We arrived into the capital of Palawan, Puerto Princessa at 6.45pm from Manilla. Palawan is a well travelled island by backpackers- particularly for El Nido and some destinations around Puerto princessa. We were keen to get to El Nido however due to it being a 4-5 hour minibus journey, as it is the other end of the island we had booked cheap accommodation for the night. We took a tricycle from the airport (after leaving the airport and walking away a little to get a cheap pricer) to get to our hostel (80). The accommodation was very basic but we had our own room and a bed for the night. The place had advertised it did food on booking.com but unfortunately we were out of luck, we tried to get food from the food court at the mall however we found that it was closing as we arrived. Instead it ended up being a trusty mcdonalds meal before crashing for the night. In the morning we went to have breakfast (as advertised) however this was not on either so we had to quickly rush to mcdonalds again for breakfast, which is just not what your body wants! We had booked a minibus online to get to El Nido. We were picked up at 9.38 and then transferred to a Lexxus shuttle at what felt like a huge transport market (Corong Corong bus terminal)! We weren’t entirely sure we had been transferred to the right company but we knew they were going to El Nido so that’s what counted. We eventually left there at around 10am. We stopped a few times for the driver to pick up parcels and things to take to El Nido before stopping at Roxxas for lunch of pork and rice (100) in a restaurant by the sea. The roads were relatively smooth but very windy and we didn’t feel the best on arriving into El Nido. The shuttles drop people off just at the hill above town so that the trikes can drive people in for about 50. This is not really needed though and is just a short walk down the hill to where accommodation options are and the general town.
Being a slightly more touristy destination there were quite a lot of hostel and options to stay but they were all ‘island prices’ slightly more expensive than we wanted to pay. We found Cliffside Cottages which did small room bungalows with twin beds and a small bucket type toilet with cold showers for a good price (500). It had a cute little courtyard but apart from that seemed quite dead. We got our washing done and hung out so that it could dry in the sun, after failing in Manila to get it done. Then we took a wander in town- there was a lot of restaurants and cafes priced slightly higher due to targets tourists and holidaymakers and being able to charge ‘island prices’ (meals about 200-300 starting price). The town itself is relatively compact ut with a range of options and a number of restaurants and tour offices along the beach edge. We found a rooftop terrace bar that had happy hour san miguels for 50p 4-7 and chilled out for a while taking in the island vibes. Luckily for our budget there were several street food stalls dotted about and we grabbed some veggie pancit which we at back on the porch of our little cottage.
In the morning we ordered breakfast at our accommodation, a mix of American & philipino with coffee for 100p each to fill us up for a day touring the islands. Everywhere in El Nido you will see tour shops advertising Tour A, B, C, D??. They all tend to offer the same tours so we chose Tour A and C booked this through our accommodation but for different days. We had heard tours A & C for island hopping were the best. Tour A you get to see the small and big lagoon, secret lagoon, shinizu island?, 7 commando beach. Tour C- Helicopter Island, matinloc shrine, secret beach, star beach, hidden beach. We were picked up at 8am and tsken to Northern Hope Tours office for Tour A. We were initially impressed with the briefing telling people to not put trash in the water, not to stand on coral and not to take bits from the sea or beach as well as making people wear life jackets. We had tour guides Darwin and Gilbert who were lovely. We headed out on the turquoise water on a beautifully sunny day and headed first to 7 commandoes beach. The beach at beautiful white sand with a few small shacks selling food and a couple of bathrooms. We did some snorkelling just off shore in the amazingly clear water watching little colourful fish and seeing some clown and needle fish. After about 30 minutes we got back on the boat enjoying the cool breeze as we travelled 25 mnutes to the Big Lagoon. We did not goet off here instead just stopping to observe it and take photos. We next stopped at Shimuzu island. This was a little beach where we stopped for lunch. We snorkelled for around 25 minutes around the small shallows and in and in the enclosed pools where we spotted a small black tip reef shark that we we circling from a few metres away. We snorkelled out in the shallows from the beach to the wall dropp off where we saw the trigger fish- and kept away and lots of needle fish. Lunch was an amazing array of crabs, squish, fish, lechon, rice, salad and a beautiful selections of fruits, We swam in the gorgeous waters around another private beach. After this we headed to the small lagoon where we went kayaking (optional extra 2 person 400, 4 person 600). This let us explore the lagoon at our own place and it felt like a real adventure going through a small gap in rock to get into the lagoon.We also swam in the warm waters but it wasn’t easy to see. We kayaked to the small beach in the area and chilled out in the water cooling off. From here instead of heading to secreat lagoon/beach we headed to papaya beach next to 7 commandoes/ This was very quite, with gorgeous white sand. The water was very calm but the water was very shallow making snorkelling over coral difficult in places. We spent an hour here and chilled out on the beach having drinks of coconuts, playing on the crafted swings and chilled out on the beach. On our return we had to pay the environmental fee from the office. On returning we found a beach bar for happy hour beers (50p- red horse and san Miguel light). We sat on the beach and watch as the sun went down before having dinner at a burger shack (Paradise Blood Burger) for footlong hot dogs with cheese and sauce for 55p.
