El Nido, Palawan was one of my dream place to travel. I never thought that this dream will ever come true until my chinese friend Harry, bought a deal from metrodeal.com, a package tour 3months ago. He bought the deal for Php11,998.00 good for 2 persons. Package tour included airfare Manila-Puerto Princesa City-Manila, accommodation for 3days and 2nights with daily breakfast for 2 and tour fee.
What I hate about purchasing in a site like metrodeal, the travel agency (specifically the one offered the El Nido Trip) is that schedules are ALWAYS subject to "availability". Harry bought the deal last week of June 2013, and we requested any weekends of July but the travel agency told me that all weekends of July are fully-booked. She said August, but after a minute she again said "fully booked" for the whole month of August. And she gave me first week of September. I think they were looking for "SALE" for our airfare. So we agreed to September 7-9 (no choice, I can't go during weekdays, so with my friend).
Unfortunately, Harry was transferred to Hong Kong for his job on the second week of July. So i will be the one to use the vouchers he bought. I was thinking of whom to share my voucher with (since i am single.. hoho). My younger sister just passed the Nursing board exam so i asked her to join me as "my gift" to her. And of course she was very excited. First time to travel, and yes, first time to ride a plane.
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| In front of our Room at La Casa Teresa |
I also asked my bestfriend Lala to join us, we will just share with her our room and she agreed. September 7 we took the first flight going to Puerto Princesa City. We left Manila at around 7:30am and we arrived in PPC at around 8:30am, Lala's flight will be at around 1:30pm the same day. We were waiting for the van that will transfer us from PPC to El Nido as i already arranged transfer through our host resort. The driver came a bit late as he expected our arrival to be at around 9:00 in the morning. We saw our driver as he was holding a bond paper with my name written on it. He then lead us to his lexus van and told us that we will fetch another passenger than proceed to the terminal to wait for some passengers then we will leave for El Nido. The driver gave us seating arrangement and we were at the third row. 2 foreigners from England at the first row, and a local girl at the second row. And after waiting for 15 minutes at the terminal, we left with just 5 of us. The driver said September is off season so there are only few passengers going to El Nido.
Four ways to get through El Nido:
1. Direct Flight going to El Nido (They said PAL is already operating in El Nido, haven't checked it though)
2. Private Plane (If you're rich, take it)
3. Bus (no more RORO, license has been cancelled because of an accident. But there are other bus companies. 7 hours travel from Puerto Princesa) Fare is Php438.00 each.
4. Van transfer (5 hours and 30 minutes from Puerto Princesa). Fare is Php700.00 each.
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| Walk to the Boat's "Parking" |
If you will stay more than 3days in El Nido, I would advise you to take bus instead of van. But if your time is limited, van is okay. What i don't like about vans is there is not much space for my legs. I am blessed with long legs (i assume? hehe), and it was difficult for me to travel with my legs very uncomfortable for the 5 and a half hours of travel. Plus the road from Taytay to El Nido is as bumpy as ever. I can't even lean my head and sleep. And bus is more spacious.
We reached El Nido at around 3:30 in the afternoon. The driver dropped us in front of La Casa Teresa Resort which is 5 minutes away from the town of El Nido. The resort is okay. The room assigned to us was very nice because it was located in beachfront.
We felt very tired so my sister and i fell asleep until 6 in the evening. She was awake earlier than that and even catch the sunset (and i didn't!). We took shower and we asked the hotel assistant to help us find a tricycle going to the town. The tricycle costs Php30.00/person.
The town was really small. We didn't notice the small path leading to the seaside because the driver did not tell us that there are many restaurants on the seaside. After just roaming around town, we decided to go home and wait for Lala.
Lala arrived at around 2:30am. The three of us shared in one bed. Woke up at around 6:00am and it was raining. Breakfast was served at around 7, daing, fried rice, egg plus coffee.
We prepared our things and waited for our tour boat to arrive. At around 9:00am the boat came and the tour guide fetch us and instructed us to walk from the shore to the boat that is located maybe 250meters away. My sister was very afraid because we don't know how to swim. But the guide told us that the water is just knee-level. Hehe.
