el nido | loveliness.

Tag: el nido
- tips for traveling in the philippines
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on May 20, 2015
  
  Our time in the Philippines was not very long, but it was nothing short of amazing. I learned a few things during our travels that I wish I’d known before, so definitely wanted to pass those tips along. You can also check out my tips for traveling Australia, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.
  
  Night Bus: We flew from Manila to Puerto Princesa on a late evening flight, and we had two choices. We could either spend a night in Puerto Princesa, and give up a full day of our travels to a bus ride, or we could suck it up, and take the night bus. We’d been told by a few people that the night buses were dangerous, not so much for the roads or the driving, but because of muggings and violence. I felt like the information we had gotten wasn’t very accurate, and was mostly driven by fear, as we didn’t really hear any specific stories of things that had happened, so we decided to go for it. Our experience was completely fine, we had no problems at all, and we were able to see a lot more in a short time because we didn’t waste our days on the bus.
  
  ATM: One of the things that is definitely good to know, is that there is no ATM in El Nido. If you are traveling there, make sure to bring enough cash to last you for the whole trip, because running out of money there would not be good.
  
  Boat to Coron: As I mentioned in this post, we took the boat from El Nido to Coron. The boat on the way there was amazing, nice and big, two levels, lots of room, with Wi-Fi. On the way back we had a tiny, one level boat, and we were squished in there for the whole 8 hours.It was $1500 pesos per person, each way. There was definitely no W-Fi. We left on a Wednesday from El Nido, and returned on a Friday. Make sure to check out the different options for boats, and take the good one both ways if you can.
  
  Diving Coron: Diving the shipwrecks in Coron is completely amazing, but there are a few things to be aware of. The wrecks are are very deep, starting at 30FT. The visibility isn’t great, it can be very dark down there, and you go deep inside the ships. Make sure you are a wreck certified diver and are very comfortable before you decide to go.
  
  Terminal fees: One other small thing to keep in mind is that there are terminal fees to fly out of airports in the Philippines. To fly domestic out of Manila, it was 20 pesos, domestic out of Puerto Princesa was 150 pesos, and to fly international out of Manila it was 550 pesos. Make sure you hold on to enough pesos to pay the fees at the airport when you’re flying out.
  
  I can not wait to get back to the Philippines, there are so many other amazing places I’d like to visit.
  
  While we were on our island hopping trip, one of our fellow travelers told us about a place near Cloud 9 Beach where you can swim in a lake filled with stinger-less jellyfish. STINGER-LESS JELLYFISH. It would be every Finding Nemo fantasy you’ve ever had come to life. I shall call you squishy, and you shall be my squishy.
  
  Posted in Philippines, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged coron, el nido, manila, philippines, scuba, tips for traveling, travel
- coron, busuaga
  
  Posted at 8:19 am by jasminedesirees, on May 7, 2015
  
  The morning after our island hopping adventures out of El Nido, we were up bright and early to catch the boat to Coron. You can buy tickets to Coron almost anywhere in El Nido, and I’d done a little reading about the trip, and it sounded pretty horrible.
  
  The only information I could find online from people taking this boat said that their boats sank and they had to swim to shore, or their captains were drunk, etc, so it was a little disheartening, but we weren’t not going to go. I feel like that happens a lot though, either we are the luckiest people in the world, or most people have absolutely no problems, but it’s only the few who do that post anything about their experience.
  
  Our boat left from the El Nido harbour, it’s pretty easy to get to, but once we were there, things were a little confusing. Nobody seemed very sure where we were supposed to go, and there was another boat leaving at the same time, so we didn’t want to end up taking the wrong one.
  
  We eventually got on the boat, and it was actually really wonderful. There were two decks, and not that many people, so everyone had tons of room. Once we were on our way, everyone kind of dispersed about the ship and carved out a little spot for themselves. I made a bed out of lifejackets and cuddled in with my laptop. I had rented a few movies for the boat ride since it was 8 hours, but I only ended up watching one of them, because the view outside was so amazing.
  
  The water colour is so beautiful, and there are all these little islands and outcroppings, we saw one with the most adorable little house on it, my dream home for sure. Also, there were these amazing little flying fish, they would jump out of the water and fly across the surface for a really long ways, and their fins would leave trails across the water. I watched them for hours, and must have taken about 4,000 pictures trying to get a decent one, but you never knew where they were going to come up from, so it was a bit tricksy.
  
