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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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