Paradise Found

Day 18: El Nido, Philippines

Greetings from Paradise. After a 5 hour flight to Manila, 1 hour to Palawan, 8 hour by bus from Puerto Princesa I have finally arrived in El Nido. Before I go on, I have to say that this is the best place I have ever been to, narrowly nudging out Koh Phagnan to claim the title. El Nido is situated on the Bacuit Bay achipelago at the top of Palawan, El Nido itself commands a stunning location, sitting between between massive limestone cliffs and picturesque Bacuit Bay with Cadlao Island right in front. Found a nice little guest house for 130 pesos per night (roughly 40 Aussie dollars) which is right on the beach run by a lovely local lady named Rosanna, each morning I walk out straight into the water and have a nice swim across the bay. Unfortunately this is pretty much all the exercise I have been doing and have been out every night since I have arrived, on the flip side I've been drinking the San Miguel Lite which are a steal at 30 pesos a bottle (1 Aussie Dollar) but about a quarter of the calories of most other beers. This is also the first place I have been to where I am staying on budget, despite making no real effort to control my spending. First night in town I wandered down to Seaslugs Restaurant to get my bearings. Ran into a young Australian guy, Tommy, who's family owns the restaurant and sat and drank with him and his mates on the chairs on the beach out the front before heading out to Balay Tubay, a fantastic little live music place that was located around the corner. I must mention that El Nido is a small village, but with everything you need as most places are these days (wifi, internet all available). It doesn't look like it will stay that way though, at the moment there is a plan to dredge the sand from in the bay in front of the town, which will allow ferries into the bay direct from Manila making the town alot more accessible for all. There is no ATM though, to get money out, you have to take it from your credit card, the place recommended by LP charges a hefty 12% on withdrawals, fortunately Tommy let me know you could also withdraw from the petrol station down the road for only 6%. I am almost over the fear that my card won't work when I am overseas, and the obvious consequenses that will occur if i am stranded with no money so far away from everything. Almost.

One thing that has really been a downer is that my so called underwater camera has failed so I have to use my mobile phone to take pics, the camera is only 3megs to really disappointed about that. At this stage I am relying on getting other travellers to email me some of their pics, the one above is taken by a girl called Jodi who runs a blog called Legal Nomads which has been a great resource for me over here. Went for a really nice dive on Friday sans camera, luckily there were an Italian foursome who were along with us and one of them is going to send me some of the pics he took which are absolutely mind blowing. God doesn't seem to want me taking pics of this beautiful place so hopefully my words can do it some justice, I am anticipating a drama when I take it back to the shop in KL as I have thrown away the receipt (the camera model is called The Olympus Tough, I was not expecting it to break). Needless to say the dive was great, the islands in teh achepelago look like they are straight out of King Kong with cloudy mists covering their tops and turquoise blue waters meeting the green tropical water in front of the yellow sands. I am sitting on 12 dives now, I think I will do another 10 and then take my advanced open water which will allow me to descend to 40m, opening up alot more dive options especially wrecks (which are awesome). May have to factor this into the itinerary...

Unfortunately Lobsters went out of season a couple of weeks ago (it's the off season) so no joy there, apart from that though seafood is plentiful and so, so cheap. Will post again shortly because unfortunately time has got the better of me again today and there is barbecue on the beach in 15 minutes which I am heading down to. More photos to come as soon as I sort out the camera issues...

Alamut