Tuesday 18 Dec 2018 - Puerto Princesa

Had to set the alarm this morning as we had booked breakfast for 8.30am and didn't want to miss it. We wanted a morning that we could sit down and relax and work out our journey from here on.   We're now 7 days into our time here and up until now,  it's been passing the days until we got to the island of Palawan. We could have flown straight here but we did want to see Manila etc.   This is really where it all begins.  So, tomorrow we have booked for the underground river tour which is meant to be amazing and a must see.  We had only booked for 2 nights in Puerto Princesa to get us settled and make plans, so we've now booked a 3rd night with a plan to leave here on Thursday and head for Port Barton.  It's either that or head to Port Barton on Friday and have 4 nights here.  The problem is that we want to have 4 nights in Port Barton but we don't want to be travelling Christmas eve to the next destination of El Nido where we hope to be over the Christmas period.   Decisions, decisions lol. After semi organising our plans, we got a ride down to the beach to do some sunbathing.  Yes sunbathing in December!! Warm and can be cloudy but perfect for us.  The beach here is nice but not one of your tourist attractions.  We had a good walk and then made our way into a hotel area that sat right on the beach.  Had nibbles and drinks (non-alcoholic for me) and made a day of it. Left around 4pm and went to the local shopping mall to get a few essentials. One thing I haven't said too much about is the security. It's like back in Ireland 25yrs ago during the troubles. Bags are checked going into these shopping areas and also going into some of the shops within the centre. Security guards are at all the entrances and most of them carry guns!! I attached a picture of 2 guards at the mall tonight with their "pump action shotguns". Not read too much into the history behind this but we certainly haven't felt frightened or intimidated. Everyone is very friendly. Had a quick bite to eat in a chinese fast food resturant and then headed back to hotel where im sat just now finishing todaya blog. Just found out our tour picks us up at 7.30am tomo so a drink free and early night. Hope you are all keeping up here...Lol