El Nido, Palawan

During the Tet holiday in January, I traveled with my friend Dave to the Philippines.  I’d been once before, but this trip was to El Nido, Palawan, known for its natural beauty and cluster of islands.

Inspired by this magnificence, and the current English unit at school about non-rhyming poetry, I’ve decided to tell the tales of my adventure in El Nido, Palawan, in acrostic form. 

So, here’s to you, El Nido!

E: Experience

When people ask me where is the most beautiful place I’ve been, it’s difficult to choose just one.  But I think if I really had to choose, I would say the Philippines, and feel confident in my answer.  Of course, there are plenty of places I haven’t been, and plenty of places in the Philippines, but the parts that I’ve seen...there is no comparison!

The people are friendly, the food is delicious, the views are beyond words.  It just feels good to be there.

So if I can give you a bit of unsolicited advice: Go EXPERIENCE the Philippines!!

Our first glimpse of Palawan from the plane

L: Landscapes

I mentioned the views are beyond words, and really, it’s true.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.  The first beach we visited was in El Nido town.  Not a great beach for sunbathing, but clean nonetheless.  The whole strip is lined with hotels and restaurants, but it was surprisingly quiet when we were there.

The bay at El Nido

El Nido

One afternoon, we rented a motorbike and drove out through the country to a beach called Nacpan.  About halfway there, the paved road ran out, and we rode the rest of the way down gravel roads full of potholes and across tiny bridges made of rotting logs.  But we got to see this!!

Rural Palawan

Country road, DON'T take me home!

Nacpan Beach
Paradise??

After eating some possibly dodgy seafood, Dave and I both got food poisoning.  It was a bonding experience.  There is no way to un-hear someone puking their guts out through the thin bathroom wall.

To recover from our nastiness, we spent an afternoon lounging on a nearby beach called Las Cabanas.  I mostly laid in the shade, sipping a coconut to replenish my electrolytes.  But if you’re going to “waste” a day in paradise, this ain’t a bad way to do it.

Las Cabanas Beach

N: Natural

Our hotel, Island Front Cottages, made it very clear when we booked that electricity is a privilege, not a right, on Palawan. The power only operated for certain hours of the day.  Most of the businesses ran generators during the outage hours, though.  We had to time our showers to allow for the hot water heater, or pay an icy price.

Our hotel beach at low tide

No power lines

On our last day on the island, it rained.  It rained all day.  All day.  And because most people had traveled to El Nido to go scuba diving, island hopping, and sunbathing, the entire tourist population was trapped in the restaurants and bars along the one little road through town.  We, of course, found friends in a bar to spend the time with, drinking and playing cards.  Ahhh, the simple life.

El Nido town

If I lived here, I'd see this every day...

I: Island hopping

El Nido is part of the Bacuit Archipelago, which consists of 45 islands scattered around the South China Sea.  This makes for an excellent day of island hopping on a banca boat.  Dave an I packed our sunscreen and booked ourselves some fun in the sun with Art Cafe’s famous Tour C.  

The tour took us to such mystical places as Hidden Beach, Secret Beach, Matinloc Shrine, and Helicopter Island.  The scenery cannot be rivaled, and again I think I should just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Hidden Beach

Dave swims through the tunnel to reach Secret Beach

Matinloc Shrine

Matinloc Island
Look at that clear water!!

Lunch break

Island hoppers

On the tour, we got to snorkel at several locations, and the water was so clear and full of life, it put an other snorkeling I’ve done to shame.  I even saw an octopus!!

OoooOooo, a collage!

D: Diving

When I learned to SCUBA dive in Thailand back in October, I thought diving was the most amazing thing ever invented.   Little did I know it could get BETTER! Because El Nido is so well-preserved, the diving is beautiful.  We were lucky and had good weather conditions for excellent visibility and plenty of sea life.  

I don’t have an underwater camera, and Dave’s isn’t safe to use at diving depths, so I don’t have any pictures of diving.  But let me just say this: we went on nine dives over the course of the week, and never once were we disappointed in what we saw.  I saw tons of clown fish in sea anemones, trumpet fish, giant clams, sea cucumbers, and countless jellyfish.  I swam through a school of yellow snapper.  And I watched a sea turtle eating coral.  I mean, come on!!

I'm not as terrified as I look

O: OMG when can I go back??

