The horror of El Nido...

As the title already suggest is the famous El Nido the worst place we've been in the Phillipines, later in this blog more on that.

We arrive on Palawan, a big island in the west of the Phillipines, as you might have noticed, electricity and with that the Wifi is pretty much never a given here. We fly into Puerto Princesa the biggest town of Palawan, upon arrival we were supposed to be picked up by our hostel, this obviously never happened, and we walk the 1,5km to there. At the front desk they apologize profusely, and instantly upgrade us to a room with airco, semi-winning:)

 Tuesday, we start our first adventure on Palawan, visiting the Iwahiq Penal Farm, a prison without walls, we saw this on a documentary in Holland, and seemed like a cool place to go, we hire a tricycle via the hostel to drive us back and forth. Once we get there, we start realizing what a strange place this actually is. You basically enter a prison, upon entry there is 1 guard, and as you drive through the immense property there are inmates everywhere waving, and shouting Hey! The driver takes us to their "hangout spot" basically a ruin from an American Navy base, where a couple inmates are, we start talking to them, and they tells us their life stories, we play cards, and give them our snacks and cigarettes we brought. Sentences here are different then what we're used to, the Philippines is very anti-drugs, VERY ANTI DRUGS, we speak to 1 inmate who was caught smoking a joint, and is currently serving a life sentence in this prison, he'd already been in jail for 20 years... being Dutch this is a very odd thing to imagine. After we tell them we're leaving, they want to perform their dance routine, which was not great;) but quite endearing. As we were the only 2 tourists there, it was a cool experience, something different shall we say. On the way back, we drive by a crocodile farm, Nadine shouts out "Can we go there" to the driver, he says sure, and we enter the park. We stay for only 30 min, observing the biggest crocs, and jump back into the tricycle, the driver advises us on a restaurant, where we later end up going. Cool place, we have a bottle of decent wine, and a nice meal. Whilst walking back we come across a little bar filled with Philipinos, we enter, sit down and get the Karaoke menu before anything else... This is our shot.. we choose Billy Joel's Piano Man, and wait for our turn, this takes about 1,5 hour because every Phillipino sings about 4 songs. Our time has arrived, half drunk, and very loudly we sing the full 5min of Piano Man getting cheered on by all the locals! 

Wednesday, it's time for another adventure, we are going to "one of the new world wonders" the Sabang Underground river, a 8,2km river cave, where we'll venture into the first 1,5km. How to get there is quite a journey, 2 hour by mini-van, 30 min boat ride, another 1,5 wait, before we set foot in the small boat that will guide us through the cave. It's all more then worth it, the cave is SPECTACULAR! We've added some of the photos, have a look for yourselves. The cool part about the underground river is that, it was a 1 in a billion shot to be discovered, and a day before our arrival, 6 researches discovered Dinosaur fossils there. 

On Thursday we move on from Puerto Princesa to Port Barton, a very small town, basically El Nido 30 years ago. It takes a rough 3 hour minivan drive from Puerto, the journey is pretty much hell for me, I'm stuck in the middle, on my left Nadine(who's chilling out) on my right a small Phillipino girl and her grandmother, and pretty much all their furniture, the kid's sweaty and keeps falling a sleep on me... when she wakes up, she pinches my right foot, and is pretty much in awe of it's size, quite awkward, Nadine has a field day, laughing at it all, which in return makes me smile. Once we hit Port Barton, we get it's really cool vibe, it's basically 2 streets and a big beach...al you need. Our German friends Marcus and Ute are here as well, they recommend us to Isaac's Airbnb, the hotspot of Port Barton, as soon as we get out of the mini-van all the vendors ask us where we're staying and everyone knows Isaac;) Upon arrival at Isaac's, we're greeted by 2 Rottweilers, 4 puppies, and our German friends, the place is cool, like a villa, pool, and decent rooms, we're loving Port Barton so far. We have dinner with Marcus and Ute, and chill out at the beach with cocktails and really good conversation, these are the first really like minded people we've met. 

On Friday, we wander around the 2 streets and good beach of Port Barton, the afternoon we hang out at the villa, with the dogs and puppies. Isaac tells us about all his projects and "the Island" Nadine instantly books a snorkeling tour and a 2 night stay at the island. She made a powerful executive decision and boy did it pay off!

