Two days in and we’re learning. Mainly what we’ve learned is that I have ATM anxiety (following extensive research on various sites and reviews, that there are none) and Nikki doesn’t like storms very much.
It’s quiet – we’re just at the end of the rainy season and things are only just opening up. At the Ecosanctuary, where we’re staying, there’s one other couple and Jack’s Place next door is still closed. The hotels and restaurants down the beach are open but are pretty quiet in the evenings. There are people about in the day, who’ve presumably bussed in from El Nido.
Nacpan is – well, it’s pretty much the end of the world. Dirt track, half river in the wet, massive potholes, corrugated iron buildings, nice school and church and a few out of place tourist buildings including an utterly incongruous souvenir shop. We’ve tried the food at the places that were open but actually the Ecosanctuary at the far end of the beach was the best. Satellite wifi, it’s pretty basic, a hut with concrete floors, a nice bed and a shower / toilet but perfectly fine. The beach is a few metres away, the bar a few metres the other way. Nothing but us and a lot of dogs – and dogs are everywhere, usually sitting in the middle of the road looking puzzled at the sight of an oncoming, slightly out of control, minibus. At least they get to sleep undisturbed on the beach
El Nido is reached via one such bus, booked from the Nacpan Beach Resort, and runs four or five times a day. The resort ATM is also there, which I was pleased to discover worked, as all the online information about El Nido suggested that it suffers from a lack of said machines.
Turns out it’s best to grab the seats in the minibus behind the drive as they get the best access to aircon. The three young guys who got on with us obviously knew that so while we spent the 45 minute journey time sweating in the back they were happily discussing their various digital nomad job opportunities in the cool before getting off at the final stop with us and wandering off to catch the ferry to Coron – El Nido is the ferry terminus.
El Nido is a proper town, obviously set up for the tourist influx. Even out of season it’s full of men filming their girlfriends slowly walking towards them, standing alluringly in the waves or taking photos of locals. At one point there were four couples on the beach doing exactly the same thing, presumably with each other in the background, like some kind of postmodern montage of the pointlessness of existence ….
We wandered around a bit, occasionally bumping into the three guys from the minibus, who were looking increasingly less cool and more hot and bothered. In case they’re reading this and are still lost – the ferry terminal is at the end of the left side of the beach, looking forward.
That’s the same direction to head in for the other beach – Corong Corong – and the bus terminal – we headed back into town and then worked our way out. The bus terminal is to the left just after the Drugman store and up a small road – where we booked tickets to Puerto Princesa. On the right of the same road is Corong Corong beach. It’s tricky to get to (Nikki eventually walked through someone’s house) but worth persisting as the beach is less touristy.
We wandered along the beach, picking our way through the seaweed, thinking it all looked a bit down-at-heel, before happening upon a full blown Italian restaurant with at least eight waiting staff in pristine white uniforms. It seemed rude to ignore the opportunity and we weren’t disappointed, the food was lovely – Bella Vita, very good.
El Nido is full of bike trikes – basically these are motorbikes with a carriage attachment so that a couple of people can sit undercover alongside the rider. It’s 100PHP to 200PHP for most journeys but best to ask the price before starting and to have change, rather than producing a 1000PHP note and causing confusion at the end. The experience is … well, “exhilarating” perhaps sums it up. Bike trikes are great if you know where you’re going.
As we discovered, away from the beach the air is thick with the fumes from the traffic so it isn’t really somewhere to explore on foot. But there are lots and lots of bars and restaurants to choose from and even off season there were plenty of tourists wandering about.
The other thing El Nido has plenty of is ATMs. I don’t think any of the writers complaining about the shortage of ATMs in El Nido has ever been there. You couldn’t go more than a hundred metres without finding a bloody cash dispenser (as Nikki gleefully pointed out).
Our final night in Nacpan Beach we ate at the Beach Resort – food not bad but boy was the house singer loud – and then wandered back to our hut along the path underneath the coconut trees to sound of the waves lapping on the shore. No sooner had we got back than the heavens opened and Nikki spent the next three hours peering out of the hut wondering if we were still going to be alive in the morning.
But the morning dawned, bright and beautiful. And all the coconuts had come down. Lesson to selves – don’t walk under the coconut trees!
We hoisted our backpacks and headed off down the beach to get the shuttle to El Nido and then the bus to Puerto Princesa. Although I did have to use the Beach Resort ATM one more time for luck, before leaving …
– Tim