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| Small Lagoon |
We paid Php200.00 for the Eco-tourism fee. Another Php200.00 for the snorkel. We were 14 passengers in our Tour A group. All from Manila and 2 of them are senior citizen and they are sisters too. Our first destination was the Small Lagoon. I only took pictures outside the lagoon because I don't have a water-proofed camera and i cannot bring my phone as I don't have a waterproof case.
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| Big Lagoon |
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| Shimizu Rocks! |
Small lagoon was not small at all. You need to literally swim to go inside. (Since i don't know how to swim, I don't know why I never thought of renting a Kayak. Genius!) If you are like me or my sister who are non-swimmer, i would suggest to rent a Kayak so you can enjoy the view inside the small lagoon. The water is very very very very clear. (Yes, to the highest level). My sister just stayed at the boat with the 2 senior ladies. She said she wanted to try going down but she don't want to stress me if she will get afraid and will ask me to carry her instead. (If that happened i will never ask her to join me again. hehe)
Our next destination was the Big Lagoon. Yes it was big that we are not allowed to go down the boat. Big lagoon, maybe because we have a big chance to get drowned if we insist to go down the boat.
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| Fish Feeding at Shimizu Island |
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| Shimizu Rocks |
Then next was the Shimizu Island. According to the locals there, it was named after a Japanese scuba diver who died near the island due to insufficient supply of oxygen. Our tour guide, the boat driver and another assistant prepared our lunch courtesy of our hotels. Liempo, grilled fish, and salad as our lunch. We also went snorkeling and fish feeding in Shimizu Island.
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| Secret Lagoon |
After taking pictures and snorkeling, we moved to our next destination. The secret lagoon. Secret because you need to literally fit yourself to a small entrance of the lagoon to see what's inside. This is the only place where the water is not salty, it's fresh water. This is also where you will find the rock formation of a crocodile and the last supper. Unfortunately, i did not have a picture of it.
Then we moved to our final destination, the Seven Commando Island. It was named after the seven US marine ship trapped in that island during the second world war. We stayed here for 2 hours. Sand is very fine and white. This is where you can play volleyball. Swim and drink fresh buko. After the tour we gave Php100.00 tip to the tour guide.
After our tour we went back to our hotel, took shower and fell asleep. We woke up dinner time and we went back to the town. This time, the driver told us that there are many restaurants beside the sea that we can choose of. We walked at the seaside and restaurants are everywhere. You can hear and feel the waves near you. We had dinner and some beer. There are many foreigners at that time. Maybe 70% of the tourists are foreigners. Chinese, English, American, Canadian, Korean, etc.
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| Seven Commando Island |
We left El Nido at around 8:30 in the morning, stopped over for lunch. and arrived PPC at around 2 in the afternoon. We went to the "tiangge" where we bought our pasalubong.
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| Seven Commando Island |
CONCLUSION: After my El Nido trip, I now realized why many countries are claiming some of our Islands. The Philippines is indeed a very blessed country with our natural resources. So Harry, please tell your country, IT IS OUR ISLAND! Haha :p
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El Nido travel tips:
Only one tour/day. One tour with at least four islands. There are four tours to go around beautiful places in El Nido. Tour A, B, C and D.
Tour A - Lagoons and Beaches: 700/pax
Big Lagoon
Small Lagoon
Shimizu Island
Seven Commando Island
Tour B - Caves and Coves - Php800.00/pax
Tour C - Hidden Beaches and Shrines Php900.00/pax
Tour D - Island Beaches - Php700.00/pax
Bring the following:
a pillow neck. It is very long travel plus the bumpy roads that you can't lean your head without hurting yourself.
Food and water - sometimes you will eat late because of the travel
Fully charged Mobile Phone and MP3 player. Electricity in El Nido runs from 2pm-6:am only.
Underwater Camera
Sunblock (Please don't ever forget this)
bag - you might walk from your hotel to the boat "parking area"
Cash during the tour (for food and drinks, tip to the tour guide)
