Jeff and Mandy's Adventures Before Dentures: February 2016

After spending time in Coron, we were ready to move on to El Nido which meant another boat trip (our only other option was to swim...and we're pretty lazy ;) ).

There was probably only 10 passengers tops on this boat, which meant we had lots of leg room and could even catch some Z's.

El Nido is a town in the far north of the Palawan mainland.

We did some research on the boat and found a hostel that we could potentially stay at upon arrival, but when the tricycle driver took us there we were told that they were fully booked. We had a lot of trouble finding a good place to stay for the first night that was both affordable and decent, so we had to sacrifice a night in another wonderful wallpaper hotel. It was not great (if you didn't sense the sarcasm there), so we knew we would have to find something better come morning.

The next day we set out to find a new place to stay with much difficulty. We knew that El Nido was going to be expensive prior to coming, but we didn't realize it would be soo busy! Everywhere we looked was overpriced and/or booked up.

We realized that patience is key when looking for a good place. After some hard work we finally found Kalinga Beach resort just out of town on Calaan Beach, away from the motorbike madness and tricycle tour torture. It was a beautiful spot that had both air con and breakfast included in the price. Winning!

Our Doorman - Dave

Not to mention the sunsets here...

Can you really ever get bored of a beautiful sunset? I think not.

We watched locals hunt for Octopus at dusk with a light, a bucket, and a stick from the comfort of our sunset seats.

In El Nido we did some exploring on our own - both on land and sea:

We did some jungle exploring and found some small villages through tiny trails in a thick forest.

We did some ocean exploring by kayak which was very hard work but also lots of fun and well worth the paddle to a private island. We had some snacks and drinks and watched crabs hunt for flies in the sand.

Carl the Crab

Steve the Stilldontknowwtfyouare??

We found some fish with 2 legs that would sit out of the water on rocks, and seek cover in the water when anything approached.

Later that night we went out for dinner and stopped for some "orgasmic" cocktails (their words, not ours) which were tasty but super overpriced. The live evening music and chill vibe made up for the overpriced cocktails.

We heard lots of good things about the Art Cafe, so we decided to check it out as well.

Art Cafe is a combination of a restaurant, bar, and souvenir shop so it is popular amongst tourists. The food was delicious, and we were LOVIN the live music. This band was spittin' out tunes by Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, etc. Such a great vibe that we both enjoyed.

We spent another night in El Nido under the stars watching a movie with some fresh seafood and cold beers.

One night we enjoyed freshly grilled food on the beach.

Pork chop (again, overpriced and really fatty) and grilled shrimp, which is always good.

Once we had finished our time in El Nido, we caught a bouncy van ride through beautiful scenery that brought us to the province capital of Puerto Princesa... by accident!

We had paid and arranged for a ride to get us to Sabang for a couple of nights, but our bus driver took us to a different location, much to our surprise. We ended up in Puerto Princesa instead as frustrated and unprepared backpackers and had to track down another budget hotel quickly as the sun went down. Don't worry, we got some of our money back.

We stayed at Yin Yang Hostel that night...sounds nice right? Well, we had a guest join us in our bed that night, which didn't work out so well for her when she woke us with her cheek tickling.

We met Terry the Toad nearby - clearly he knew where to find the dinner roaches.

Terry

The next day we were able to find an excellent place down a small backstreet. Casa Linda Inn was a clean and comfortable place to hang out for the next few days.

From here we got a tricycle tour of the city, this included:

This Monsterous Croc Ate a Fishermans Leg - 17 ft Long

a visit at the Crocodile Farm/Wildlife Sanctuary,

Cassie the Croc

Perry Pig

Billy Bearcat

Cecillia Centipede

Bakers Hill,

Got a view of Honda Bay,

We met some of the Tribu Palawan Tribe members and their pet python, learned a bit about the tribes lifestyle (making baskets, blow dart hunting and weapons, sap harvesting), and played some music with them.

Since our intial plan was to hit Sabang, we still wanted to get there and see the Underground River. Sabang is about 2hrs from Puerto Princesa so this required another van ride through some more winding mountains.

We stopped for a snack over top of Ulugan Bay where snorkellers have reported skull sightings. This bay was said to be where people were beheaded and their heads tossed in the sea during their Civil war. Beautiful Bay, not such beautiful history.

Another stop at the Elephant Cave, a stop on the Amazing Race Philippines and UK.

We eventually made it to the Sabang wharf where you are hearded onto ear drum shattering boats to ride to The Underground River.

The Underground River is a UNESCO World Heritage site where the river runs through the bottom of the mountains amazing caves for several kilometers.

Though it was definitely a wonderful sight, it is extremely busy: 900 people per day meaning you need to book a permit to go at least a day in advance. We could not enter the bat cave section of the caves as we could wake the large bats - people don't come near here during the evening because millions of bats use the caves as a highway at feeding time (some of their wings spanning 4ft).

Mouth of the Underground River Cave

In this section of the cave we were told to look up, open your mouth and say 'ahhhh'. The bats often drop down pleasant surprises when hanging up there, such as guano or other bodily fluids.

That night we went to Tiki Bar, which had an awesome local live request band that sang mostly top 40 songs and were really talented. They were trying to get people up on the dance floor but only managed to grab one girl to dance on stage, so naturally, we had to go up there and bust a move with her.

Later, our fellow dance friend came up and offered to buy us a drink and it turns out she was Canadian as well! We spent the rest of the night drinking and dancing up a storm with a group of Canadians - it was such a great time.

We got to watch some of an intense sipa tournament (best described as footvolley or volleyball with your feet, legs, chest or head). These kids were very impressive, spiking the ball over the net with their feet in mid backflip on a concrete floor. Very cool to watch.