Currently listening to: “Careful You” by TV on the Radio
Tom and I were ready to go at 7am on Tuesday the 3rd. It was too early for breakfast, but we luckily had a convenience store next to the bus station, so I was able to have a nutritious breakfast of yogurt and crackers. The first leg of our journey was a 3 hour ride to the boarder of Cambodia and Thailand. This was the first time I’ve done a land crossing and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had read that it can be chaotic and take hours. It took no more than an hour. We got to the boarder and got off our bus and grabbed our packs. We walked to a booth and had the Cambodian boarder agents stamp our passports out of the country. Then we walked five minutes to the Thai boarder. In between the boarders were two casinos, which we don’t really understand how that works as they aren’t in either country, but rather in this no man’s land. Then we walked up some stairs to a room to get our passports stamped with our Thai entries. Walked back out of that building and waited for the Thai version of a bus, which of course was just a pick up truck with benches along the side. It took us to a small restaurant for lunch while we waited for our mini bus for Bangkok. The second part of our journey was a 4 hour drive to Bangkok in a van that tightly seated 11 passengers. We had one stop at a 7-11 and by about 5:30pm we were dropped off at a parking lot that was walking distance to the Sky Train, the public transportation a access to the international airport. A short metro ride later and we arrived at the airport too early to check in, but both wanting the taste of some western fast food. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want fast food so much as I want to taste something that I know will taste familiar. We ate Burger King, my least favorite American fast food choice, but beggars can’t be choosy when in Thailand. From Bangkok we flew about 3 hours to Manila. Landed in Manila just before 3am local time and had about two hours to hang around. Two hours later we were on the last flight of the journey to Puerto Princesa. The best part was upon landing, the plane was playing an instrumental version of “A Whole New World”, which after traveling for almost 24 hours at that point, I deliriously thought was wonderful.
The Main Street of El Nido
Corong-Corong for sunset
The last leg of the grand journey was 6 hour van ride to El Nido with rough road conditions and hardly any room for 14 passengers in the mini bus. It was long with a stop almost every 45 minutes. By the time we got out at the bus terminal, both Tom and I preferred to walk the 1.5km to our guesthouse. We had a few tricycle drivers tell us it was a 5km walk, but thanks to Maps.Me I called them on their lie and we saved some cash. We found our guesthouse, dropped our bags, and immediately went to the beach to find a restaurant. I had a delicious pork adobo and was rather happy with my first meal in the Philippines, 29 hours after leaving Siem Reap.
Our first full day in El Nido was spent riding a motorbike out to Nacpan Beach, which is a picturesque beach, with percent white sand, and actual wav s to play around in. Tom and I goofed around with our GoPros and were thrilled to be at a beach that wasn’t calm and wasn’t as warm as bath water. For sunset, we rode to the other side of cove and found a funky guesthouse/restaurant to watch the sunset with the limestone cliffs and outrigger boats just in front. It was incredibly serene and so quiet. That night we went and got $6 massages and booked an island/lagoon hopping tour for the next morning.
Our tour was fantastic that third day. We went snorkeling in several lagoons, ate lunch on the beach and made friends with a Dutch couple. At sunset, the our took us to 7 Commando beach for us to have some beers. They told us it was time to leave and we started walking back to the boat. Then they said the boat wasn’t starting so we all had time for a second beer. Halfway through the second beer they said our boat started and it was time to go, so everyone climbs back on board with a beer and gets settled. Suddenly, we are told that our boat is sinking and another boat is co,I got for us. The guys that led our tour were funny and cracking jokes all day, so none of us believed the, at first. It wasn’t until one of the others on the tour saw a large hole at the back of our boat that we all finally believed the crew. Back off the boat and onto another one, we were the last ones to arrive back in town.
We booked the tour through one of the hostels in town and made friends with the people staying there, so they snuck us in for free pasta night and the next thing we knew we were out drinking at the reggae bar. Somehow a few beers turned in to too many beers and we didn’t get back to bed until well after 4am. This time though we paid the price for our shenanigans. We slept through our alarm and missed our boat to Coron. The alarm went off for more than two hours before we woke up. We stumbled around to pack and I told Tom to find out if there was even another boat to catch while I finished packing. There wasn’t another boat, and the boat for Sunday’s departure was broken down so we had to spend another two nights in El Nido. At first I was fussed, we plan on getting certified to dive in Coron and want to make it to Boracay to dive there too, but I was losing time. Then when the the wifi magically started working again, I received an email from Philippines Airlines saying my flight to Manila was moved to a day later which would then give me one more day in Boracay. The situation was not ideal, but it gave us more time to lounge around the little town. Our last day was spent with the Dutch couple and a Dutch girl riding motorbikes to Nacpan Beach again and eventually having burritos for dinner. We got another massage and then played cards until we all realized we should get to bed early. That night I set several alarms and had my phone as loud as it could go. Thanks to paranoia, I woke up before the alarms and we made it to our boat to Coron. The plan on arrival is to book our PADI open water certification and get things lined up to knock some more stuff off the bucket list.
Strange Trails 