Beaches and other awesome things

Locals taking a nap in Sabang

On the road to a small waterfall in Sabang

12 January, 2013

We just arrived to a town called El Nido, which is in the north end of Palawan island. I'm sitting in a cafe drinking coffee that tastes like it's made from sea water, motorbikes are driving by on the narrow street and being loud, I'm wearing my new hippie pants and they are way too hot, the air is sticky sweaty even at 6PM. J & I went to walk around to see if they could find some good accommodation for us and I stayed here to watch after our backpacks - a good excuse for my laziness.

The days we spent in Puerto Princesa feel like ages away even though it hasn't been even a week since we were there. It was a nice place to hang out for a few days, a cute little town. Not much happened during that time; there was a gigantic spider in our room and one of our hosts came to kill it while we were panicking and screaming (Jenny was standing on the bed, just to be safe), we ate maybe six donuts each at Mister Donut, and just enjoyed the slow and easy living and the uncomfortable hammock at our guesthouse. Sometimes you just might end up having an amazing time in a place which should have nothing special in it. But what's better than eating breakfast for a few hours and talking with your friends about everything important or meaningless that crosses your mind? Days feel super short here. Everything we do takes so much time, never in my normal life I do things as slowly as here; eat, walk, get dressed, write, pack, unpack, talk, brush my teeth. We just have so much time and wasting it feels goooood.

The beach in Sabang

Photo shoot in a tree :'D

After three nights in Puerto Princesa we decided to head to Sabang, since a girl working at the guesthouse we stayed in recommended the place. We took a nice air-conditioned van for maybe 2 hours (200 pesos = 4 euros) and were already there. Four nights there passed by pretty fast without internet connection, Sabang was such a tiny tiny place that there was electricity only from 6PM until 11PM or so, and it was made with an electricity generator that sounded like a motor boat that was just about to start the engine. It was the only sound to break the small village silence in the evening.

So far we've been traveling quite aimlessly, ending up in places, not planning much, and I guess it's working well. For example Sabang was absolutely lovely. We got our own bungalow 10 meters away from the beach, about 15 euros a night (5 euros each). It is one of the best things in traveling when you fall asleep listening to the sea, and when waking up, open the bungalow door and the first thing you see is the turquoise waves hitting the sand so close to your terrace. First we planned to stay in Sabang for a week, ignoring the clock, eating mostly fruits and detoxing in general, but being as small as it is, there were only a few (relatively pricey) restaurants, only small kiosks, and it was actually quite hard to find something to eat at times. So four nights was enough. We got to know a funny Filipino guy called R.J. and we played our Finnish rap song to him. He started calling me a gangster since I was wearing a bandana scarf around my head the way that in Manila means you're a gangster. Maybe joining the local mafia here will be my next step in life?

This morning we left Sabang and took a bus that was supposed to arrive to El Nido in 5 hours. In the end it took us over 7 hours, but that's something you kind of have to get used to, 2 hours extra is considered as a very little amount of wasted minutes in here. And then again, we have no need to hurry :)

Sabang. Our bungalow is the one in the middle