Since we were no longer wanted at Wilnag’s Guest House, we quietly made our exit without any pleasantries to the staff or manager. To the surprise of no one, everyone seemed to have vanished.
There are only two ways to get from El Nido to Nacpan Beach, outside of renting a personal motorbike, and that is by a 1,000 peso tricycle ride or a 600 peso per person shared van...or so tourists are meant to believe. We have come to know there is always the option that the locals take, the cheaper option. We didn’t know for sure, but we kneeeew there must been a more economical way of getting there. Surely there are dozens of Filipinos who make the daily commute who can’t afford to spend $20+ back and forth. Nadine looked up some info online and came across a blog and a facebook post that said you could take the jeepney for a mere 50 pesos, along with twenty residents of the town. There is exactly one jeepney that leaves at 11:00, and by golly we were going to be on it.
The driver of the jeepney, of course, tried to cheat us and told us the price was 100 per person (the white man tax). We asked the other passengers, who confirmed the price was 50 pesos, except for the snitch woman who said “We paid 50, but I think you need to pay 100.” It seems like people always look after their fellow countrymen. During the entire ride we gave her the death stare. We still had 15 minutes to kill, so we walked across the street to a market to buy some produce for the next few days. It’s impossible to know what type of food there will be in Nacpan or if any stores even exist (they didn’t). In Puerto Princesa we bought a kilo of bananas for 60 pesos, so we were already familiar with the going rate. The first stall in this market we were quoted 100 pesos a kg, which we knew was overpriced. We figured things would cost more in El Nido than PP, so we gave him a pass and continued to shop around. 10 meters away was another banana stand with a customer already paying for her bunch. The local language in most areas in the Philippines is a combination of Tagalog, English, and Spanish, which they call Tagalish. The numbers they use are in Spanish. So when we were the vendor tell the shopper in front that a kilo was only 25 peso, we not only knew that the vendor before this one was a big fat liar, but so was the original banana salesman in Puerto Princesa. Hurumph!
The ride to Nacpan should have only taken half an hour, but we must have stopped half a dozen times to pick up items and make deliveries from El Nido to Nacpan and the various villages in between. The jeepney is used as a courier service, passengers be damned. In the end, we gave the driver 50 pesos each, and didn’t make a thing of it.
In Nacpan, we wandered around aimlessly for some time struggling to find the hotel, Cherry’s Courtyard Hotel. Somehow we missed that it was right where we were dropped off. When we arrived, everything was in working order, as it should be. Two minutes walking distance was a beach called Calitang, which was spectacular. In a mile strip, there were probably 3-4 hotels, which were really individual cabins facing the water. The beach was isolated and peaceful. It was all we could have hoped for and more. Venturing further away was the jewel itself, Nacpan Beach. All of our searching had led us here, the most beautiful beach we had ever been to. Maybe 4-5 miles long, nearly empty. It was unreal. We decided then and there to stay for a week on these two beaches.
We found a BBQ stand that had burgers and beer, and downed a couple of each. During that time, we made some friends! Next to us sat a nice Jewish boy, Noah, from the Bay Area who was also traveling for a year. He had originally was working for Apple Maps, but was fired for drinking with his boss and HR manager in the parking lot after working hours. Now he saved up money and decided to take off for a while. Soon after arrived an Israeli couple, Omer and Dana, who were staying right next to us, coincidentally. They split their time between London and Barcelona, where he owned a couple hostels, he said. Somehow Jews always seem to find each other.
It was a really peaceful afternoon. The time was spent alternating between swimming in the sea and relaxing in the sun. This was exactly what we needed. Noah eventually got bored of being the fifth wheel and wandered off in the direction of the Mad Monkey hostel, which is where most backpackers go. It’s a total party scene, with a full bar and all sorts of drinking activities for its guests. This is the hostel we stayed in Mue Ne in Vietnam. Later in the evening we met up with the Israeli couple and their German friend to have dinner at a Thai restaurant on Calitang Beach. There were literally 4-5 places to eat on both beaches combined, all with similar menus. Only the Thai food was different than the rest. They advertised having a chef that once cooked for the King of Thailand, but if that is true, the King has terrible taste. The soups were quite tasty, but everything else from the pad thai to the vegetable spring rolls were really unpleasant.
