It was a very tiresome 5-hour trip to El Nido, Palawan. From Puerto Princesa airport, we rode a tricycle to San Jose terminal (100PHP). We planned to catch the 9 PM Ro-Ro bus ride but it turned out the reservation was already full. It was already the last trip but there were still more than 20 people waiting for another trip to El Nido so the drivers decided to use one more bus to El Nido.
This space became our bed throughout the trip.
We left San Jose terminal at 10PM and arrived in El Nido at 3AM. We rode a tricycle to the hostel (40PHP). I was glad that I was able to reserve a room at La Banane Hostel (There's gonna be another blog post for this!).
We woke up at around 7AM and ate our breakfast at The Alternative Restaurant. It was drizzling then, we weren't able to stay at the "bird's nest." :(
My 250PHP breakfast.
His 250PHP breakfast.
No bird's nest for us!
My co-workers Ashley and Rodney were also in El Nido so we decided to join them in the Island Hopping tour. We met them at Lualhatti Cottage (5-minutes tricycle ride from La Banane), where they were staying and paid Ate Rose (owner and chef of Linegueb Paluto Dampa Style Restaurant) for the combination Tour A & C with lunch (PHP 1,200).
Yours truly with very kind Ate Rose
Snorkeling masks are available for 100PHP each. We weren't able to visit all the islands included in the tour because we started past 9AM already. :(
photo from gopalawantravel
1. Helicopter Island
2. Hidden Beach
3. Garbage Beach where we took our lunch (joke lang! according to Kuya Boatman, a foreigner once called this island, "Garbage Beach")
4. What we had for lunch!
5. Boats outside the Small Lagoon
6. Big Lagoon
Big Lagoon (inside)
7. Secret Lagoon
Secret Lagoon (inside)
8. Snake Island
We finished the tour at around 6:30PM and had our dinner at Sea Slugs Bar & Restaurant. The restaurant was jam-packed with customers that I heard some people complaining about their order. Anyway, we still decided to order and waited for about 20 minutes.
Large serving of Grilled Squid with rice. Tasteless. :( (250PHP)
We woke up early the next morning and went to El Nido Public Market where we rode an ordinary bus (400+PHP) back to Puerto Princesa. It was a tiring and dusty 6-hour trip.
It was a very exhausting bus ride because of the dusty road!
Estimated breakdown of expenses (for two, as always):
Tricycle from airport to the terminal - 100
Roro aircon bus to El Nido - 800+ (my partner got a 20% student discount!)
Tricycle from El Nido to Hostel (Bacuit bay) - 40 (special rate daw?!)
Breakfast @ The Alternative Inn - 560
Tricycle to Lualhati Cottages - 20
Island Hopping Tour - 2,400
Snorkeling Mask - 200
Tricycle back to cottage - 20
Dinner @ Sea Slugs - 400+
La Banane Hostel room - 1,000 (discounted, pinoy daw eh! haha!)
Tricycle to El Nido Public Market - 20
Breakfast @ Public Market - 100+
Roro ordinary bus to Puerto Princesa - 700+ (20% student discount for my partner, again)
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Cost: PHP 6, 360 for 2
I want to go back to this beautiful place again!! Anyway, have a happy Trip!
*We went over the budget on food, because we really love to eat.
*It was reaally very noisy at night (Hama St., Zone 3) because there were foreigners drinking and you could hear them talking and laughing!
*If you arrive at Puerto Princesa early, I think taking a van to El Nido is much easier.
For more information about the package tour, contact Ate Rose:
Contact number: 09174290620/ 09206008197
Email Add: nilingueb_elnido@yahoo.com
Address: Lualhati Cottage, Brgy. Maligaya, El Nido, Palawan, Philippines
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