Island hopping in El Nido

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El Nido, the Philippines

After a 6 hour busride with annoying fat French people, we are in El Nido and check into our hostel, Our Melting Pot. Since it’s only 2 PM, we go to the beach and lay out. Here, we run into Stephen and Rosie from Sheebang, who we hang out with until we head to Art Café to book tour A for the next morning. Then, we book our bus back to Puerto Princesa.

Fat kid decided to jump the ice cream bike and try to claw his way into the box.

For dinner, we go to the beach, which by now is filled with tables and candles. It’s so cozy and so expensive. We get a beer and then go to the night market, where a basketball game is on as well. It’s full of locals cheering loudly, and we are lucky enough to witness the last 5 minutes of the game. Home team wins! I trip and nearly fall face down onto the concrete pavement, but Sophie’s top saves me last minute. I still end upwith a bleeding toe. Ouch. On our way back to the hostel, we run into Stephen and Rosie yet again. They’re heading to bed early, and we decide to do the same – but not until I’ve had a pork skewer at a stand on the street.

The following day, we get up early and head to Art Café for our tour. This one is not full of Chinese people luckily, but it is full of couples. Ugh! We get on a boat and travel to the Small Lagoon, from where we kayak to Big Lagoon. The open water is horrendous to kayak in with the big waves, though, so Sophie and I are falling way behind the others. The lagoons are amazingly quiet and beautiful though.

After the lagoons, we sail to Simizu Island and then we have lunch at Secret Lagoon Beach: fresh grilled fish and chicken skewers with rice and salad. It’s the most amazing meal I’ve had in a long time. The tour guides tell us we look beautiful and invite us out for the night, all while we’re sweaty and bloated from all the food.

Our last stop is the 7 Commando beach, and by then, we’re pretty sunburnt and tired of getting in the cold water. We sit in the shade and enjoy a fresh buko (coconut).

At night, we have the national dish for dinner – a massive plate of noodles, seafood and vegetables – and then have a crepe on the street. Mine is with peanutbutter and banana and it’s so good. I really like their peanut butter here. We head to bed not long after and have a long night of sweating profusely in our crammed fan dorm with 3-story beds.

It is our last day in El Nido, and we take a tricycle to Nacpan beach, which is almost completely empty when we arrive. We lay out on the fine white sand and I am finishing up “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. I absolutely love this book. I guess it’s my “Eat, Pray, Love”, and reading it makes me feel like I could travel alone. Maybe even hike? As soon as I put it down I forget all about it though, and I go back to my lazy ways.

We go back and have some food and a shower before getting on the 6 PM bus to Puerto Princesa. At one point it looks like we’ve gotten a flat tire, so we stop for ages, and still manage to get back to Sheebang Hostel after 5 hours. We get into bed, when a couple right outside the window starts having loud sex. 5 times.