We arrived later to our guest house only to find that electricity and water were out. No AC, no fan, no lights, no water, nothing. We had a door, four walls, and a roof. It was late at night so there wasn’t much we could do about it. The woman who worked there said as much. It was too late to find anywhere else, so we hunkered down and slept in a pool of our own sweat.
The following day we wrote to Hotels.com about it and they weren’t so helpful. By coincidence, this booking happened to be a “free” room through our Rewards program. Hotels.com contacted the owner of the hotel to inquire about the situation and validate our claim. Supposedly they confirmed our story, yet only agreed to refund half of the amount we paid. Because it was a free room, technically, Hotels.com would only refund us $8 and change, as opposed to the full $38 that was the total cost. The math didn’t quite make sense, because if they agree to refund half, it would be $19, and the remaining amount that we had paid on top of our free night was the $8, so it means we should receive $9.5. Because there was very poor internet connection, all of our correspondence with the Hotels.com representative was written through the app. They told us since we had used our Rewards night, according to their corporate policy, they would not be refunding us more, nor would they give us our “free” night back. In other words, we were shit out of luck. We continued pressing on, telling them how Hotels.com is responsible for the properties on their site, and if something goes wrong, it is their duty to repair the situation. This is the exact reason why people use their service to begin with. Eventually they caved a bit and offered a $25 coupon for our next booking, but that still leaves us $4 short. The four bucks doesn’t mean anything to us, but it’s the principle that Hotels.com is willing to keep the additional four dollars at our expense, and leave a Gold member customer dissatisfied. If it weren’t for the options and 10% discount their company provides us, we would stop working with them altogether.
The Israelis we met were staying in cabins right on the water but were moving that night, so we inquired about availability there, at the Valine Grace Guesthouse, which they did. We promptly reserved for the next five nights, the first with AC, the other four without. It was $10 cheaper without AC, plus they turned the electricity off until 18:00 anyway when the heat cooled off.
The next five days were spent lounging. There was a fitness area at the Mad Monkey Hostel so we worked out there a couple times, plus went for long runs on the isolated beaches in the morning before the sun broke through the clouds for the day.
The beaches were really pleasant and just what we needed. Much of the days were spent playing Monopol the card game. Ben edged Nadine, but not by much
One night Ben found a machete and we took down a bunch of coconuts and now we had 5 days of free coconuts! WIN!
Each morning we would eat breakfast at a restaurant a stone’s throw away from our place. We would order the same thing: Chicken, rice, with a fried egg on the side (Ben had two eggs!)
Almost every day there was some sort of confusion with the bill. It actually happens all the time in the Philippines. On the first day, Nadine ordered a burger and fries for brunch, and she was served two mini patties, which we suppose is equal to one normal sized patty. Then for lunch, Ben ordered a double burger, which also came with the same two patties as the single. When we told the waitress, all hell broke loose.
Nobody understand what I was saying after I explained at least four to five times the discrepancy between the single and double burger, in relation to the size and price. It wasn’t worth the breath coming out of my voice, and usually wouldn’t waste so much time trying to sort out such a trivial matter, but we had all the time in world, plus it was hilarious. Overall, we sort of liked the place. The view was amazing, the food was edible and somewhat healthy, and sometimes, once in a while, they had weak WiFI. They had a WiFi box on top of an antenna 15 feet in the air!
I guess one of the biggest downsides of Nacpan, and all of Palawan really, are the amount of stray dogs roaming the streets. There are maybe 30-40 dogs in Nacpan without homes. It is painful to see. Most of them are hungry, thirsty, anxious, and many have sarna. When approached though, they are super playful and excited to have human contact. It seems most of them just want forever homes. The sad part is that with all the dogs up to choose from, the owners of our hotel went out a purchased a foo foo dog for themselves. On their property there was an adorable puppy who was always around anyway, but nope, the owners needed a pure breed…It’s not the fault of the hotel where we stayed, but the dogs make a ruckus during the nighttime. On the final night, there was one female to about a dozen males who were taking turn attempting to impregnate her. Multiple time we would have to get out of bed, open the front door, and make scary noises to ward them off.
There isn’t a whole lot to write about in Nacpan as nothing really happened. We didn’t go on any tours and never ventured out of the town, as there was no place to go anyway.
It was a wonderful week. A brief reprieve from our travels. But as Jack Kerouac says, we must get On the Road again.
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