'll do the last of my pasalubong shopping particularly for Archie, Lyndon, and Lala).

Tomorrow we're going to visit Kuya Laurence's grave and then maybe go to Bugallion to visit Dad's relatives so that we can literally say we'd been to like... every part of the Philippines in 3 weeks except Cebu. A trip like that would end up being cheaper than if we stayed in Manila for the day.

I'll go upstairs to the cafe in a couple hours to post some pictures.

So yesterday we spent most of the day island hopping. We went to this far island called Ahas Island because it was long and thin and shaped like a snake. We stopped there to swim. Lauryn was scared of putting her head under water to look at the fish but our Boatman, some old sailor named Jes, managed to get her to do it and she enjoyed herself. The Boatman told her to feed the fish either biscuits or bread and the fish will swarm so Lauryn volunteered her entire stash of skyflakes.

He was saying just 10 years ago, they didn't have fish there until they put up nets to basically keep them in the area because of the mayor of Puerta Princessa. Speaking of, this place is swarming with gays, foreigners, and mail order brides. People aren't quite sure what to think of me here. Mamang says they probably just think I'm a muslim or something. Still, at least, they still speak Tagalog rather than Visayan because 'd really feel out of place here then.

Lauryn finally also got to ride a tricycle. She wanted to ride in the back because she rode once with Lee and said it was fun. It old her riding here isn't so fun because you're not moving very fast and the roads are really bumpy. Also, weirdly enough we ran into one of our cousins here. A distant relative of mom's - another offshoot of the Jaldon family called Dalagea. He sold us some pearls and stuff like that.

The day before that, we went to the big Tourist attraction here in Palawan, the underground river. We saw a bunch of different kinds of bats and swallows. But before that, we were outside waiting for our boatmen to finish eating lunch. Lauryn and I were playing with a monkey called the Long Tailed Macaque - they were in Wild Boyz playing with the same monkeys. They're really friendly though they kept jacking bags of chips and shit like that from the other people.

They also had these big ugly monitor lizards but they were generally friendly too. People were pulling on their tails and our boatman just said just to make sure to stay away from their head if you're messing with them because they bite hard and can give you infections from the bacteria in their teeth.

When we got out of the river, Lauryn was trying to play with one of the monkeys which then started hopping toward her until the Boatman chased it off. He said the monkey probably thought Lauryn was just going to play with him and then got a bit scared when she got closer.

We're going back to Manila tomorrow. Today we're more or less just relaxing and mom wants to go shopping.