We’re currently on the bus to Puerto Princessa. We ended up staying an extra night in El Nido. We decided to opt out of going to the Underground River from Puerto in favour of staying in a beach town for another night. I had been to the river last year, and though it was interesting, I much prefer the scenery and surroundings of El Nido (that statment might offend some Filipinos, as they are quite pround of the Underground River and the fact that it was named one of the new 7 Natural Wonders of the World). B-Rod also seemed keen to stay and since he wasn’t pushing to go to the river, we enjoyed being close to the ocean for one more night.
The past couple of days haven’t gone quite as smoothly as the first few, but that provides for some good stories and adventures : )
SCOOTER DAY
We decided to rent a scooter one day to rip around and see what was shakin on land. There is a beach about 40km away from El Nido (Nac Pan) which was supposed to be pretty amazing. So, we decided to make the voyage. B-Rod was pretty excited to be on a two wheeled vehicle, and I was pretty happy to go along for the ride and not drive.
About 4km out of town, B started going up a hill and the bike started to shake. At first, we just figured it was because the bikes are pretty crappy and can’t handle speeds higher than 60km/hr, but it continued, so we stopped to check it out. Flat tire : ( B had noticed a vulcanizing shop a ways back, so we slowly rode back that way. We felt a few bumps along the way, but just figured that was due to the flat tire. So . . . . that’s how we ended up at Nitoy’s shop.
We pulled up, a guy went to check out the tire and was shocked to find that there was no tube inside the tire (they call it an interior). Guess that was what some of the bumps were on the way to the shop – the interior coming out of the tire and being left somewhere on the road.
This is what Vulcanizing is. It’s a fancy word for patching tires and tubes. In this case, it’s an old car piston filled with lamp oil, and clamped to the tube for about 30 minutes. B-Rod was wishing we could just steal this interior and be on our way!
We called our hotel (as we had made arrangements to rent the scooter from them) and waited for someone to show up. About an hour later, one of the guys came and asked us what the problem was. He took off again telling us he would be back with an interior. We waited around maybe another hour waiting for our interior. He showed up again with another girl from our hotel. She brought her bike. We would take her bike for the day while they fixed the rental. It was at this point that we also found out we had been going the wrong way anyways. They were going the way we wanted to go, so we followed them for a bit and they showed us where to turn. B looked down at the gage to see this.
She assured us that the tank was full. The fuel gage just didn’t work. I bet you can guess where this story goes . . . .
. . . . that’s right . . . we ran out of gas about 20km after we were told our tank was full. B pushed the bike and as we passed a few people looking for gas, they were surprised that we hadn’t even looked to check our gas situation. That will teach us for being too trusting? B’s pushing the bike up hill in this shot, but as soon as he got to the top, he was able to coast to the nearest “gas station”.
Yup, the gas station is a Sari Sari store (a family owned little shop that sell just about everything, and are often every few feet, unless you run out of gas, then they aren’t anywhere) selling gas out of Coke and Rum bottles.
Finally on our way again, B started to get into it. It was a combination of dirt and paved roads until we came to a turn. Then it was a combination of dirt and mud roads.
Why don’t helmets ever fit correctly on my little head?
We got to the worst of the mud part. These are actually shots from the way back. On the way there, we were following behind a Filipino guy on a motorbike hauling a big bag of rice. When we got to this part, B just gunned’er and we made it through with out stopping. The Filipino looked back to give B the thumbs up and the touristas who were stuck in the mud going the other way gave a big cheer. I could picture the huge grin on B’s face.
His goal was to not touch down.
Mission accomplished both times. Yeah B . . . . . Todd, are you proud?
By the end of the ride, the bottom of the bike, my legs and B’s legs were covered in mud.
From the “parking lot” we could tell it was very worth it though.
The sand was super soft and it was the clearest water both of us have ever seen. B was pretty impressed by the beach at Port Barton, but this one blew us both away.
We did a bunch of swimming, just taking it all in and relaxing and then we headed back to town on the scooter.
B-Rod had been talking about needing a haircut, and I had noticed this sign awhile back, so we took the opportunity to just drive around town looking for it. We found it and we just sat and waited as his barber finished up the last haircut (50 PHP is about $1.25 by the way)
Waiting for B’s barber to finish up a customer.
While we were waiting, B had to check out the roadside meat snacks.
Not being the type of people to shy away from “non-white” food, he gave it a try and it was pretty good. His belly slightly filled and curiousity satisfied, he was ready for his haircut.
