It’s the last day of 2011. As 2011 comes to an end, I can’t help but look back on this year with amazement and gratitude. This year has been given me a lot of wonderful memories, and awesome adventures. I may not have blogged about all the travels I’ve done for this year, but I certainly have a lot of pictures stowed in my hard drive. Let me give you a glimpse of my 11 memorable adventures of 2011.

1. Got lost in Bangkok, Thailand (read my Bangkok adventures here, here, here, and here)
   

   Elephant Ride!

2. Finally saw hot air balloons at the Hot Air Balloon Festival
   

   16th Hot Air Balloon Festival

3. Had a nice view of the Pyro Olympics
   

   Amazing ending for team Portugal

4. Celebrated my 25th birthday with family & friends
   

   My 25th Birthday

5. Experienced Singapore with my family
   

   at Singapore

6. Chilled at Boracay with my Ateneo girls
   

   Two rainbows at Boracay

7. Adventured at Coron, Palawan with the Awesome Outing Group (AOG)
   

   Underwater adventures at Coron

8. Bonded at Laiya, Batangas
   

   with the girls at Laiya, Batangas

9. Zoofari-ed at Subic
   

   Tiger!

10. Food tripped at Sonya’s Garden with the boyfriend
    

    The ultimate healthy buffet at Sonya's Garden

11. Relaxed at Bohol with my family and the tarsiers.
    

    Relaxed with the tarsiers at Bohol

I’m hoping 2012 could match my 2011 adventures. I’m excited for the new year!

Happy New Year everyone!

Day 2: Road Trip and Island Hopping – Longest Day Ever!

The following day, our group woke up at around 2 am to be able to leave Puerto Princesa and start our road trip to El Nido. Based from Kuya Neil’s estimation, the trip would take about 6-8 hours, depending on the road condition, traffic and of course, speed. Since we didn’t want to waste one day of our vacation to traveling alone, we computed for the best and latest time we could leave Puerto Princesa to arrive at El Nido by lunch time. Based on our computation, we should leave 3-4 am in the morning; thus the 2 am ‘call time’

We had our breakfast c/o Kookaburra. It was nice of them to accommodate our request to have our breakfast be ready by 2 am. From what I can remember, I got one of their Filipino Breakfast offerings. The food was good. I think it’s the earliest time I actually ate breakfast. Afterwards, we packed our things and left Kookaburra and then Puerto Princesa.

I don’t remember much about the first few hours of our road trip to El Nido. I slept through it. The ride was quite smooth and peaceful until a few hours after; we finally got to the end of the cemented road and start of the dirt road. Yes, the “highway” from Puerto Princesa to El Nido isn’t much of a highway. The smooth ride became a bumpy one. And then, we found ourselves literally in the middle of nowhere. The view around us was literally green all over and there were no signs of civilization. If we got stuck there, I don’t think anyone would find us. There were no cars coming from any direction and our cellphones weren’t getting any signal from any cell tower. Well, we did pass by several houses after several hours so it’s not like the place is devoid of people. But still, it’s just 9 people in the middle of a jungle. How freakishly alone.

By 10 am, we found ourselves ‘gliding’ smoothly on cemented pavement. The ride was smooth again. After a few more minutes, we found the sign, ‘Welcome to El Nido’. We’re here! We took a few photos and then went for another few minutes of driving to find Marina Garden Beach Resort. Upon arriving at El Nido town proper, we were greeted by an amazing view. The town is situated perfectly along the beach line overlooking several islands and a mountain made of limestone. The sight was breath-taking.

We finally got to Marina Garden Beach Resort. The place was not a typical resort that I’m used to seeing in more commercialized beaches. It’s a simple place, which is strategically situated near everything. But then, El Nido is a small town where everything is likely a walking distance away. Anyway, back to Marina Garden; it’s a beach front resort where you have a full view of the El Nido’s coast line. Not only that, it’s easier to access boatmen-slash-tour-guides who are offering island hopping tours. Well, good thing for us, Kuya Neil already knows one of the owners that handles the island hopping tour business. He was already able to get a package deal for us. By 11 am, we were off island hopping, the package A tour.

There’s no point going to El Nido if you won’t island hop. Besides, the electricity in El Nido town proper is scheduled; electricity is off from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm then on from 2:00 pm onwards. Aside from lounging around the beach area, touring the town and searching for souvenir shops, there’s really nothing to do for tourists but island hop or snorkel or other water activities. Island hopping is definitely a must when you visit El Nido. There are 3 standard island hopping packages; that’s package A, B, and C. Some guides offer packages D and E, but they vary depending on who you talk to. The standard price could go from P600-1000 per person. For us, Kuya Neil got us a nice deal of P1800 for the whole boat rental and Package A tour plus an additional P100 for each snorkels per person. That’s P1800 divided by 8 people plus P100 [P325 per person]. Nice deal huh?!

So back to the boat ride… the boat ride towards our first destination was absolutely breath taking. It’s not my first time to island hop – I’ve actually done this at Hundred Islands in Pangasinan – but the view of the islands was just incredible. Then, add the calm sea and fresh air… it’s just perfect. Pictures can only do much, you must be there to experience it. But at this point, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

Small Lagoon
Great place to snorkel. Make sure that you’re strong swimmer or you’re wearing a life vest before you go in. Water can be very deep especially the area inside the lagoon.