  I completely forgot we were on a ferry from point A to point B, it was pretty much like a really beautiful booze cruise, although I forgot to bring any booze. The boat even had wi-fi. I was pretty impressed by the whole experience, but if I had to give anybody tips it would be, be sure to bring lots of water, it gets hot and there isn’t any on the boat, and bring snacks if you want some. They served us lunch, it was rice with veggies and chicken in sauce, but I wasn’t eating meat by then so I just stuck with my sleeve of Oreos, obviously the healthier choice.
  
  I would like to take this moment to point out a very important thing, in case you are thinking of taking this boat to Coron. Just because you take one boat there, does not mean you will be taking the same boat, or even a similar boat back. If the ride there was amazing, and it was, I wish I would have known how spoiled we were, because then I would have enjoyed it even more.
  
  When we took the boat back to El Nido two days later, we were on a tiny, one deck little fishing boat. There were about 40 people on it, we were literally sitting side by side on a wooden plank for 8 hours. Because the boat was so small, one side was always fully in the sun, so whoever was sitting there had to put up makeshift tents made from sarongs and towels.
  
  D ended up chatting with one of the deck hands, and he told us we could go up on top of the boat topper, so we did, which was nice because we actually had some room, but it was realllly hot up there. The ride back really wasn’t that bad, it was nothing like the horror stories I’d read about online, but it was a lot less comfortable than the ride there. Both boats go back and forth several times a week, so if you have any flexibility in your dates, try to take the good boat both ways, I promise you will thank me for it.
  
  Coron itself wasn’t really what I was expecting. It’s a small island, but it’s very busy because of all of the divers, so walking down the street was kind of like taking your life into your hands, there were tricycles racing back and forth all over the place.
  
  We stayed at a nice little hostel we had found online, it ended up being a great place to stay, but as we were walking down from the road across wooden beams over a muddy pit to check in, I wasn’t sure what we were going to find. The people next door actually had a few little pigs, and you could hear them and see them from the shower.
  
  We were’t in Coron very long, just one full day that was spent diving (more about that in my next post) but we met some nice people while we were there. They also had a vegetarian restaurant in town. You had to order the hummus 24 hours in advance, but I was having such bad withdrawals after being in Bali for two months that I decided to go for it, and we came back to eat it the next night, after our day of diving. It was definitely worth the wait.
  
  Posted in Philippines, travel | 4 Comments | Tagged busuaga, coron, el nido, islands, philippines, scuba, travel
- island hopping in el nido: part 2
  
  Posted at 8:19 am by jasminedesirees, on April 28, 2015
  
  Continued from Part 1.
  
  After our morning of frolicking and getting pretty sunburnt on Hidden Beach, we loaded back up on the boat and headed to Matinloc, which was about a 20 minute boat ride away.
  
  Matinloc is an absolutely stunning island. It has an abandoned mansion and religious shrine built on it, although the mansion is in decay and has been looted. It’s pretty mysterious, and if you feel like doing more research, there are some theories about buried treasure on Matinloc that are kind of cool.
  
  We had about an hour there to explore and take pictures. There is a set of stairs carved into the side of one of the hills, and you can climb up to the top to get a vista view of the turquoise bay and the emerald green cliffs.
  
  It is one of the most stunning views I’ve ever seen, but you take your life into your hands a little bit. The cliffs are made from very sharp rock, and you have to climb up a little bit to really get the best view, and if you slipped, even just a little bit, it would have been agony.
  
  After Matinloc, we headed to Talisay to relax and have lunch. The beach was gorgeous and the water was super clear, I went snorkeling and chased fish around for ages. Our lunch was really good, our tour guides caught and grilled fish on a BBQ right alongside the boat, and one of the Swedish girls that was in our group had a portal speaker, so once we finished eating we just lazed in the sun and listened to reggae. It was perfect.
  
  The last stop on our tour was Secret Beach. When we were about 1/2 an hour from Talisay the driver stopped our boat right in front of a solid cliff, and told us to jump out. We all kind of looked at each other, and then did what we were told, and our guide led us to a hole in the cliffs under the water.
  
  We had to swim up through it, and on the other side was a circular lagoon type beach with towering cliffs all around it. One of our guides showed us that right when you come in, you can actually swim underneath the rocks that make up part of the lagoon floor in tunnels, and go almost to the other side.
  
  It was the stuff of my worst, most claustrophobic nightmares, but he took our go pro with him, and it’s a pretty cool video.
  
  El Nido, and especially this tour, was my favourite part of the Philippines. I know there are so many pictures in this post, but I honestly couldn’t choose, the whole day felt like magic.
  
