The Northern tip of Palawan was the answer to my craving for breathtaking views of nature and pristine waters. With my buddy Candra Bayu, I managed to commute with Jeepneys from the Puerto Princessa airport to San Jose bus terminal. And from there it’s an 8 hours ride to El Nido.
It was around 2 am when the bus made the last stop. We got off and as soon as I stepped out of the bus I noticed it’s pouring. A few seconds of looking around at the unfamiliar surrounding I found a place to shelter us from the rain, a small construction site with a half-finished building which looked like a house in progress.
Past midnight in cold weather, what’s better than sleeping? Nothing is. So we did try to continue our unfinished sleep, despite of some tricycle drivers non-stop offers of their service. Apparently the El Nido town is still further away.
“Bangun Bay!” I tapped Bayu’s shoulder to wake him up. It’s only 3:15 but the rain has stopped. We checked the offline maps in our phone, located our position with the GPS, and decided just to walk to the town proper. Having offline maps ready in my mobile phone is a prerequisite before I go anywhere. I will never get lost for as long as my phone doesn’t die on me.
An hour later we arrived at a dead empty town. We were the only ones on the street before a tricycle driver approached us and asked where we’re going and so on. “Nowhere sir thanks”, sounded like a proper answer because I didn’t feel like going to the hotel or wherever he’s trying to take us. We continued walking further, passed some building that looked like a church and municipal hall, to the direction of the beach and we found a food shop. Apparently it was the only shop that was open 24 hours in El Nido, we ate our breakfast and took a nap there.