Apparently the Philippines has the second largest population of transgender women after Thailand. I have heard them referred to as “ladyboys” and am assuming this is not a derogatory term. If it is . . . please let me know and I will stop using it immediately!! She was pretty buisness at first, but B-Rod with his gift of gab had her chatting and laughing in no time. It seemed to be a ladyboy shop as there were a few that worked there and one sat with me to chat and keep me company. They were super nice and B says it’s the best haircut he’s ever had. She even used a safety razor blade curved around her thumb as a straaight razor for the final trimming. Best Falafel, best haircut . . . . . no wonder B-Rod hearts El Nido!!
KAYAK DAY = EXTRA DAY
We had decided around the second day that we wanted to cut our Puerto Princessa stay short, so we could spend an extra day in El Nido. We were staying at Caalan beach which was a 10 min walk from town which was nice, but unfortunately our place was already booked. Tom and Miranda (a British couple we met while diving) raved about their place at Corong Corong beach (about a 10 min trike ride from town), so we made arrangements to move there. Unfortunately, we got off to a bad start. When we went to check in there were a few little nitpicky things like they wanted to charge us for checking in early, our room wasn’t as nice as we had hyped it up in our minds to be, etc. In the end it all worked out. The beach was nice and we had the chance to hang out with Tom and Miranda (who would totally be our peeps at home – Miranda’s a yogi and Tom is also super sarcastic), but our day started off a bit grumpy. We decided to take the kayak out as Tom and Miranda had talked about their awesome kayak day. B messed around looking at the kayaks, struggled to get 2 paddles out (which were tied up in a messy bunch), and then we went to take the kayak to the water. I didn’t have enough strempth to carry my end, so B started dragging it down. It wasn’t until this point that one of the two hotel workers that were watching B through all of his struggles finally came over to help. They got the kayak on the water, we hopped in and it wasn’t until this point we were told that it was 500 PHP (the same price as a full day scooter rental) for the day. We were both livid, but knew that if we didn’t get going and do something fun, our whole day was going to be a grumpy one, so we just kind of grunted and went on our way. While Tom and Miranda’s day was calm, ours was windy with the wind constantly changing directions. We only ended up being out for a couple of hours, but of course they wouldn’t give us an hourly rate and eventually we just got tired of fighting. Sorry DawnO. I feel a bit like we’ve disappointed you!! It ended up being fun and got us out of our funk, but was not a good start to the day.
Starting to have fun and shake off the grumpies.
We got to see some cool things like this which I assume is someone’s private residence, along with . . .
. . . . . their own private beach
B-Rod asked what that thing in front of the boat was. I told him it was a stick.
Nope . . . not a stick!
It was a sea turtle. COOL!!
It hung around for quite awhile and let us get really close to it. It actually got to the point where we were a little concerned. It seemed like it was panting and we found it a bit strange that it wasn’t going anywhere despite how close we got. There are a lot of boats around, so we were worried it might be caught on a line or something.
We got close enough for B to run his paddle underneath Mr. Turtle, and that’s when he took off. It was a pretty cool experience.
Tom and Miranda had told us about the amazing sunsets at this spot, so we grabbed a pack of peanuts (jealous Nes?) and got ready.
Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy, so we didn’t think we would see much.
It was still nice, but we thought this was the best we would get, until . . . .
. . . . . this happened!! SENSATIONAL!! Even some of the staff were coming out to take pictures.
It was a good end to the day and we were glad that we decided to stay the extra night.
On the bus to Puerto now and our experience so far is a little bit different.
Can you tell which is the “ordinary fare” bus and which is the “aircon bus”?
Even the “entertainment system” was different. On the ordinary bus we got chickens in boxes squawking, while right now we are listening to oldies but goodies???
Goodbye El Nido!! I’m so glad B-Rod got to see it now. I predict in the next 1-2 years it will be very different. Last year, Palawan was voted the #1 island by various international travel magazines, and you can see that tourism has started to pick up and may be about to explode. There were so many big hotels starting to go up and in various stages of construction. It was already different than when I was there a year ago. Last year there was limited electricity, but now they have just started with 24 hour electricity which for me, kind of took a little bit of the charm away. It will be interesting to see what happens and how the area is affected. Thanks for the good times El Nido. See you next time!
Rox, your head is just too wee for regular helmets, haha try a kids next time.
Ebony and Ivory? Kenny Rogers?? Air Supply??? Hell yeah, those are goodies! I gotta make me a Flip bus Playlist on my iTunes!
I have the same helmet problem!! As for disappointing me… whhaaaaatttt?! I think the only thing that could possibly disappoint me is if you walked by a stand selling mangos and didn't buy any. Looks like an amazing adventure!