Saturday morning we jump out of bed and put on our best suit(from the song) we join our La guia Exceptional Marina (she's Spanish) on the tour, 5 different spots for snorkeling, we see a giant see turtle and cool reefs. They drop us at the island, there's only Mickey (Isaac's friend) and 2 chefs, and a 4 month old monkey: Chita! 2 Dutch girls join us for the first night(what are the odds, Dutch are everywhere) they teach us Yaniv, an Israeli card game, and we talk and hang out. The following morning we witness our first tropical storm, boy can it rain in the Phillipines, this is something we both have never seen before, it basically looks like the world is going to end for about an hour and a half, the monkey Chita is terrified and seeks shelter with mama Nadine, clenching on to Nadine for dear life. After it clears up, the island returns to normal, however Chita and Nadine have now started a love affair, up to the point where I get jealous;) Basically the monkey hates everyone besides Nadine, Mickey and me, which is kinda cool.  Although it likes me, Chita does find it funny to pee on me.. gotta love monkeys. As the Dutchies have left, we are now the only 2 guests on the island, which is quite unique, in the evening all the personnel(3 of em) go to bed at 21:30, which leaves us stranded without light, and alone. Which is such a cool feeling, we grab some beers, put on some music and play cards with the flashlights of our IPhones, which was their only use, since there was no Wifi whatsoever. We turn in at around 02:00.

Monday morning, we'll leave the island today, we came in by boat, but Isaac tells us, it's also quite cool to drive, so he pulls out this massive 4x4 and we venture through the jungle as in Proper JUNGLE, no roads, just dirt and mudslides, even with this massive 4x4 we get stuck in the mud however a helpful crane(what are the odds) pushes us out, check the photos.  It's like an hour long rollercoaster ride, we're loving every minute. As we get back to Isaac's place number 1, he joins us for some food, and me and him spend a couple hours talking about life, he's a really interesting character, Spanish, 45 (looks 30), and has lived in China for the last 7 years, and now owns 25 Hectares of land on Palawan, he tells me and Nadine about his full life story, which was throughly impressive, and then keeps on saying that Nadine and me should start our own business, because he can sense that we should do so... like I said a cool character. As soon as we walk up to our old room, Isaac shouts, come back down, stay in here tonight as he point somewhere else, he upgrades us to a small apartment like room, with bathroom, decent bed and lounge area, free of charge, because you're our kind of people Isaac says. Cool!!

Tuesday, we make a 4 hour minivan trip to El Nido, remember the title?? This is advocated as probably the best place in the whole of the Philippines, however before we go everyone is advising us (locals) to not spend to much time there. Every blog you read, every YouTube video you watch everyone says it's place to go... let me tell you, it is by far... the worst place in the Philippines, it's dirty overcrowded and full of semi hipster backpackers who are just there to get wasted, envision a super shit version of the Costa Brava, as soon as we get in El Nido, we want to leave again, take us back to Port Barton!!! The hostel we're staying at is full of garbage, with then comes with ginormous rats, even the people are worthless all driven by the tourism and try to take advantage of us every chance they get. Everyone seems to get sick in El fucking Nido, so do we... we spend most of our time in our tiny overpriced bed, awaiting the time we can catch our ferry to Coron, on top of this, the electricity stops working, which turns our room in a miniature sauna, so far for El Nido. The only cool place we saw was Nacpan beach which indeed is super pretty, see the photos, the only highlight of El Nido. Whatever you do, don't go here!

Friday, we have to wake up at 04:00, our ferry leaves at 06:00 but we have to be present at 05:00 as soon as we leave our sauna behind, it start raining, like proper raining, there we are flip flops, backpacks, shorts and T-shirts, in a tropical storm in the middle of the night, we decide to wait it out and as soon as it's semi-dry we jump in a tricycle. We are still 1 of the first people there, being late, we should have known, backpackers and locals don't take time so seriously. The boat trip is an adventure, waves that are bigger than our tiny boat it feels like we could capsize at any given moment, luckily we don't and after 4 hours we arrive in Coron. We like the vibe instantly, we try something new, no accommodation booked we sit down at a local bistro/bar and walk the streets looking for a place to stay, I try 4, Nadine tries 4, without any luck. Third time's a charm, and I find a great place, for 1200 peso's (24 Euros) with aircon great bathroom, and a walk in shower. After negotiating, we get the room down to 1000 peso's for the next 8 nights, winning! 

For this week, since it's our last in the Philippines, we want to relax, dive on some shipwrecks and just do whatever we want! Uploaded loads of new pictures, have a look! Also leave some comments, we'd love some feedback and comments guys!!

Love, Nadine and Bas.