News

Paradise

The first thing we did was to go see the beach, but we were in for a way more impressive view than what we expected. First we got out of the hotel in a pouring rain and I meen pouring we ended up soaking wet in less than 1 minutes. Once the sky cleared out we saw where we actually were, staring at the foot of a huge mountain. A few hundred meter further was the sea, the beach and the amazing view that El nido is renowned for.

For the first few days of our stay in we enjoy the beaches of El nido. The main beach next to the village is the starting point of all of the boat tour so we cannot really swim there. But 30 minutes away by bike (of course..) in pretty much any direction lead to a paradisiac beach. The fist one we went to we had to go through a pretty rocky and wet road to get to it. Fortunately for us one of our friends that happen to live in El nido (Pretty nice place to live) lent us a mountain bike.

We came across a lot of tourist stuck in the mud or pushing their bikes through the path. Moreover, the price at the end was more than worth it. A long beach with beautiful white sand and crystal clean water.

For the next days we proceed to visit different beaches, each of them was more beautiful than the other. Each of them had perfect view and really odd road. We eared that normally there’s a small fee for each beach but since we were in low season it was free.

We also visited and enjoyed the town’s nightlife. One of the bar we really like was The Pangolin. The bar was the second floor of a beautiful Gelato place Gusto Gelato. Alexis barely fits in the stairs to get up to the bar.

We then had a view of the street and all of the passers-by in the street. Which may be one of the reason I loved that bar, we have a really great view of any soul walking by. I felt like sport commentator… The pina coladas may have help my fun a lot…

We also took one of the snorkeling forfait that the agency offered there. They have different tour and each agency offers the same 4 group tour. (You can also book private tour but $$$) We chose the tours C that costed 1200 PHP (we negotiate a bit and they removed 200 that is the nature conservation tax. they don’t include it in the price they display…) The trip included food but not water (except during lunch) and they won’t let you bring any plastic bottle.

I think it’s the only moment in our trip that we wished we brought a reusable water bottle. The snorkeling was really beautiful and they bring you in different area and hidden spot. In one case, we had to go through a hole in a the water to get to the beach and the snorkeling spot on the other side.

On our last day, we visit the beach at the end of the island. It was a 40 minutes ride to get there but the beach was even more incredible than all the others. We were alone on an endless beach, it was amazing. But please, bring water and snacks there is literally nothing there… at least for now. El Nido is developing at an incredible rate there’s new business and hotel that opens almost every day!

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to this paradise on earth and go to Vietnam! But to get there we first needed to to get back to Puerto Princesa through the the mighty bus ride! (Here’s more information about getting from El Nido to Puerto Princesa) Surprisingly the ride back to Puerto Princesa was smooth and easy, no need to hold on to our seat there. But (Yes there’s always a but, sorry) the driver stopped at every village and sometime on the side of the road to pick up more people and then drop them off a few kilometers later. Looks like the driver found a way to get some side money… Anyway, we preferred it this way, it was way safer and the ride was smooth. Fun fact it only took 30 minutes longer than the ride to El Nido…. Speeding is not always faster. The driver dropped us off at the hotel we stayed at in Puerto Princesa. We had forgot our keyboard at the hotel and they kept it for us. They then arrange transportation for us to the airport. From that airport our long and complex trip to Hanoi Vietnam began.