This morning was crazy. Everything was going fine at first. I got to the airport at 4:15am for my flight to Beijing. Once I got to the check-in counter there was a problem. I did not have a visa for China. I guess I can get a 72 hour visa on arrival but my stay was going to be 77 hours and that was not okay. Anyways, they refused to let me on the plane because they said China charges their airline when they let people through who do not qualify for the visa. The ...

Today I got up at 3am to take the bus back to Puerto Princesa. Since only 5 people were going back to Manila at that time, I got the front seat. This driver was much better than our last and sitting in the front rather than the back made a huge difference. This ride didn't seem bad at all compared to the way there. I was able to sleep most of the way. Once I got to Puerto Princesa, I flew to Manila. Once landing I got a taxi to the Kimberly hotel to pick up my b...

Today I went to Helicopter Island with some of the other group members. We hired a man and his young son to take us to the island and back. They also made us lunch on the beach. We just wanted to go to the island to hang out, go swimming, paddle board, snorkel and lay on the beach. In the morning we picked up the paddle boards and brought them on the boat with us. The island didn't have anything on it except a beach with forest behind it. We set up our things in...

Today was a diving day. I had pancakes for breakfast, the usual. The pancakes at this hotel are delicious. Then we all headed out to the dive boat. Some other group members decided they wanted to try diving, so they are doing their discover scuba. The guide Steve and I are the only ones certified so we had a different boat than the rest of the group for our first dive. The others went to a beach to learn skills. My first dive was in a cave. This was my first cav...

Today the whole group did an island hopping snorkeling tour. The tour had 5 different stops. First we went to the Small Lagoon and we swam around surrounded by rocks and caves. The water is so clear that I could see the coral and fish from the boat. We swam into a small cave that had a little hole in the top where the sun came shinning through. Then we went to a place called Big Lagoon. We stayed on the boat and just took in the gorgeous scenery. Big Lagoon was ...