El Nido

The bus ride to El Nido was terrible. For the first hour or two, we were on a paved, though bumpy, road. Then, it wasn’t. I tried to fall asleep, as the ride was from 22:00 to 4 in the morning. It didn’t work. The plastic covered seats kept sticking to my legs; my knees were knocking against the seat in front of me; and every 10 seconds, the bus went over a bump or dip, jolting me up in the air.

When we finally got to El Nido, I did my best to avoid the overenthusiastic tricycle drivers who were doing their best to get me to ride with them. I waved them off, rather rudely due to my lack of sleep, and tried to find the beachfront. I had no accommodations until the next night, and I had planned to sleep on the bus. Instead, I slept on the beach for a few hours until sunrise.

There was a couple sleeping on the beach, so I didn’t feel too weird. I lay out my sarong, and bedded down, using my backpack as a pillow. The rush of the waves was incredibly soothing, but soon enough, I was shaken awake by a concerned woman telling me people would be there soon. I did my best to ignore her, but got up soon after to enjoy the sunrise.

This is what I saw when I opened my eyes that first morning

Playing on the beach

Later that day, I was even asked by a local if I had been drunk the night before.

I walked around sleepily, until I found a place offering island hopping for cheaper than everywhere else. 500 pesos (11 dollars) for a day trip with lunch included. The tour didn’t start until 9, so I wandered around a bit more and ate breakfast.

The view from where I ate breakfast

Heading out on the tour

Cheese

Our guide

My fellow tour-goers included the same Japanese-Italian couple with whom I had done the underground tour, a couple from somewhere in Scandinavia, and an Israeli guy. We went to several hidden lagoons and islands, snorkeling all the while. For lunch, we stopped at a small beach where our guides cooked lunch for us: fresh grilled fish, shrimp, rice, veggies, and bananas for dessert. I stuffed my face, and found a hidden beach a little ways away from the one where we had out picnic.

The island where we had lunch

Behind those rocks, I found a tiny hidden beach

The highlight of the tour was when they anchored our boat a little ways offshore of one of the islands and let us snorkel. We were given small pieces of meat to hold, and the fish absolutely swarmed us. We were in the middle of a giant school of fish, brushing against us and sparkling in the sunshine. It was amazing!!!

Tying us to the floating anchor for the fish feeding

Our last stop was a longer beach, and we headed back when it looked like it was going to start raining.

Due to my lack of sleep, I took a nap under the palm trees

The clouds were already rolling in

Sunset

I then tried to find my hostel, but no one knew where it was. I ended up staying on the beach front in Le Banane, a wonderful little bunkhouse where I met tons of people from all over the world, including Australia, England, Morocco, and France.

The next day, I decided to rent a kayak. I had to wait for a good long while for them to bring it to me, and I got a double instead of a single, albeit for the same price. In the meantime, I talked to the shop owner, and she showed me some of the crafts she does while she’s waiting for customers in order to earn a little cash on the side. It gave me a few ideas for projects for decorating my apartment in the fall.

I put all my gear, including lunch, in a “waterproof” bag, and headed out, despite the ominously grey skies. It took forever just to get out of the bay, due to the waves and wind and my sorry self who, never having kayaked before, didn’t know it was a good idea to stay close to the shore. I learned quickly though. I made it to the first island out of the bay after having crossed a good stretch of open water. I tried heading around to the west to see if the conditions were as bad as they had warned me they would be. They were, so I beached my kayak for a while and took a break. Heading around the other side of the island was the best part of the entire adventure. I was kayaking next to sheer rocky cliffs that jutted out of the ocean, carved away by the sea at their base. There were several areas where one could grab onto a rope and marvel at the view. At one point, I was nearly attacked by a pair of birds likely defending their nest.

I ate lunch at a beach that may or may not have been private property. Rice and veggies, and a piece of chicken. I headed further up the coast, but got stuck in a grove of mangroves, and so decided to head to the smaller island nestled in the curve of the larger one whose coast I had been travailing. I got there just in time. As soon as I had beached my kayak, a deluge of rain started pouring down. I decided to swim for a while as the ocean was way warmer than the air at that point, but being tired from all the kayaking, that didn’t last too long. The only shelter on the island was a large rock with a tiny, porous overhang. So I stood in the water, waves lapping around my ankles, trying my best to shield myself from the rain and trickles of water from the rock, waiting out the rain, and attempting to convince myself I wasn’t having an awful time.

Rain at the top of the islan

Can you tell I'm really cold and tired?

That little hollow is where I took shelter.
The last picture ever taken by my camera.

After the rain somewhat let up, I gathered a few shells, and took my last picture with my now dead camera. For part of the way back, it wasn’t raining at all. Then all of a sudden, a squall struck. I could barely open my eyes due to the rain and wind, and large waves were breaking over the top of the kayak (and my “waterproof” bag). At some points, it felt like I was moving backwards. I think most people would have panicked, but I took it as a challenge. My mental conversation went something like this:

Yeah! I’m paddling through a storm! Yeah!

Head down, eyes closed, move those arms faster!

You got this! You’re a strong rower! Ain’t no storm going to get the better of you!

And so forth.

After a while it let up again, but when I got to shore, the shop where I had rented the kayak was closed. The rain started again and I waited on the beach, shivering, until I was invited into one of the restaurants on the beach. The wind was blowing their decorations to smithereens, and it wasn’t all that much warmer inside than outside, but I was glad for the gesture. At one point I noticed that my paddle was missing. The owner had collected it, and I went back to my hostel to get dry, after braving a cold shower.

For the next few days, the rain barely let up at all, so I spent most of my time reading the books at the hostel. I must have read three or four total. I also met many more people, ate lots of good food, and got a full body massage for under 7 dollars (300 pesos).

At the end of the last day, I said my farewells, and got back on the awful bus.

In Puerto the next morning, I tried to find a souvenir shop which had been recommended by one of my tricycle drivers in the past days. I failed. After walking around for a few hours, a bicyclist approached me. He was part of the police force and wearing a Korean flag on his jersey. He helped me get a tricycle to where I was going and I bought souvenirs. Afterwards, I headed to the airport and headed back to Korea. I timed my expenditures just right and had only 20 pesos left as I boarded the plane to Korea.

Once in Incheon, I got super luck at customs, and got through in less than 15 minutes with a short line and my foreigner registration card. Taking the bus, I wasn’t so lucky though. I got off at what I assumed to be the last stop since everyone else got off as well. I had no idea where I was, and it was starting to rain, so I ate dinner at a kimbap shop, and used their wifi to figure out how to get home. I eventually got there at around 1 in the morning, and officially concluded my trip to the Philippines in a tiny bed in a goshiwon.