The following day we had a Filipino breakfast before being picked up for Tour C at 8.40am. We were taken to a different tour office, possibly due to it being low season with less tourists around. We joined a small boat with a couple of Spanish people and a couple of Filipinos. Our tour guide today was Francis. We first headed to Helicopter Island where we snorkelled off the beach with it getting regularly deep and there being an ocean drop off straight away. However whilst in the water we were getting lots of light stings, which were painful and annoying. We think this is possibly either from small jellyfish or plankton. After about 40 minutes we headed in the boat 10 minutes to hidden beach. The boats anchored up outside a high rock formation. We had to swim from the boat to the rock and swim into a channel between the rocks to get into hidden beach. It was interesting but definitiely not hidden from people with there being lots of people there and lots of tour groups of people standing on coral which was really irritating. We explored past the beach in the little caves and found a small lagoon which was quiet and impressive with limestone karsts around. In order to get back to the boat it was quiet a swim in very deep water. After 20 minutes we arrived to a small Talisay beach for snorkelling and lunch. We spent 25 minutes swimming around as the snorkelling was fantastic with a coral wall drop off a few metres down and a drift that meant we could drift back to the boat easily. There were lots of angel fish, clown fish, parrot fish and needle fish. When tired we headed back to the boat for lunch which was another glorious spread of food. There was lechon,chicken, squid, stone fish, rice, salsa, salad and super sweet fresh fruits. To work off food we spent a bit more time snorkelling and drifting in the water. After a few minutes sailing along we arrived at Secret beach. We wet through a small channel/hole in the rocks to a small pool and beach. It was very shallow with lots of people walking on the coral so we headed back to the boat instead to Mantiloc Island. We did not see the temples as these were private and you had to pay. Instead we spent an hour here snorkelling to the beach where we chilled for a few minutes before snorkelling around the boat as there was quite a current and we were knackered by this point. We then made our way back to El Nido, on the hour journey back we sunbathed on the boat and chilled out in the water by sitting on the extended parts of the boat dangling our legs over. On arriving back the water was very choppy and we got dropped in relatively deep water so we got soaked again getting back to shore. After a long day we headed out in the evening to find a restaurant with happy hour beers before getting cheeseburgers from the burger shack.
When we woke the next day unfortunately Dave was covered in bites. With him feeling itchy, uncomfortable and thinking it may potentially be bed bugs we packed up and spent a while finding a different place to stay. After something like that we just needed somewhere clean and private so we found a room at Balay Paragua wnere we took a hit on our budget but (1200 per night for a double) with air con and hot shower it meant we could feel clean. We grabbed a coffee at Calaan coffe (150 ice coffe) which was expensive but there was air con and wifi. Due to the possibility that we could have had bedbugs in our previous room we took all our washing to the laundry shop (55 a kilo). We spent the morning writing notes, downloading and going through our photos at the balcony of our new room. We grabbed a cheap lunch at a different burger stall (vege burgers 65 with cheese). In the afternoon we walked over the hill to Corong Corong in about 10 minutes as we were looking for potential places there to stay, where we booked Sheryl Mae inn for a night (600). We walked along the beach and looked at several places to stay. In the evening we headed out for dinner at the I.D.R restaurant having vegetable curry (95) and had some rum, coke and beers. In the philipines we could actually buy there local rum for cheaper than the coke so we bought a bottle of it and took them up to the balcony of our new accommodation.
In the morning we checked out and went back to the IDR restaurant for lunch having pancit 110. We walked with our stuff and check into Sheryl Mae inn. Unfortunately there were lots of bugs on the balcony (normal ones), it was a really hot room and the internet did not work. Due to the previous day we were both stressed, annoyed and Dave was miserable- bed bugs had ruined our vibe of the area. To try to clear our heads we walked up through Corong Corong and found the Outpost hostel. This had amazing views, the cool vibes and was right on the beach. We got ourselves some drinks (rum and coke 80 and beer 80) and played with their cute puppies. A tour group arrived back to the hostel via boat and then at sun went down they offered everyone in the hostel a free shot which we participated in, this is apparently an everyday ritual there. We watched the sun go down there, which was gorgeous and you could see the full sunset. We had wished we had stayed and booked to spend our time in El Nido here as I think we would have had a completely different experience. In the evening we had pizzas there (300). Despite this nice afternoon Dave was just not feeling El Nido, so we skipped some bits we wanted to do there and we instead thought we would try a different area of Palawan. We book direct bus tickets to Port Barton (500p each) for the next day.
Alex
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