Today we began our long journey to Australia. The flights out of El Nido were crazy expensive so we booked out of Puerto Princesa, 5 hours south. We didn’t want to have the same “squeeze among the chickens” experience as we did on our way up, so we shelled out for a private van. Since it was just us, we could set the time for pickup. We decided 11AM to give us plenty of time to pack and get ready.

We had our giant breakfast and Millie spent the rest of the morning working on a new book. The plot is all over the place. She is starting to sound out words accurately, which is so exciting to see. She spelled “click” all by herself, though we had to tell her about the K at the end.

As we were checking out, our hotel sent us away with complimentary sandwiches for the road. It was a nice touch.

The drive was luxurious compared to the last time we took these roads. It took only 5 hours instead of 8. We felt a little carsick from the constant hills and twists, but arrived without hurling.

We checked into our hotel and spent a couple of hours in the room playing and jumping on the beds to get energy out. We had a really bad dinner at the hotel restaurant. It’s rare that a dinner is so bad that we don’t finish the food, but this was one. I’m hoping it doesn’t get us sick.

Back at the room, Nick and Millie put the jewel sticker for the Philippines on her world map. They have a tradition of playing Daft Punk’s “around the world” and going through all the previous places we’ve been. The page is filling up!