Despite our delay, Loudine and I made it safely out of Cebu and on to the wonderful island of Palawan, first stop the Bamboo Nest. I found Jonathan and his awesome house on Couchsurfing and couldn't pass up the opportunity to stay with him, not only did he sound like an amazing guy but his house set-up was intriguing.  He gave us great directions from the airport including two tricycles (both of whom tried to overcharge us, of course) and a short walk leading to the 'back gate of his property'.  I'm sure, had it been light out when we arrived this all would have been a bit easier, but as Loudine and I wandered down a dark dirt road we weren't exactly sure what we had gotten ourselves into.  Despite a few moment of doubt we arrived safely and were greeted by Jonathan and his warm, welcoming smile. Our room was in the second story of the [hand-made] bamboo nest, which was awesome, I felt like I was sleeping in a tree house.  We later found out that the reason for the sketchy 'back-door' entrance is that Jonathan lives on the Navy compound and can't have random foreigners walking in and out the front gate, fair enough.  After settling ourselves Jonathan invited us to join him for dinner in town at Imas vegetarian restaurant where we enjoyed great food and good conversation.  

Although it produces amazing memories, interesting stories and some great pictures, budget travel isn't always glamorous.  In order to get that cheap airline fare you might have to be okay with arriving somewhere in the middle of the night, tired and a bit disoriented. Lucky me, I arrived in Cebu somewhere around 2 am still having to navigate my way into the city.  Taxis from the airport are known to try and scam tourist so when I spotted another solo traveler I asked if she wanted to split the fare.  I quickly checked into my room and drifted off to sleep, I briefly awoke around 5 to let my friend in (she had a later flight) and then found myself wide awake around 8 am, no idea why. We decided to venture out in to the city as we were both starving, wandered the streets for  close to an hour before stumbling into a Thai restaurant, comatose.  Once our stomachs were full we decided to go back and nap, shower and prepare ourselves for a day of sightseeing.