BLeroy

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.