Palawan Travel Adventures: Day 1 - Manila to Puerto Princesa to El Nido

Last week, I went to Palawan with my office mates.  It was an unexpected trip in the sense that I was not aware that it would happen.  I only knew we were going there when I was told that tickets for Puerto Princesa and back to Manila were bought online.  And that they bought me tickets without my knowledge.  Heehee.

At any rate, I had nothing to do with the planning of our Palawan trip.  I merely went with the plans of the group and I just gave them my advice re: travel time and road conditions from Puerto Princesa to El Nido as well as how many days we should spend at the very least in El Nido.  It seems that my advice was not heeded and we ended up spending a lot of our time tired from the long land travel.

The tickets my office mates bought did not maximize our time in Palawan.  We had afternoon flights to and from Puerto Princesa.  It would have been okay if we were to stay in Puerto Princesa on our first and second days but we had to go to El Nido straight from the airport.  Sadly, our first and last days in Palawan were spent for land and air travel.

When we arrived in Puerto Princesa, our driver, Kuya Roberto, was waiting for us already.  We paid Php 5000.00 for a one-way trip from Puerto Princesa to El Nido.  Some of my office mates were forced to commute with other passengers since we could not all fit in a single van.  They paid Php 500.00 per person.

We were able to leave Puerto Princesa around 4pm via a private chauffeured van and we arrived in El Nido around 10pm.  By the time we got to El Nido, we were all wasted from the flight delay, the flight itself and the 6-hour grueling land travel from Puerto Princesa to El Nido.  

You may wonder why I called it "grueling."  Well, for many reasons.  Firstly, it was my first time to travel that long via land, and 6 hours is really a 6 hour drive, with only a short stop for a bathroom break. Secondly, while the road conditions have vastly improved, as per our driver, there are parts especially in Taytay where the roads remain unpaved.  Thirdly, there are no street lights for most part of the way to El Nido.  The only light we had was from our own van and from the head lights of the vehicles we met on the road.  Needless to say, vehicles plying from Puerto Princesa to El Nido and vice versa are few, far and between.  It was sort of a creepy ride, driving in near darkness and in almost total isolation.

I told my office mates that it would not be a good idea to travel late afternoon since we'd be forced to drive in the dark but they just told me that arriving in El Nido by 10pm would still be relatively early.  I just bit my tongue and let them do all the planning.  And I guess, we all learned the hard way.  Teehee.

Anyway, the resort where we stayed was some 15 minutes away by car from the El Nido town proper. When our chauffeur suddenly made a stop on the roadside, we were all scared.  It was totally dark and the only light we had was again, from our van's headlights and the awfully amazing stars above us.  We had to wait for some 30 to 40 minutes for the resort personnel to fetch us.  Well, we had a hard time contacting them due to the poor cellular signal reception.  And apparently, the resort is some 600 meters away from the roadside and we had to travel on foot through a narrow, dirt road, again, in total darkness, save from the torch light brought by the resort personnel and our own cellular phones.   And the dirt road went uphill and downhill, almost an obstacle course, making walking with our luggage a little more difficult.  But when we got to the beach side, even in the darkness, we could tell that the water is crystal clear and when we finally reached the resort, we all heaved a sigh of relief.  There was light and electricity at last.  And warm food.  Buffet!