The Roosters Nest (El Nido)

There is nothing attractive about travel days, especially when you’re taking 3 Air Asia flights, skipping 1 night’s sleep and dealing with multiple delays. Those 48 hours were a bit of a blur but we made it. Jelley mastered the art of sleeping in awkward airport seats and Luke somehow kept his eyes open throughout. A little dazed and confused, we had decided to break up the journey with one night in Cebu City to catch up on sleep and check out the lays of the land before hopping over to the island of Palawan for a week.

Cebu City was pleasantly surprising. During an eye-opening taxi journey from the airport to our hotel, we soon learnt that traffic isn’t any better here in the Philippines than in Sri Lanka. Colourful jeepneys converted from ex-US Army vehicles and tricycles (Philippines dodgier version of tuk tuks — photos below courtesy of google) swerved around the vehicles as our taxi driver tried to take a ‘shortcut’ and got a ticket from a police officer for disobeying traffic rules. We couldn’t believe that even with his fast driving ’skills’ it took over an hour to get to our hotel, only 15 kilometers (american measurement?) from the airport.

(trike & jeepney photos courtesy of google…they drive to fast to capture)

The area of Cebu City we stayed in felt safe to walk around after dark, possibly helped by the presence of security guards with various guns at every shopfront. Desperate for our first meal in 13 hours, following an average McDs breakfast at 6am, we were rewarded with very cheap beer and a delicious modern Filipino dinner. We were grateful for the lack of natural light in our room and crashed for around 10 hours, trying to catch up on sleep missed from the night before. The menu choices for breakfast included chorizo sausage and rice, chicken nuggets and rice, pork and rice … and thankfully just plain old pancakes (which turned out to be waffles).

We had a few errands to run, and being in a city with 7 hours before our next flight, we took full advantage of the cheap shopping then took a jeepney to the south to experience the old Cebu City, filled with churches, forts and monuments. The Philippines have had a checkered history with invasions, dictatorships, and our favorite story was of their first attempt at ‘independence’ in 1898, which was shortly overthrown by a deal where the USA bought The Philippines from Spain for $20million.

It was a refreshing break from airports (although we did also watch the movie The Terminal), and with another delay we were flying to Puerto Princesa, our first stop on Palawan to explore the island.

After a small sleep in and realizing our plan to check out the underground cave then transport up to Port Barton in one day was impractical, we were lucky to get a seat in a van heading north to El Nido. At this stage, and for at least the next week, we were still sick, so the experience of 6 hours in a van around winding roads with crazy drivers wasn’t a great one. We were so close, around 30mins away, when we heard a loud BANG and our van stopped and reversed. The windshield was nearly shattered, the driver got out and started chasing a young boy working in a rice field who he believed had thrown a big rock at the van. No one really knows what happened, only that we had to wait an extra hour for the police to show before we arrived just before sunset in the bustling tourist town of El Nido.

From our experiences in tourist havens, El Nido could be likened to a slightly less wild Koh Phangnan or Gili Island.. it is an intense place, but a lot of fun. With many tourists often comes excellent food, but also overpriced beer, accommodation, tours and scams. One bonus of this is always Happy ‘Hour’ (always at least 2 hours), where the Long Island Iced Teas are a lot cheaper and a lot stronger than drinks in Sri Lanka.

There is effectively no wifi in El Nido, which makes prebooking accommodation a little challenging, and we ended up staying at 5 different accommodations during our time in this area, each of them a unique experience. Night 1 we stayed in a very local guesthouse, with a dodgy alleyway to get there, and around 30 roosters cooped up in the property behind us. It was a sleepless night but we were excited to see what the area had to offer!

Island Hopping is currently the main attraction for tourists in El Nido with 4 tours are on offer – Tour A, Tour B, Tour C and Tour D. The bay is filled with boats ready to take hundreds of passengers every day. We opted for Tour A, the Lagoon Tour, on our first day here, excited to explore further into the crystal clear water and striking limestone cliff faces. The scenery was stunning and it was an awesome day all around, a particular highlight being the first stop, the Small Lagoon where we kayaked around limestone caves, and the food our guides prepared on the boat was to die for!

We had a brilliant day, however, the tour was a little overwhelming and not our favorite style of travel, with every boat hitting each stop on the tour at the same time and we were constantly surrounded by hundreds of other tourists trying to have their own unique experience here. While an amazing part of the country to discover, it felt like El Nido has been hit by an unprecedented level of tourism in the past couple of years and it may soon struggle to keep up. Hopefully positive steps can be taken to ensure sustainable travel for future generations to this beautiful part of the world.

Night 2 we doubled our budget and moved into a hotel in the town centre. There was a temptation of an island party that night, we again had a beautiful dinner, but were too shattered from the day at sea and Jel being sick that we stayed in and enjoyed the most comfortable bed of our travels and opportunity to rest. It is becoming apparent that we may be getting old, and 2 years ago neither of us would have chosen a good night’s sleep over a backpackers party!!

We were keen to escape the bustle and head away from the crowds the next day and hired a scooter from a local that couldn’t ride his due to a drink driving crash and we headed north. Approaching the end of the dry season in Palawan, we bypassed a waterfall hike with a steep ‘entrance fee’ and local advice that there was only a trickle of water. Chief navigator Jelley missed the turnoff for Nacpan Beach and we ended up at Duri Beach, near the top of the island.

The heat waves were radiating off the sand and while we struggled to find enough shade to fend off Jel’s ‘hot and bothered’ mood, we did manage to find drinking water at 3 times the usual price. Luke went off to explore and came across an awesome Dutch man’s mini ‘resort’ at the end of the beach, a chilled out oasis and welcome break from the intense tourist-focused cafes elsewhere. It was a relaxing shaded spot with great local food (the national dish Chicken Adobo was brilliant) and a Jenga set to get our competitive streaks out. A few hours at Duri Beach Resort was the relaxation we needed!

Lio Beach is around 10 minutes from El Nido and has only been open for one month with some stages are still under construction, but what is open so far is incredibly impressive. Ayala, a Filipino company, has pumped big money into the complex, which has several of the more popular restaurants and bars from El Nido opening second branches within the complex, a long stretch of beachfront and impressive jetty along with the 5 star rooms and beach club. Conveniently located just a couple of minutes from El Nido Airport, if you could afford to stay there it would be well worth it and a completely different experience from staying in the township, they really are worlds apart. What comes with such luxury is often the feeling that you could be anywhere in the world, however the local friendly Filipinos certainly make you feel welcomed and while well manicured, the manmade ‘town’ still has an authentic feel about it.

Ready for a change of scenery and change of pace, we decided to base ourselves in the neighboring village of Corong Corong for the rest of our time on Palawan, and we began planning for the next few days of adventure.

Although the wifi is more reliable now, the posts are a little delayed as we’ve been carrying a niggly sickness with us for a few weeks and we’re now taking the time to rest up before exploring more of the amazing Philippines!

We will have more stories to share soon – it’s Saturday night here and although we’re not 100%, we’re sharing a beer to celebrate 1 month away from New Zealand!

Until then,

A Kiwi & A Cali xoxo