Simizu
This is where we ate lunch. Great place to swim and snorkel.

Big Lagoon
Great place to kayak. Too bad we were on a tight budget. Kayak rental costs about P800-1000 the whole day.

Stopping here. The boat can’t pass because it’s low tide. We had to go down the boat and ‘walk’.

We were already near the “inside” of the Blue Lagoon and the deeper part of the area when Kuya revealed that there were baby sharks there. (Uhm, okay thanks for telling us now, kuya.)

7 Commando
This is the last stop of Tour Package A. This is where we lounge around and drank buko juice.

At around 4pm, Kuya Boatman (Yes, I don’t know his name) told us that it’s time to go. It was getting dark anyway.  And this is where I’ll end my Day 2 El Nido experience. LONG DAY, huh? Day 3 to follow soon.

Picture credits: Mine, Bunny, Kat, Norman, and Ton

One of the things I really want to do is to travel. I want to see the world, visit the wonders of the world, tour the key cities. And my first stop, the Philippines. What better way to jump start my traveling dreams than to start in my own country. I’ve already been to various key destinations in this country – Baguio, Boracay, Mactan (Cebu), Pagudpud (Ilocos Norte), and Vigan (Ilocus Sur) just to name a few. Since this country is composed of 7,101 islands, I think I still have a lot to go. For the first time this year, I got to visit Boracay and this month, El Nido, Palawan.

Puerto Princesa Airport

Last September 10, my batchmates and I flew to Palawan for our 4-day El Nido, Palawan vacation. We touched down at Puerto Princesa airport around 6 in the evening. (The landing wasn’t very nice by the way). After that we were unsure what to do next, aside from the fact that we just wanted to get to El Nido. However, getting to El Nido was the tricky part. El Nido is located at the northern most tip of Palawan and is about 238 km away from Puerto Princesa. Once in Puerto Princesa, you could travel to El Nido via air, sea or land. Our group opted to take the land route. We had already arranged a shuttle service a few weeks before our flight. Our driver, Kuya Neil, was also our tour guide. He was nice and accommodating; and he definitely knew his way around Palawan. Without him, we would have been lost tourists in Palawan. [Shuttle Rate: P15,000 for this particular deal]

See, the initial ‘plan’ was to head straight to El Nido upon arriving at Puerto Princesa. However, that plan was dependent on several variables like the weather and road condition. There were a lot of “what ifs”. Good thing Kuya Neil helped us decide what to do. (Yes, for a 4-day vacation, we didn’t prepare a concrete itinerary. How adventurous of us. LOL). The final decision was to stay in Puerto Princesa for the night. So, the next question was, ‘where are we staying?’ Well, Kuya Neil also got that covered. He apparently knew the people that manages one of the newly built inns in Puerto Princesa and had already reserved us two rooms. Yep, he’s that efficient. Good thing too, else, our group would have probably just search for any open cafe shops to hangout or sleep in the van.

Kookaburra Travel Lodge

Kookaburra Travel Lodge was the place Kuya Neil suggested.  The lodge is fairly new; everything about the establishment still looks fresh and well, new. According to their site, they have 14 rooms. I wasn’t able to count but we got their two standard rooms, which were located at the ground floor. Since there were 8 of us – 4 boys and 4 girls, the girls stayed in one room and the boys in the other. Both rooms were really just made for 2 people, three is probably pushing it. The additional beds were not even useful because there wasn’t any floor space to place it. I’m not sure how the guys did it but for us girls, we were able to fit ourselves in the queen-size bed [I think it was queen-sized]. Aside from that, our room was nice. The bathroom was okay too; however, the bathroom window was not tinted and was beside a staircase. Someone could easily look in, good thing that didn’t happen. Over all, I would definitely recommend this place. [Room Rate: One standard room for 2 people - P1,500/night]

Bilao at Palayok: Seafood and Native Restaurant

Before settling in for the night, our group decided to have dinner out. Since we were not familiar with the place, it was again Kuya Neil that suggested the place. We ended up at ‘Bilao at Palayok: Seafood and Native Restaurant‘. The place does have a native feel to it. Most of the restaurant’s interior were made of bamboo or some type of wood. Their decorations were mostly ethnic in origin. To summarize, the ambiance of the place was really homey , peaceful and refreshing. Yeah, I obviously suck at interior design review.

Ihaw Ihaw sa Bilao Special

Let’s go to the food. They offer a wide selection of Filipino food, all served in a bilao or palayok. Their speciality is geared towards grilled seafood. Since we were on a tight budget, we opted to get their Ihaw Ihaw sa Bilao Special, which is good for around 8 people already, Pork Sisig and 8 cups of plain rice. Their Ihaw Ihaw sa Bilao Special consists of steamed shrimp, grilled squid, baked tahong, grilled tuna, grilled tilapia, liempo, and steamed crab together with grilled eggplant, achara, bagoong, salted eggs, tomatoes and green mangoes on the side. It’s definitely a must try if you happen to dine in this place. My personal favorites are their grilled squid and steamed crab.

After dinner, we went back to Kookaburra to rest. We were supposed to look for another hangout place but then remembered that we still have to wake up at 3 am the following day for our long road trip to El Nido. And that’s another day to blog about.

Picture credits: Mine, Bunny, Kat, Norman, and Ton