exxy’s spot

fare to palawan. P2645.00

fare going to and from el nido. P 750.00

waking up in el nido on my 28^th birthday. priceless.

okay,okay, i stole the idea from a tv commercial but there is no other way of saying how happy i was last weekend!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! imagine, someone told Carla and me that to get to el nido you have to spend around 10K/day.. (which is what you will spend for lagen [more than!] or maniloc) well, we ain’t called budget and adventure travelers for nuthin =) we spent a grand total of <P2,300 for our weekend adventure!

ask us how!

‘twuz my only free weekend since my work is kinda hectic for this week and the next..so we decided to go for it =) since we did not get the tour-tour thingies, we went the way the locals would…by bus. for six hours. needless to say, we can put it in our been-there-done-that list since that ride was an experience i would gladly say i don’t wanna do ever ever again. period. mwehehe

it was worth it. six hours of bumpy, dusty ride and all.

our first day was pretty uneventful and we just went around the town and checked out the local scene…and cuisine (of course!) the art café serves all-day breakfast (which we had at 5PM  mwehehe) and the balaytubai is an indigenous hang out place where local bands play reggae and such..

island hopping the next day proved to be the stuff a best weekend getaway in my entire existence is made of. this trip will definitely get the oh-my-god-i-have-to-come-back-here-and-stay-for-a-month award. there are just sooooooo many things to do…kayaking, snorkeling, diving (which are in my favorite things to do), windsurfing (which I cannot afford to do) and each island has a certain charm that makes it so refreshing! we went to the big and small lagoon and had a few bites at sumisu island (which was named after a japanese tourist who died there—he went snorkeling and got stranded for three days)

for me, the highlight of the trip is our stay at entalula.   it is where the guests of maniloc are brought for their windsurfing and diving pleasure but the beach is open to the public. the sand is powdery as in it’s soooooooooo light and fine, when you walk through the shore, your feet would sink about a couple of inches…and you can cover your whole body and not feel the weight of the sand…haaaaaaay…I have never seen any beach more beautiful than enchanting entatula…haaaaay.

then we went to another island for snorkeling but saw some jellyfish so did not push it. anyway, had the setting sun at the horizon so wuz enjoying the pleasure of watching it.

after island hopping, carl and i went to this alternative center that serves vegan food. it’s not the gastronomic calling that brought us there but the suspended boat-like structure that they have where we had our dinner. imagine sitting inside a boat with sand three meters below you instead of water around you…we stayed there for rice coffee after dinner and watched the stars in the candlelight..happiness.     

in the middle of the night carl had a surprise pancake for me with a li’l candle and she sang  happy birthday. though i was deadtired, wuz contently happy upon waking up in this really great place for my birthday..

there are around fifty islands in el nido…hhmmmm…next time i’d like to go to their secret beach (which was allegedly the inspiration of the movie “the beach”) and maybe imitate the foreigner who is staying in one of the beaches (he’d been there for two years now..) and set up a home there..will definitely go back to el nido…unless i will have enough money to go to amanpulo, then maybe i’ll give up this thought.. but for now, let’s stick to reality. i’ll start saving up for airfare… and go back to el nido in style mwehehe

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 2:17 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.