Manila to Naga to Lagonoy.... jiggidy jig!

So, after a comfortable night, I got back to the airport in the morning around 3 hours early.  The plane eventually arrived and I was off to Manila, finally.   When I got there, the Manila airport was crazy busy, as per usual.  I had a general idea where in the city to find the bus station that I needed to get to, the only issue was getting a cab.  Two kinds of cabs here... the ones that are easy to get (white cabs)... these cost about 10X more.  Then, there are the yellow cabs... fewer of these and people just que up to get one of these.  I took a spot in that line for awhile and just waited.  The line didnt move.  I estimated that there were about 250 folks and tons of luggage in line ahead of me.. This was going to take hours!   And there are no busses, or shuttles or anything like that to consider either... as best I could tell, the only way out of terminal 3 is by cab... I might be wrong...

Anyway, I did a very american thing, I am ashamed to admit.   I pulled my "american" card and jumped the line.  No one seemed to be bothered by it, but it was certainly not a very Peace Corps thing to do.... I mean, I was one person, no luggage.... but I walked right up to the front of the line and quickly got a cab... I was out of the airport and on the way to the bus.

When I got to the station, I learned that all seats from Manila to Lagonoy were sold for the day (!) and that if I wanted a seat I would have to wait until tomorrow.  Nope.. can't do that. So, I went down the street to another station and bought a ticket to Naga, requiring a couple of additional travel hours because its a bit off the path and I would also have to transfer from bus to van in order to get back home.  The thing was this... the bus wasn't leaving for 7 hours!  And the  bus terminal was jammed with people and very limited seating.  So, I left that spot and did some exploring!

Luckily for me, this part of town has a lively market scene going on, and I quickly got absorbed in the culture.  Here are some photos

I grabbed some soup, talked to a few people and the time passed.  Somewhere around 7p... I caught the bus.  Made it to Naga, transferred to van and made it home by around 7a.  Exhausted.

Slept for a few hours, went food shopping in Goa... then went back to bed....   The Palawan adventure had finally, concluded.

Thanks for reading the story of it all!