We decided after Coron we would go to El Nido, via the “fast ferry” which took 4 hours. Once we arrived I realised that we had booked somewhere to stay, not in El Nido, but in Nacpan. El Nido is known to be very touristy, with lots of shops, bars, restaurants etc etc. However we were staying about a 30 minute drive away in a small village. Although it was quite annoying we were so far from where a lot of things were happening, we were only a short walk away from arguably the nicest beach (Nacpan Beach) around El Nido. Plus we read reviews of our hostel that if you still want to party then you can go to the Mad Monkey hostel on the beach and have drinks there, and have the benefit of walking back to get a good nights sleep. We were staying at “Where 2 Next”, which was a nice little hostel.
After we checked in we went to a the beach to see what it’s like. The sea was so clear, and once you was in looking back at the beach it looked amazing with all the palm trees and greenery. That night we thought we would go to Mad Monkey for few drinks, but we found out that there is actually a free bar between 7.30-8.00pm. We were then roped into joining a music quiz and teaming up with some other people to create the team “2 Easy”. You got a point for each correct answer and an extra point if you came up and sang the song. We didn’t sing any songs until the end where me and Laura went up food our rendition of Post Malone. To our surprise, we won! Looked like the team name suited – toooooo easy.
The next day we had to go back to El Nido to start “Tour A” an island hopping tour we had booked online already. Along the tour we visited the beautiful “seven commando beach”, and a nice snorkelling spot before having a tasty lunch which was all prepared on the boat. We were then taken to hole in a rock to go through to the “secret lagoon” before then going to the last stop, the “big lagoon”. We were told that to get there from where the boat was parked, you can rent a kayak for two people or you can swim if you like. We decided that we had spent too much already and decided to swim, which wasn’t that short of a distance. I’m glad that we didn’t stay on the boat and we went and saw it, but it was tough swimming back against the current. Maybe we should’ve paid for the Kayak, especially as Laura was slightly traumatised that she was bitten by a fish.
The next day we spent most of the day on sun loungers at the beach, before we went for some drinks at Mad Monkey in the evening. Hindsight is a wonderful thing… looking back on it, we shouldn’t have tried to drink as much as we could in the free 30 minute bar. This coupled with the shots this flashy DJ from Los Angles was buying us, did not end too well. We were both feeling quite ill and Laura ended up getting a nice bruise from falling off the stairs to bed.
The next few days were spent kicking back at the beach. There was a nice beach restaurant which we ate at most days, that did a really good burrito! It was refreshing to take some time to relax, not having to travel and not doing any activities.
Lee Teivans Travel Blog 