We arrived in Manila at 4:30 in the morning and were absolutely exhausted. We both were unable to get any sleep at all on the bus because the driver had the AC on full blast and was playing loud crappy music (die Michael Bolton) almost the whole way to Manila. We grabbed a taxi, and headed back to Malate Pensionne hoping there would be a cheap room available.
We were lucky that we were able to grab the last private budget room they had. As we were heading upstairs, a woman with her young son arrived who sat in front of us on the bus from Banaue, looking to book a budget room too. Unfortunately there weren't any more rooms left in her price range and was disappointed that she and her son had to go elsewhere after traveling such a long distance on the bus. We began talking, and I pulled out my guide book trying to help her find some other form of accommodation. I recommended she stay at another hostel a few miles away and was so happy that I was able to help her and her son out. I felt somewhat responsible since we took the room she wanted and felt bad that she was traveling with a small child. I hailed down a taxi for her, and told him where to go. The taxi driver like most Manila taxi drivers wanted to set a price for the trip, and I demanded that he start the meter or get lost. He agreed to start the meter and she got into the taxi and drove away.
Afterwards, we went upstairs to relax a little. Lori fell asleep and I wanted to stay up because if I fell asleep, I would be out for hours. The plan for the day was to get to the bank, head to the department of immigration to renew our visas, book plane tickets to Palawan, and get a haircut at the mall.
After withdrawing money from the bank, we took a taxi to Intramuros to the department of Immigration to extend our visas. I wasn't able to enter the building because I was wearing shorts and sandals! It was a about 100 degrees and humidity was around 90%! Having gotten no sleep since the day before, I was a little pissed. I gave Lori my passport and waited for her in front of the building. She came back a half hour later and said that there were some unforeseen charges and that extending our visas was going to be more expensive, which made me even more pissed. Luckily there was an ATM in front of the department of immigration office and withdrew an additional 6000P ($120). After some more waiting, she came out of the building and I was hoping that every thing was cool. They told her that they needed to hold on to the passports for another hour for processing. So after a little more grumbling, we headed across the street to a Starbucks to sip on coffee and kill some time. We got one month extensions on our visas finally and jumped into a cab and headed back to Malate District's Robinsons Mall.
At the mall we had to purchase tickets for the plane trip to Puerto Princessa, Palawan. The Robinsons department store has a ticketing booth on the 1st level. We purchased tickets to Palawan on Cebu Pacific Airlines for 4110P. After adding more credits to the phone, we wanted to get haircuts. I got my usual and Lori got her hair trimmed! It was her first haircut since the wedding a year before. It may not look like much here, but it was over 6 inches cut off.
After some lunch, simple burgers and fries and frosties (Yum!), we walked back to Malate Pensione and hung out at Coffee Bean utilizing their blazing fast Wifi, while waiting for Galen to get home from work. We wanted to take it easy that night after doing all that traveling and getting no sleep the night before, so we decided to chill over at Galen's apartment, order take out, and watch a movie.
We took a pedicab (bicycle with a sidecar) over to Galen's but first, headed to a 7-11 for some Red Horse Extra Strong Ale. We had a relaxing evening ordering Sinangag Express (SEX for short) while watching Kung Fu Hustle (one of my favorites) and laughing our asses off!
Lori had started to get a bit of a sweat rash on her back which we were told was not uncommon. Fortunately it wasn't too uncomfortable for her but Siara helped Lori apply some Katinko mentholated ointment which has a lot of symptom uses for pain. It was in a stick form which was like applying speed stick or fancy chapstick. The rash was virtually gone the next day and never bothered Lori again. Thanks Siara!
We said goodnight, took a pedicab back to Malate Pensionne and went to bed.
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