I awoke to nothing. There was no noise, and all around was black. I groaned and opened up the window to let some light in. Having not yet taken the time to reset my cell-phone’s clock, I turned on the TV, flipped to the network’s listings channel, and took a look at the time. It was already 8:55am.
After showering and packing up (collectively taking about 15 minutes…I’m a light traveler), my father (Scott) knocked on my door so that he could get my share of the stored boxes (same ones, filled with clothes and a sewing machine each) out of my room and give them to the shipping company who was taking them all the way to Surigao city (where Atlantis, and the base of Helping People to Help Themselves is). They had already eaten breakfast, and I was starving, but we were all going to the mini-airport (privately owned) to get the tickets for the afternoon’s flight to El Nido (a small coastal tourist/fishing village on an isolated Island, an hour long flight from central Manila).
The ticket purchasing was fairly painless, we went through their mini-security once this time (and would be ushered through again later on when we returned to take the flight).
After a stop at a money-exchanger recommended by the hotel’s transport service driver, we returned to the Hotel to do some blogging, and waiting.
Upon return to the Hotel, we realized we were all almost out of bottled water (dehydration is something which can happen very easily when you are traveling), we decided to venture down the somewhat shady (yes…even for the Philippines) looking street and check out the road-side storefronts for water.
As we passed a particularly good-smelling stand, my eyes found their home on a particularly well-barbecued drumstick of chicken.
Eleven drumsticks and two sticks of cooked squid later, we were full and ready to leave the Hotel. The promised free wifi was a disappointment (it worked for about twelve minutes upon the night of our arrival, and was completely dysfunctional the rest of our stay), and we had little to do inside the congested city, we wanted out.
We went through the “security” a second time and were ushered into a heavily air conditioned “waiting area”. It was obvious this area was made for more important people than us, as we found our names on a place card on top of “our” table. We were given coffee (or iced tee for the less manly of us) and an “almond croissant”. It was all very well-received, we were still hungry.
About an hour later (we had been scheduled to leave at 3:00am…it was now about 3:15pm) we were given the “security briefing”. This entailed a run-of-the-mill “seatbelt” speech, with some life-jacket preparedness training thrown in for good measure. We weren’t even in the airplane yet, let alone crashing!
Finally, we boarded. The airline “attendant” had warned us that we may notice a discharge coming from the vents due to a lot of air conditioning…this was not a problem. In fact, I noticed no air conditioning whatsoever on the flight. Bluntly, it was hot as hell!
We waited for what seemed like hours (realistically was probably about 45 minutes) inside the airplane, waiting for the other planes in line to takeoff. When we finally did, we were an hour behind schedule.
El Nido, Philippines
Arriving at the El Nido “airport” was similar to landing in other provincial areas. The airport was, essentially, a landing strip. This one, like many others, had a building to house luggage and fair-skinned tourists, and nothing more.
We were greeted and taken by Banka Boat (a medium-sized engine-propelled boat, found in great quantities in the Philippines) to Lollie and Abot’s, a sort of low-end resort on another side of the island. I put the rain cover onto my backpack, but this was pointless…the boat ran straight and did not create a single splash.
When we reached water too shallow to take the boat into, the men driving the boat jumped off and fetched (from the shore) a medium-sized yellow kayak. We were ushered onto the Kayaks (our bags as well) and floated across the rest of the water, to the shore.
First impressions of Lollie and Abot’s found it to be a pleasant, friendly place with a helpful staff, and a diverse group of guests. Our rooms are on the second floor of a six-room complex. The room is clean enough, with huge beds, and a decent bathroom.
The view from the front part of the grounds is spectacular. I have seen 3-D models of paradise less perfect than the standard view here.
After settling in, we took a walk through the center of town in search of a resteraunt. We found one with a nice atmosphere, and great view. The food (I ordered a Pepper Steak, and Scott and Joao ordered some snapper and crabs) was terrible. My steak was…well…not a steak, and their fish was undercooked. After about 30 minutes waiting for the crabs, Scott asked how long the rest of the order would be.
“What crabs?” was the response.
We all left, went back to the room, and went to sleep.
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