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Published: February 7th 2007
After quiet Port Barton, El Nido, on first impression was busy, dirty and noisy. Our accomodation was rank and everything else was full adding to our (slight) despair. However, we finally struck gold and found a wee place outside the town, right on the beach and checked in there. It was newly opened and still quite basic (no sink, no toilet seat/flush) as the owner plans to upgrade as he makes money. We had a great view of the sunset which you can't get in El Nido due to the surrounding islands. All was well again.
The town itself turned out to be quite nice. It is surrounded by high cliffs and the bay is full of limestone rock islands jutting out from the sea. We found a restaurant that made the best pizza and had a really good live band on each night. We became regulars. The only drawback we found was that the tricycles stopped running at about 8pm, something we discovered at 12.30am with a long walk ahead of us! Fortunately one of the band offered to take us home on his motorbike.
We met up with Louise and Tom again and spent a day island
hopping with them and 2 others, Chris from Germany and Maurice from Malayasia. We went to find the (not so) secret beach (3 other boats there when we arrived) where you have to swim through a hole in the rock to get there. The swim from our boat to the hole was through a swarm of jellyfish. They were only small but their stingers were fully formed! After that we went to a stunning beach for lunch next to the 'secret lagoon,' again accessed through a hole in the rocks. We spent the afternoon snorkelling in various crystal clear lagoons and lazing on white sandy beaches. Heaven.
El Nido airport has to be the best airport we have ever been in. The runway was a dirt track with the access road running alongside it, check in is in a bus shelter with manual security checks - we just opened our bags. As the plane is so small they have to weigh each passenger to keep the plane balanced. The departure lounge consisted af a few hammocks strung up between the trees in a lush garden! This is the way forward, people surely wouldn't be scared of flying if they
could chill out in a hammock before each flight. We'll need to let BAA know!
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Marc
non-member comment
Best Damn Airport
Indeed, the best damn airport. Can't beat that hammock!