Exhausting Day

Day 12: On this the twelfth day of my trip to the Philippines I'm writing to you totally wiped out. Not because of the quantity of things I did today but more because of the physical tole the trip is taking on me. The day actually started with some stomach issues in the middle of the night. Let me tell you, all those fish I ate with the head still on are seeking their revenge and their winning. So, to start the day I was already tired. Maybe one of the funniest moments of the day was at breakfast when the waiter asked me what I would like to eat and my boss, who has been suffering with his own bought of stomach woes, ordered for me. "He'll have the continental breakfast" which basically consists of bread and fruit. Nothing crazy to eat today. But in retrospect, I kind of figured that I was going to encounter some sort of complications, I mean I'm eating food that is totally different then anything I'm accustomed to. From breakfast, our group with Imodium in hand took off for the Underground river in Puerto Princessa. The drive down was nice, if not intense, with our driver speeding along at high speeds along curvy roads. That was not helping me out. I even saw a Kingdom Hall on the way back. It was a small hut on stilts with a sign on it reading "Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's witnesses". When my other workmate saw that he said "man, you guys are everywhere" and that was an accurate assessment because it did seem that at times we were in the middle of nowhere. Finally, after a hour and a half we arrived at the take off point for the river. The first thing you have to do is take a boat to a secluded beach and then walk down a small jungle path that leads to the river. The views were beautiful and every time I dipped my feet into the warm water it felt sooo goood. Then we took a smaller boat down the river with my boss holding a search light in front of the boat to guide us. Our guide was awesome. He kept on cracking jokes the whole time and came up with names for many of the rock formations. The trip itself was "ok" at best, I mean it was cool being in a cave in a boat, there were a bunch of bats to look at, and the guide was hilarious but I think my enthusiasm was a little sapped from all the work we accomplished on the trip and my bout with stomach problems. As we returned home I was so tired that when I got to the hotel I slept 3 hours and finally forced myself to wake up. And in a little bit I'm going back to sleep. All in all a very tiring day but soon I'll be coming home and seeing all my friends and family again. And I'm definitely excited about that.

Philippine Marc