Aug. 10, 2009: Palawan, Da-- JESUS CHRIST, THERE'S A STARFISH ON MY FACE!!!

As almost everyone else is taking a morning PAL flight back to Manila, Yours Cheaply is flying out the same way he flew in via ZestAir, albeit on a 5:15PM flight. With one whole morning and mid-afternoon to kill, I was invited to join some of the remaining guests (all from Pei's side) for some scuba diving or snorkeling at Honda Bay. While I'm out of the city TinTin's dad was kind enough to get my plane ticket and check in my luggage, since Legend Hotel discontinued that courtesy for some reason.

Upon arrival at Honda Bay I opted to join the snokel group (me, Mira and her family), since my last scuba dive was almost 3 years ago, not to mention I'm too cheap to rent the necessary equipment. Besides, the rental guys were already squeezing them dry w/ the boats and moving of the oxygen tanks. Also, it seemed every stop we made cost 50 bucks. We took separate boats, and ours took us to a hut in the middle of the ocean, situated near a coral bed. We took turns w/ the snorkeling so Mira and I went off first. Mira had the advantage of being pulled along by our guide, while I swam behind her to follow.

As underwater activities go, snorkeling's overrated. My brain was multitasking w/ the obvious (don't die), the aesthetic (check out those coral and the fishies) and the logistical (don't lose track of Mira and the guide). Needless to say I ended up having to blowhole a good amount of saltwater out of my snorkel. Being a cloudy day, there was also insufficient sunlight to break through the ocean murk. After we got back to the hut it was Mira's husband's turn to check out the sea-sights.

Afterwards the boat took us to Starfish Island, whose course white sand (and numerous sea pebbles) made for some uncomfortable barefoot walking. Here I got to see my first live starfish in its natural habitat (i.e. not in SeaWorld). The scuba group caught up w/ us just was we were poking at a beached jellyfish and taking seeming risque pictures w/ the starfish.

I also collected (but left behind) a bunch of what I thought where starfish eggshells or what Pei said were sea urchin eggshells, but after some wikipeding it turns out they were sand dollars.

On our last island stop my chance to eat fresh grilled seafood was cut short as I had to go back to the city w/ the scuba group so I could make my flight. Made it w/ time to spare (since I had to change from my swimtrunks), but I was almost held back because I was short 10 freakin' bucks for the P40 terminal fee and not a single vendor in the airport could split 500 pesos. And after a brief snafu w/ my pasalubong bag full of cashews (left it by the terminal fee table while looking to change my bill, where it was mistakenly picked up by airport personnel who thought a lady who already went in left it behind), the lady at the table finally gave me a break and let me though. When I arrived in Manila karma turned its wheel when after I paid to hire a airport taxi (Ma needed the car), my change was short by 10 bucks. Stingily enough I didn't say argue on it, but the guy managed to get me my remaning change. In my defense, there's a big diff between 40 and 650 bucks.