Showing posts with label El Nido. Show all posts
Showing posts with label El Nido. Show all posts

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Palawan with the Seniors

Wow! It's already October 2011, almost a year since I last started writing!
And I'm just writing now because I might forget my Palawan trip! Hehe
Anyway, this trip is a bit impromptu, wherein we bought the tickets on a Thursday night, scheduled to leave on Saturday with my parents and my aunt (hence, the title)! So in such a short time, I was able to make a very good itinerary, considering the we only had 3 nights/3 days there (the 4th day didn't count because we left Palawan on the first flight out).

Goal:
Go to El Nido
Look at some properties
Go to Underground River
Under a budget
With 3 senior citizens (well, their seniority really helped the costs go down)

Itinerary and some costs:
Day 1:
Arrive in Puerto Princesa
Transfer to San Jose Terminal (via tricycle) = PhP 100
Shuttle van ride to El Nido - 500 (regular price) + [400 (senior citizen) x 3] = 1700
Lunch in Fort Wally Stop-Over - don't know (dad paid hehe)
Check-in

Day 2:
Island hopping = 2,000 (for the four of us, arranged through the hotel)
Dinner at Seaslugs
Walked around

Day 3:
Depart from El Nido = 400 (SC) + 450 (regular price El Nido-Sabang) = PhP 1,250
Stop over in Taytay
Stop over in Roxas (Breakfast for some)
Arrive in Sabang
Picked up by van rental = 1,200 (inclusive of permit, lunch, boat and van rental)
Buffet lunch
Underground River
Arrive in Puerto Princesa
Dinner in Ka Buch's


Day 1:
We chose Air Philippines, which unfortunately postponed the trip from Saturday to Sunday due to something wrong with the aircraft. (My dad says it's probably because there's not much passengers so we were combined with those traveling on Sunday! Haha) Fortunately, my mom and my aunt received a text message around 5:30 AM, so at least we were still at home, and not on our way to the airport! (Thank you for small miracles!) Due to the re-scheduling, we requested Air Philippines to re-book our return ticket, instead of Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning for free, especially since they have inconvenienced us. (I didn't know why my mom just re-booked our flights to Wednesday afternoon instead.)

Anyway, so we arrived in Puerto Princesa around 10:30 AM. I read about taking the tricycles outside the airport, especially since the airport tricycles were basically pegged to 120. There was some confusion (as I expected, which is why I would rather not talk to the tricycle drivers here and just walked less than 50 meters to the exit gate!), where we bartered 50 per tricycle going to San Jose Terminal, they said it was 120. (We were originally getting 2 tricycles.) But we negotiated, paying PhP 100 for 1 tricycle to go to the San Jose Terminal. (Sigh, I know it's just PhP 50/tricycle if we get a trike from the road! But hey, I'm not paying so I'm not complaining! My parents are...)

The most common way to go to El Nido to Puerto Princesa is via bus. But most tourists would opt for the public shuttle/van because of the bus is hot, cramped, and slower. The most common public van is Fort Wally (when I asked was originally 700, with pick up from the airport, but they will give a discount of 600 instead. I haggled for a 500 fare especially since we would rather go to the terminal instead, instead of paying an additional 100 per head just for the pick-up? Tricycle was as low as 50 to take the four of us to the terminal, geez! Anyway, I found her reply insulting, because I believe I am a smart tourist, and suffice it to say, we didn't get them!) It's a good thing, because I texted Savior Shuttle, which offered a lower rate (originally, 500 for regular price if coming for the terminal and 400 for senior citizens). I also posted some of the other public vans that are offering shuttle services to El Nido:.



These are some alternative ways to go to El Nido via Coron:




And just another shuttle going to Sabang? This is for the underground river. At Day 1, we were still not sure of our plans when exactly we were going to the Underground River.

 

Sorry, got lazy to take pictures of stop-overs etc!
Anyway, when we got there, we just walked around looked for a place to stay. Since I was the youngest, and I was with 3 senior citizens, lucky for me, I didn't have to pay! Haha But they found the main El Nido to be too congested and too cramped. So we chose to stay in Islandfront resort, which is still beach front, but on the other side of the main El Nido. It's quieter and more isolated! (As in, wala kaming makainan na iba. We had ride a tricycle to the main bayan so we could walk around and see people and things.)

These are some pictures:
 Dining room

Front yard

Inside our room, from left is the bathroom door, wall is decorated with wine bottles (cool!)

Day 2:
Woke up around 7:30 AM. My parents went to the market blah blah! So basically, we left the hotel around 10 AM for island hopping. Originally, we were to go for tour A and Tour B for 3000 for the four of us, which was already said to be cheap. In reality, we were able to visit Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon (where we had to swim to get inside; there wasn't much inside), Shimitzu island where we had 5-10 minutes of swimming and snorkeling (I find snorkeling in Bohol, Camiguin, or even in Batangas was better because there were more variety of fish), Entalula Island (beach was great, unfortunately it was private so we didn't spend much time there too), Snake Island (where the beach was also great; we had lunch and consequently decided to postpone the island hopping because of the heavy rain that suddenly came), and Cadugnon Cave.

Big Lagoon

Entalula Island

Snake Island

By the time, we went back it was just around 3 pm. Since we weren't able to go to a lot of places, we only paid 2,000. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it enough (I'm not really a big fan of beach and the sun anyway. And I don't think El Nido has much to offer, especially since I already went to other places in the Philippines.)

So we showered, and walked around town for a while. We ate at Seaslugs. The food was great, the ambience was good, they also have a live band. My parents and aunt like the band's playlist (jazz/chill) while eating beside the beach. So nice!

Day 3:
We took the first shuttle van going to Puerto Princesa, which was offered by Lexus at 5:30 AM. They picked us up at our hotel, and dropped us around 10 AM in Sabang.

We booked for a tour via 3B's Travel and Tour to go to the Underground River (my family already went there around December 2007; but our aunt hasn't been there yet). They picked us up at the waiting shed. We arrived for a buffet lunch at around 11:30 AM at the port. We left around 12 NN, got a boat to go to the underground river. Picture, picture, blah blah... Then we went to Puerto Princesa, checked in at Skylight Apartelle (1,200 per room good for 2, inclusive of transfer to the airport and breakfast).

Day 4:
Our flight was at 9 am. We woke up around 6 am, had breakfast. We had a little time to kill so we went to the market, bought some pasabong for about one hour (Never buy in tourist places. always the best place is the market!) Then we went to the airport.