Dawn view from Caalan Beach Resort
We’re back to rustic again, although our cabin at Caalan Beach Resort does have aircon at least. Though of the more basic kind: if you want to sleep in cool air-conditioned comfort, you need to be able to sleep through the noise of a small propeller aircraft preparing for take-off in your room. If you need quiet to sleep, you don’t get aircon.
Much of today was travel from Sabang to El Nido, and we got some sense of how undeveloped Palawan is compared to much of the rest of the Philippines. It’s apparently one of the poorest islands. After settling into our cottage we just headed into El Nido town to explore and have dinner. We enjoyed freshly grilled fish on the balcony of a beachfront restaurant and then went mooching around the shops for stretchy surfer tops.
Fish grill – choose your supper
Oh yeah, and “heading into El Nido town” is more fun than it sounds. It’s a hot 15 minute walk along a dusty track, but our resort offers free trike rides into town whenever you need them. The first time we tried this I almost had a heart attack when our trike turned into an alleyway that a fat tourist would have struggled to fit down. Then another heart attack at the end when it looked like we would plunge straight into the sea; but our driver made a neat 90 degree turn on a dime and then we crossed a short section of beach before the dirt track resumed.
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