It already passed some time since we got back to Shanghai days ago. Then immediately friends were staying at our home, but I want to go back to the very start, telling you about when we arrived in Manila. It was planned to stay one night in Manila and go to Palawan next morning. I had a voucher for the local flight, so that we still had to go to the Seair office to do the payment. When we wanted to pay, they informed us that both flights had been postponed one day later, for that reason we had to change the international flight to go back to Shanghai, too. It was a big surprise, because in the moment of the information it wasn’t sure if there are still available seats to go back to Shanghai. For the reason no one had informed us about the shifted flights, we expected Seair to take care of and to reschedule the flights for us. Two days they told us they will arrange and check and ask for someone who can take that decision, but ultimately they didn’t do anything. It was a big deseaster. We lost two days waiting hours and then rearranging our flight ourselves. Later in Palawan we should find out that this problem with suddenly postponed flights every year happens hundreds of times, lots of passenger miss their flights and no one of the company ever cares. So what! Wednesday morning. We felt like there still could go something wrong. But happily everything worked well. El Nido was waiting for us just like another fifty tourists. Of course we had thought about changes that could have happend in three years we hadn’t been there. Fortunately these changes weren’t too extreme, it wasn’t crowded or something like that. But on second sight you could notice it … they had built some new hotels and there more shops and restaurants. When we had been there the last time, we felt like the first human being, cause nature seemed so untouched. This time we saw many boats on the water, everyone offering trips, more tourists and of course rubbish. But that’s development. Pessimists were saying in a few years this place will have turned into a new Thailand. Perhaps. And why should the two of us be the only ones who explore that area (although it would be nice)? It was just a short melancholic moment to say good bye to the past. Everything changes sooner or later. We did the trips by boat we used to do once, were still fascinated by the underwater world. Saw many fishes. And got to know funny people, travelling around the world to spy out the best diving spots. They told us about huge turtles and rays, small sharks and thousands of fishes they found deep down in the Apo Reef, close to Busuanga Island. We did snorkeling all day long. The water was warm and the visibility, although it’s still rainy seson, was perfect. Heio’s birthday we spent on the boat, too. We’ve been to Matinloc Island and Helicopter Island. We had a beer sitting in the shadow under a cliff and were excited about the chance to be back again. There’s no better place to come to rest or celebrate quietly. At night we had dinner in a restaurant at the beach, flambeaus all around. Next coming days we repeated with pleasure what we did before … Take the boat, do snorkeling, have coffee, lay down in the sun, talk all the time. The four days passed flying … It’s this place you have no electricity during daytime, just at night. Where you go to bed, after the sun fell into the water. Or you listen to live music at Balai Tubai, the only real bar in El Nido, having a Cuba Libre with calabacin (local fruit). And of course there aren’t any c i g a r s (Kai, how are things?)! Now we’re back in Shanghai, our friends have already left and two others, Antje and Ben, we’re now gladly expecting. With Gaby and Esther we spent one weekend in Hangzhou, visiting one of the oldest bonzerys in China. See our latest photos above. It’s always great to hear from you, scattered around the world. Take care, Love, Viola and Heio