Thailand & India 2019

Sleep in until 8am. Ride scooter to police station to return it to Gretchen. Greeted by police officers who take us to Gretchens house as she is preparing food for their party tonight. Meet gretchens sister-in-law and pay her for the bike and 2L of petrol (1000p + 300p). Say goodbye and walk to port cafe for breakfast. See a boat being dragged down the high street on way to cafe. Breakfast at port cafe - fishsilog and beefsilog plus coffee and buko pandan shake (310p). Walk back to homestay to check out and pick up bags. Walk back to cafe and relax there while waiting for 12pm boat. 30min Ferry back to Ivana Port (100p each) and jeepney from Ivana to Basco (23p ea). Arrive Basco 1:30 and head to PNB ATM to check if working. Still broken so decide to walk to find guesthouse and some lunch. Find a great cafe while looking for cheap guesthouse and have fish and chips, burger and two ice teas (220p). Internet down but up by the time we finish lunch. Walk back to check if ATM working but still out of action. Book homestay on Airbnb to save cash. Walk to find Airbnb homestay (not easy as directions just say to catch a tricycle! - no address, location map is wrong and picture is outdated). Find homestay after chatting with locals and let owner know that not everyone is on a tour and need directions. Check in and book flights to Manila. Need to get our USD back from previous guesthouse but do not have enough pesos. Walk to ATM and by a miracle it’s working! Withdraw 20,000p and head back to old guesthouse to get USD back. Walked town, watched sunset over port, had dinner at lunch cafe - shared squid & meatball rice and ice tea (200p), found a cool art cafe and had sweet potato fries and jelly coffee (145p) while chatting with owner, headed to bubble tea cafe and had taro milkshake and coffee milkshake (110p). Lots of kids caroling through town. Head back to homestay and get ready for bed around 9:30.Read more

Wake early, have breakfast at same place we had dinner last night. Silog for M and Embosilog for Z - 61 PHP. Back to apartment for wifi, get a Grab taxi to go to Z’s old house in Marcelo Green Village, Parañaque. Jay is our taxi driver - really nice and inquisitive guy. Walked around old house, Jay waited to take us back. Got Jay to drop us off at Lunetta Park. Go back to National Museum of the Philippines. Shared a Turon which M really liked, M tried Taho for the first time and not a big fan. After museum, got into a tricycle to go to Chinatown. Not much there. Tried to get a tricycle back to our apartment but drivers were asking too much so we walked back...ended up finding some cool streets with many vendors! Had some fishball on our way back (one guy tried to c barge 50PHP each when they’re normally 5PHP each! Lol)...M liked these. Got some baked goods (hopia, mamon, chocolate cake, Spanish bread) and his first pop in plastic bag 😂. Back home and chilled at apartment, napped until dinner time, went out to vendor on street we walked earlier for dinner, then back to sleep. Early morning to catch flight to Batanes tomorrow.Read more