  Next time we’re in Palawan, I’d like to go diving at the Tubbataha reefs, and check out the Underground River, but I will definitely make time to come back to El Nido.
  
  Posted in Philippines, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged el nido, Hidden Beach, island, matinloc, palawan, philippines, secret beach, tour c, travel
- island hopping in el nido: part 1
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on April 16, 2015
  
  We only had a couple of days to spend between El Nido and Coron, so after taking the night bus from Puerto Princessa to El Nido, hunting aimlessly for our hostel, and then getting 3 hours of sleep, we were up at 7 am to take the El Nido Island Hopping tour the next day.
  
  There are 4 tours that take you to different beaches and coves, but we were told tours A and C were the best, and they looked like the ones we would enjoy the most. We ended up choosing Tour C, which included stops at Secret Beach, Matinloc Shrine, Hidden Beach, and Talisay Island.
  
  There were about 10 people in our tour group, from all over the world, and they were all pretty cool. We spent the initial boat ride chatting about the Philippines, places we’d been, and places we’d like to go. Our first tour stop was Hidden Beach, and that’s where most of the pictures in this post are from because it was absolutely awesome.
  
  Our captain parked the boat, and encouraged us to get off and look around. We got off the boat onto a shallow little rock ledge, and weren’t sure exactly what we were looking at, the cliffs were pretty, but nothing amazing. I guess that’s why they call it Hidden Beach? Cleverrrr…..
  
  He directed us to walk to the right towards an opening in the cliffs, which we did, with some difficulty, as the waves were crashing against the rocks, and people kept losing their balance and falling over. It was actually pretty funny, except most of us, including me, were a little scraped up by the time we got to the opening. Do not attempt this journey without some kind of shoes, you’ll be sorry.
  
  Once we got through the opening, we were faced with one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The towering cliffs loomed overhead, hundreds of feet in the air, almost completely surrounding the beach except for the openings at each end. The water was crystal clear turquoise, and it was so peaceful and serene inside.
  
  We spent about 40 minutes there, taking pictures and then swimming and relaxing and just enjoying it. Once we were back on the boat, we set off for the Matinloc Shrine, more pictures of that in my next post.
  
  The Island Hopping tours are an absolute must if you are in El Nido, it was one of the best days of our entire trip. The tour only makes 4 stops, but there are so many beautiful beaches and rock formations in that area that the entire day on the boat feels like part of it, you don’t feel like you are just commuting from sight seeing point to sight seeing point.
  
  To Be Continued…
  
  Posted in Philippines, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged beaches, el nido, island, island hopping, palawan, philippines, tour c, travel
- el nido, palawan
  
  Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on April 14, 2015
  
  After a few days in Manila, we took a one hour flight across to the island of Palawan. It was a night flight, and we arrived in Puerto Princessa around 9pm.
  
  We’d been told repeatedly not to take a night bus in the Philippines, because the roads are bad, and we were even told that people had been robbed on them before, but we only had a few days left in the Philippines, and if we wanted to go diving in Coron (which we did) we had to take night buses so we didn’t spend our days traveling, so we decided to go for it.
  
  At the Puerto Princessa airport, we hopped in a “tricycle”, the Philippine equivalent of a Tuk Tuk, and got a ride to the bus station. There was a full sized bus leaving for El Nido an hour later, so we grabbed some snacks and settled in to wait. They also have 12 passenger vans running, but we figured a big bus was probably safer, even though it was a longer ride.
  
  It was a 6 hour bus ride, but we slept the entire time, even though they were showing Jurassic Park on VHS at the front of the bus, so I desperately wanted to stay awake. We arrived in El Nido around 3 in the morning, and luckily there was a tricycle waiting at the bus stop.
  
  We had a room booked at a hostel in town, but we had no idea where it was, and neither did our driver, so we had to creep around the dark streets until we found somewhere with wi-fi so we could look it up.
  
  We eventually got checked in, and finally got to bed around 4am. The next morning was a bit of a struggle, because we were up bright and early to do an island tour around El Nido before we left for Coron the next day.
  
  We only spent two nights in El Nido, but it was seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We walked down the street to get to the ocean to leave for our tour that morning, and as we rounded the corner and saw the beach, I actually gasped. It is literally breathtaking.
  
  Even though El Nido was a bit of a trek to get to, it was so, so worth the trip. And even though we were warned over and over again not to take night buses, we had a great experience, and the extra time we gained allowed us to see as much of the Philippines as we possibly could.
  
  Posted in beach, Philippines, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged el nido, manila, palawan, philippines, travel
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