The one bad thing about a spectacular vacation is that it only makes you want to go back.  I don’t see how the pristine beaches and sensational diving could get old any time soon.  But maybe I should branch out and see other places?  Get another stamp in the ol’ passport?  Try some new cuisine?  

Lucky for me, my job has good holidays.  Sipadan, anyone?

Corong Corong sunset

More this.

Under the Sea

One night, as I sat watching the BBC documentary Life with my housemates, I got it in my head that I wanted to learn to scuba dive.  Seeing footage of all the crazy fish and weird coral that live down in the water made me realize: I MUST see it for myself.

So I booked a very last minute trip to Thailand with my coworker Hannah and set off to swim with the fishes.  Twenty four hours and a xe om, plane, taxi, subway, sky train, night train, bus, and ferry later, we arrived in beautiful Koh Tao. 

Hannah rides the rails

Night train fun

Finally!  Koh Tao!

We stayed at Crystal Dive Resort on Koh Tao, and I signed up for the PADI Open Water Diver course.  After checking in to the bungalow and eating lunch, I started my course that afternoon.  The first day was less than thrilling, just watching videos and taking quizzes, but the promise of underwater adventure was just below the surface (see what I did there?).  

Crystal Dive Resort

Path to our bungalow

Pretty nice classroom, if you ask me

Another day of videos, quizzes, an exam (perfect score, whaaaat??), and practicing the basics in the swimming pool, and we were ready to dive to the bottom of the big blue sea.  I had worked myself into quite a little nervous wreck the night before, imagining myself getting tangled in seaweed, having my leg chopped off by the boat propellor, and slowing drowning due to a regulator malfunction.  But the morning of the first open water dives, I woke up early, all my death dreams pushed aside, ready to see some sharks and giant squid. 

Setting sail for the dive site

Even though I had aced the written exam, I struggled a bit with the practical side of diving.  I couldn’t really remember all the steps of checking your equipment before getting in the water, and I mostly relied on my partner to make sure everything was in working order.  Luckily there were seven people on the course, which put me the odd man out, so I was paired with one of the Dive Master trainers, Daniel.  I felt confident he wouldn’t let me jump in the water without all the gauges and other doodads operating properly.  

And once I was in the water and it was time to descend to the depths, I quickly discovered that filling in the correct circles on a test doesn’t actually mean you’ll be a great diver.  Right away my ears felt like they were going to explode from the sides of my head, and I strained to make them pop and equalize.  I rarely have trouble when flying, so I assumed it would be the same for diving: just swallow a few times and move on.  But no.  I had to be privately coached on how to do that thing where you plug your nose and blow to pop your ears, with the added graceful element of shaking your head from side to side to force the air bubbles out of your ear canal.  But the dive instructor Brandon was very patient, even when he had to drag me down to the bottom by the weight belt because I was too focused on blowing my ears to remember to actually descend below the surface.

Anyways, now for the good parts.

DIVING IS AWESOME.  You breathe under the water.  Like a fish.  No holding your breath.  No going up to the surface for air.  Just swimming around, free as a fish.

Over the course of two days, we did four open water dives for our certification.  We saw tons of cool fish and swam over some beautiful coral.  I’ve just spent about twenty minutes here at my computer trying to figure out how to best describe the experience, but no words can do the trick.  The only thing that comes close to doing it justice is this video taken by the resort on the last day of our dive certification course. 

My debut as choreographer comes in minute ten :)

That night we celebrated our new qualifications by drinking too many beers and playing with geckos.

Books and beers: the perfect studying combo

So tame

Maybe too tame

Before heading back to reality, we squeezed two more dives in on the morning before the ferry.  The second dive took us around a ship wreck, which was equally spectacular and creepy.  

Buddy check complete!

Sitting on the upper deck of the ferry boat speeding away from Koh Tao and towards Chumphon (Chumporn?  Chumpaloompah?), I reached up and discovered that I’d lost an earring somewhere in the depths of the Gulf of Thailand.  A small price to pay for one of the most remarkable experiences of my life (so far)!

Swing 

I want to go baaaaaack!

Less jewelry, more freckles

And it’s all thanks to David Attenborough.... 

Open Water experts!

Tessa

Brandon, me

Akhmed, Ollie, Tina

Piotr, Snir, Justin