I learned a very important lesson about light in my recent Palawan trip. And it had something to do with some of my pictures showing up horrendously dark. I still don’t have a DSLR camera, something that bugs me until now, although I have something that’s pretty decent. But still it’s no excuse for taking pretty lousy pictures.
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El Nido is a pain in the butt. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there after 7 hours of pot-holed roads. Ok, to be fair, there are stretches of nicely paved roads, but you kinda take those things for granted considering the hefty chunk of money the government bites off of your payday. What should get every local tourist’s goat is that of all those pork barrel funds given every year, why not pave the roads properly, all of it? You kinda wonder whether this is a punishment to local tourists who take the more scenic route instead of patronize Asean Spirit (at around P12K roundtrip, who would?).

But there is a silver lining to all of this. And somehow I am torn between wanting a nicely paved road and keeping it as such, so that the place remains not-so-accessible thereby slowing the march of commercialization.

To those who have never been to El Nido, you need to go there– it’s PERFECT. And it’s not only for the rich. You just have to weather the 7-hour ride to get there (like I did). There are a lot of dirt-cheap pension houses if you’re in a tight budget. If you can gather enough number of travelmates, it becomes very affordable.

Pictures after the jump.

Oh well.. Pictures.

If these pictures won’t tempt you to save up and visit the place, nothing else will.

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Puerto Princesa City Tour
What can I say about the City Tour?  Well it’s pretty normal.  If you have time to kill, then might as well explore Puerto Princesa.  There’s the butterfly garden, the crocodile farm, the Mitra house, Bakers Hill.  Nothing really out of the extraordinary.

When I first visited Puerto Princesa, I took the city tour for one delicious purpose– Vietnamese food.  For those who don’t know this, Puerto Princesa was once the refugee camp for the boat people– as the Vietnamese, who took to the sea following troubles in their homeland, were known then.

I am a sucker for Vietnamese cuisine so I was under the impression that the city should still have a lot of Vietnamese influences in the gastronomical area.  Unfortunately all the little restos I went to in search of traces of Vietnamese food were a disappointment.  The French bread that I was served near the Vietnamese village was alright, but nothing worth jumping up and down about.  Pho Hoa can kick anyone’s ass there.

Honda Bay Tour
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The Honda Bay tour was/is fun.  Island hopping and snorkeling.  The beaches were normal but the depth is ideal for snorkeling.  One of the guides led us to where a school of Talakitok fish were just circling around.  I think each one of those fishes weighed at least 2 kilos and there were lots and lots of them.  They were like a twister full of fish.

I’m pretty confident of my snorkeling skills but seeing the purplish blue see of Honda Bay had me donning a life-jacket just to be sure.  It was crazy deep in some of the islands.  Just a couple of steps from the beach and you’re like jumping off a cliff.  Pretty incredible.

Underground River
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Now this river is a sight to behold.  When everything is fine, meaning the weather is holding up, no rains or typhoons in the horizon, the river is jade blue.  Really, really inviting.  A lot of folks have their pictures taken at the mouth of the underground cave because of this beautiful site.

The underground river is dark, too dark for my taste.  And very enclosed too, enclosed enough that my closet claustrophobia came roaring out of the surface.  I think the underground tour lasted at least 30 minutes with the guides showing the various sculptures and rock formations done by nature.

Honestly, I never really liked that underground river.  Sure it was awesome, but I was about to scream my claustrophobic head off.  So if you’re suffering from the same disorder, better skip this one and content yourself to just taking pictures from the outside.  Besides, there are a lot of monitor lizards outside (near the beach) to catch your attention.

City Food

Now this is worth talking about.  Alright, so the Vietnamese hunt was a tad disappointing.  However the rest of the restaurants offered sumptuous seafood cuisines at ridiculously low prices, relative to Manila of course.  Heading the restaurant group is Ka Lui’s.  I’m not sure what it is with eating barefooted that has people really enjoing their food.  Oh well.  Then there’s Lotus Garden– what can I say?

But my really good experience came from a more masa restaurant the name of which I unbelievably forgot.  But it’s near Paradise Pension/Hotel and it has two branches in the city.  The seafood is really fresh and very, very cheap that everytime we have a meal there, we order a feast!

Like I said, Puerto Princesa is good for starters, but when you want some really awesome eye candy, be prepared to have your butt whacked, for the budget traveller there’s no other way when you want to go to –  El Nido.
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Going to Amanpulo is not that difficult, because there’s only one way to go there, that is via a chartered plane. The plane ferries Amanpulo customers from Manila to the resort.

The Amanpulo Experience

I wish I’ve been to Amanpulo, but I haven’t. Not yet anyway. But from what reviews I’ve read of visitor’s Amanpulo experience, not 100% was thrilled. As the saying goes, you can’t please everybody. And even Amanpulo has it’s own set of detractors, mostly folks who felt that they should be treated a little better or have gotten something for the price they were paying. For that amount of money, I expect to be able to eat the sand of this resort.

The beach and the view however got 100%. Everyone was really impressed with the tropical paradise that it really is (at least from what picture I saw). I think the beach and the view should weight a lot more than whatever service or food that the resort offers. Any deficiency that the resort may have should be 110% compensated by that heavenly beach.

I do not pity those who had terrible experience with the service or the food, rather I envy these folks, at least they’ve stared at paradise straight in the face, walked on it, bathed in it. That should be worth crowing about.
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June 2009 Nursing Board Exam Results