Let’s travel

  
Mark Twain says it all… 

Palawan, Philippines

We arrived in Puerto Princesa after flying with Cebu Pacific. We made our way to our first accomodation at Serene Home middle via tricycles. At first we were hesitant about the safety of the bikes but they ended up being our main form of short distance transport! The accomodation was cute and quiet with many friendly cats. Rooms were spacious but one of the rooms had issues with the aircon. We went to a great place for dinner at the Gypsy’s Lair Art Cafe. We ended the night at a the Tiki Bar listening to an entertaining girls band. There were many other locals here and the staff were great. There was a bit of persistent harassing at times here but the staff at this particular bar were very aware of the situation and made it clear that it was not appropriate.

The next day we made an early departure of the bus station. We had intentions of catching the Roro or Cherry bus as these were recommended by the lonely planet guide but (once again) got harassed/convinced into getting a private van up to El nido. It ended up being a good and safe decision. It was the same price as a bus ticket (500 peso) but they were able to drop us at  an ATM before we made our way to El nido. We got out enough cash that would last our 5 night stay in El nido as there are no ATM’s there. The best way to avoid taking too much cash is to either book your accomodation online, or go to venues that has an eftops machine (which is very limited!). Our journey to El nido was an interesting one. After about an hour or two we came across a broken bridge. We had been warned of this but didn’t quite realise the extent of the situation. Luckily enough we were accompanied and helped along the new temporary rickety bridge formed by planks of bendy wood! At the other side we swapped vans into a more “full” one making the rest of the ride pretty unpleasant. Everyone was very friendly which made the ride not so bad. After the 6 hours we finally made it to El nido. We were dropped at the El Nido Boutique and Art Cafe and had a quick scout for accommodation. We ended up at Rico’s Cottages which I can highly recommend as it was beachfront and close to most places to eat and shop. It was affordable too. Rooms weren’t huge but very clean and great views.

Image 1: Views from our room at Rico’s Cottages, El Nido.

Image 2: Roaming the streets of El Nido town.

On our first full day in El Nido we hired some glass bottom kayaks from the Art Cafe down the road and paddled across to one of the neighbouring islands. The was quite a bit of rubbish that had washed up upon the beach unfortunately but we still enjoyed a great snorkel just metres off the shore.

Image 3: Setting up on one of the neighbouring islands.

Image 4: Removing some plastic caught on the coral!

Image 5: Admiring the beauty of El Nido.

That evening we attended the TAO briefing and met the other people that were soon to be discovering remote islands with us in the Bacuit Archipelago! The whole expedition was 4 days and 3 nights (a bit shorter than other expeditions as it was a trial during the monsoon season). It proved to be the perfect amount of time to enjoy delicious food, experience amazing snorkelling spots, and camp under the stars in cute little bamboo huts under mosquito nets. We visited their various  base camps that they had set up on many different islands which all showed their unique beauty of the region. 

Image 6: The first base camp we visited. The water was amazing!

Image 7: First snorkelling spot of the trip. After a snorkel we were welcomed back onto the boat with caramelised brown sugar bananas! Yum

The last swim of the first day was definitely one for the adventurous! It had become quite rocky on the boat towards the end of the day but we arrived at the docking buoy right next to a big cliff with no beach in site. It then became apparent that we were to swim through a crack in the cliff to a secret beach on the other side. Apparently it was this beach that had inspired the author of the novel ‘The Beach’.

We arrived at the first base camp that we would sleep at just on dusk. There were about 10 different bamboo huts set up within the cove. We enjoyed some rum and pineapple juice provided by TAO and then had some delicious dinner!

Image 8: Morning view from our bamboo hut.

Image 11: Paddling back to the boat after a nights stay at the base camp.

The next two days consisted again of snorkelling and exploring amazing remote islands. We also got to visit their main base camp where a lot of the staff training is held. They also had a permaculture farm set up which was great to see that this was where part of our money was going to support and that they were educating the locals about sustainable living. 

While on the boat between different islands we were able to fish off the back. One of the guests caught his first fish ever and we all got to enjoy some of the best blue fin tuna sashimi I’ve ever had! We ask got to try sea urchin…One of the expedition leaders dove down under the boat and came back up with a handful of golf ball sized sea urchins. He cracked them and told us to eat some of the inside which I think he said was the female eggs. It tasted of a mix of sand and oyster with a twist of citrus! 

Image 12: More snorkelling! We got to see on of the TAO workers hold a puffer fish here.

Image 13: View of the main base camp through the palm trees. 

Image 14: Island exploring (and relaxing!).

It was a sad day when the TAO expedition all came to an end. But I do encourage anybody visiting El Nido to definitely do one of the TAO expeditions! When it’s not monsoon season you can sail up to Coron and explore all the other amazing islands up there! 

 
Image 15: Map of the sailing expedition you can do up to Coron.

 We arrived back at El Nido at noon and found accommodation at the Marina Garden Beachfront Inn. The rooms were cute and affordable! Wouldn’t recommend the breakfast though.

We had all run out of cash by this stage and were stressing about whether we could afford to stay one more night before braving the 6 hour bus ride back to Puerto Princesa. There was no where to get cash out unfortunately so we ended up booking our next accommodation online and then eating lunch and dinner at the Art Cafe as they had an eftpos machine! Plus the food here was always good. We spent our last evening at a bar/restaurant called La Plage at Corong Corong beach which is a short tricycle ride from El Nido town. Highly recommend getting the freshly made Pina Coladas! Absolutely delicious!

Once arriving back in Puerto Princesa we stayed over night at the Dolce Vita Hotel.  This place was great just to relax in the pool and gather ourselves after the long journey. We were so relaxed there that we almost missed our flight the next day back to Cebu City! We had decided to stay in Cebu City for one night as we heard that some flights in Philippines aren’t reliable when the weather is bad. We stayed at a place called the Express Inn Mactan which I wouldn’t recommend staying at. Even though it was reasonably close to the airport the rooms were average. The only good place out of our stay in Cebu City was the place where we went for pasta at Bella’s Bites Soups & Salads.

All in all our time in Palawan was amazing. I guess they don’t vote it No. 1 in World’s Best Island for nothing!