February 8th - February 12th, 2016

If you are ever to go to the Philippines, I hope that you find yourself in Palawan.

Though it's overcrowded with tourists and you need to book accommodations in advance for El Nido, going through all of the trouble is worth it. Perhaps it was because the Philippines was the first SE Asian country that I've vistited, but the beauty of the place took me.

It was a pain in the ass flight, fighting traffic from Manila to the small domestic airport, but magically my flight wasn't delayed and I ended up in Puerto Princesa on time. Even from the air I could tell the island was something of a aqua blue paradise.

When I arrived to Puerto Princesa, I immediately hired a trike (that sold me on a van trip to El Nido for the next morning for an actually heavily discounted price), and was delivered to Sheebang Hostel with an hour to spare to wander up the street in daylight. I made friends with two sick Canadian boys who were getting over some kind of stomach bug, and an Australian radio DJ named Chris. After eating hostel food and drinking some San Miguel, we went to bed early to catch our 6:00 am van rides to El Nido, set to arrive at noon.

A neat 12 hours later, the pissed off van of tourists expecting to be there at noon arrived in El Nido. Chris and I were probably the most chill of all the bus-riders, and he punched my arm when finally turning the corner after hour 11.5 when we were treated to one of the most beautiful drive-to views I have ever seen. I went to my hotel/hostel place quickly, arranged a Lagoon Tour, and then walked to the laden town of El Nido to walk the beaches and read by the beach.

The next day I woke up way before my scheduled "Tour C", which the two sick Canadians recommended that I do, even though they were too sick to do it. I spent my spare morning exploring the very local market and beach, across the street from the hotel that I was staying at. The market was cool, and the beach was absolutely gorgeous. The beach was completely undeveloped. Fishing and touring boats by the hundred lay around the beach during low tide. People lived in stilted huts lined the beach and were enjoying the morning, watching me curiously, and saying hello to me in English.

I went back to my hotel to be picked up by "Tour C", which was god damn amazing. The overall impression is that although the islands are incredably touristy (the secret beach is not so secret any more- and there's so many people that the water is probably a bit gross), the colour of the water, the mountains jutting out of the ocean, and the karstic limestone revealing lacey hidden caves is well worth the trip. The tour guide (photo at the bottom) was fun times as well, and took it upon himself to be my personal photographer- which was a bit awkward but also helpful (obviously) #travelingsolo.

That night, I discovered myself severely sunburned. My leg was almost a cherry walnut colour. The next day I ran to a store before the tour started and bought a straw hat, and wore that and a t-shirt and shorts all day.

Cherry walnut isn't a healthy colour for me

I passed out under a sheet with a fan and fell immediately asleep to wake up the next day for "Tour A", the lagoon tour. The other tourists in this tour were fun times, but also not fun times. Aka, they didn't want to do anything. I was the only one that snorkelled in the coral reef because they were terrified of the jelly fish. But, fair enough, I got stung twice by little guys and it really hurt. They explored the Little Lagoon a little, but they didn't explore the big lagoon at all. Instead, they all sat on the boat for an hour, while I rented a paddle board and explored the big lagoon by myself. And, oh my god, I was the luckiest girl in the world. I was paddled the circumference of the big lagoon completely alone. It's one of the most tourist places in El Nido, and by some chance, I got to explore it with basically nobody else in site. I plopped on my straw hat, and paddled down the main channel, and star-gazed at the coral below the calm water, watching jelly fish, turtles, coral and sea urchins below the pristine surface. It was one of the most precious times of my life.

That night I ate a quick supper and again, fell asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. I woke up the next morning to my van back to Puerto Princesa, arrived at midnight, and caught a trike the next morning to the airport for my flight to Manila.