Among my Palawan souvenirs

As Beng Valdellon, Eileen Lolarga and I prepared for our four-day trip to Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, two weekends ago, my niece Bianca asked her mother, who's my sister Pinky, how come she (Pinky) didn't have cousins her age who were also barkada so they could go on similar trips?

Her mom's quick and sensible reply was: "It's because they're all the eldest. There's just a few of them. If it were us, the middle children, there'd be too many. That's why it's easier for the panganay and the bunso to organize themselves. They're only a few."

I didn't go shopping in Palawan. Instead I took lots of pictures. Some of them I'm going to have printed out on sturdy paper in multiples so I can have a set of Palawan postcards with my name printed at the back, cards to mail from there when I return.

Palawan, mon amour, hope we connect a second time around and with the same companions, mis primas Beng y Eileen.

Morning has broken: View from the Philippine Airlines window

A post inside Kainato restaurant painted with this flower

Decorative wooden sculptures inside the resto

The look of the sky as the car zipped down the highway

View from the balcony of the Sandybridge Ecofarm in San Rafael, a barangay an hour's drive away from downtown Puerto Princesa

Our room with a view

Detail on my embroidered pillowcase

Stained glass door opens to another balcony with a view.

The divan I intended to lie on to read a book but never once got to because of a packed schedule. What did they say about vacations? When one returns home, one is in need of a vacation again.

I'll stop with this image. Our hostess, Relly Bridge, always ensured there were fresh flowers on the dining table, all from her garden. Photos by Babeth Lolarga