The journey to El Nido involved a 2h ride on a jeepney, 4h in a minivan and another 15 min by tricycle to get to my hostel. Beside the fact that I stepped into a hole and injured my foot pretty badly, the ride went ok. The first thind I did as I arrived was to find stuff for my foot at the pharmacy. I really didn't want to get a bad infection in the Philippines !!

My room at the hostel was nice, only 4 beds, the facilities seemed clean and the staff helpful.That was a good start.

I had lunch in a very small place, mostly frequented by locals, which is always a good sign for a good price. But after about 3 weeks in the Philippines, I was still not impressed by the food.Being vegetarian in the Philippines is a struggle ! Even when you ask for "veggies only", they put meat it your dish ! They don't get that some people do not eat meat....

I, then, had a walk around El Nido. Oh my god, this place is absolutely HORRIBLE !!! And it's surrounded by very high hills so it gets dark very quickly. After Port Barton I had been told that the island hoping is pretty much the same in Coron as in El Nido so I really started wondering what I was doing there. But because I was there indeed and I had paid my accomodation for 3 nights, I had to find something to do and decided to go on an island hoping tour anyway. And I didn't regret it ! Even though it was a bit expensive (1200 pesos including environmental taxes), it was worth it. The islands, beaches and other lagoons we visited were indeed really nice. Beautiful turquoise water, dramatic sceneries with rocks falling straight into the water, you name it, it was there. Small Lagoon, Big Lagoon, Secret Beach (not so secret anymore...), Seven Commandos Beach and Shimizu Island. The only negative point is that we stayed 2 hours at the same beach before heading back. A nice beach for sure ! But 2 hours is too long for me, especially because many boats arrived during these 2 hours and A LOT of people were soon invading the beach.

The next night was a nightmare. A HUUUUUGE russian guy had replaced my 3 aussie room mates. He turned up a bit before midnight, turning the light on, looking for whatever that was in his bag, not wondering for one second if that was rude or not. So I asked him to turn the light off and (kindly at first) to f*** off. He said he had problems, bla bla bla but I said that my only problem was him and that I could solve that easily. He didn't like it but he was so rude that I didn't care. You don't solve any problem at midnight and he wasn't making any call home either.

The same story happened at 5am.Same guy, same problem, same story. Where had he been between midnight and 5am? Who knows ?! I wasn't as nice this time. Neither was he. So I had to go and get the girl who was working night shift to talk to him. She did and the guy went to sleep. And snored like an entire dorm was snoring. So I left the room and managed to get a bed in another dorm for the rest of my night (about 3h). Luckily I managed to change dorm for my last night. I slept in many many dorms before and never met such a rude person !!

I was pretty happy I hadn't planned on doing anything specific the next day.I was soooo tired !! I met Silvia over breakfast. She was going to go to the beach and asked me if I wanted to join. My only plan for that day was writing my blog (which I'm catching upon 10 days later...), buying my ticket to Coron and resting.

My ticket to Coron story cost me a lot of time and energy.Basically there is a bangka going from El Nido to Coron everyday. Many people take it but when you look at the reviews, it's pretty scary ! Some people even wonder how these boats float ! They tend to put about 50 to 120 people on them, without seats and go for a 9 to 12h ride (they sell it to you for 7 hours...). So there was no way I was going to take this boat. Instead I wanted to go back to Puerto Princesa and take the sunday ferry.Much safer and comfier and after all I had extended my visa mostly so I could get this ferry that only goes on sundays....

I had so many troubles with the website of the companies that I call them and found out that there was no bed available in a cabin. And the other option was a 100 bed dorm....nope, thanks ! So I bought a ticket to go with the bangka. I was very scared and was also wondering how I'd cope on a 7h ride.

Out of curiosity and because my internet connection wasn't so bad then I had a look at both my email inbox and junk.And found out I had a ticket to Coron, in a cabin.One of my attemps went through...It could have been a relief but nope ! This was only 36 hours before departure and that would have meant changing my plans again, and go back to Puerto Princesa, 7h by van from El Nido. So I got the company to refund the money and I was going to go on the bangka.

To recover from my emotions, I went to the beach. Silvia had given up the idea of the first beach she wanted to go to for it was too far and too expensive and met a french canadian guy who was heading to Las Cabanas, another beach, much closer. Flavia, a girl from my dorm joined us and we spent the whole afternoon there, doing nothing.

The same evening, Silvia was talking to a few guys I had met when I first arrived and we decided to go to diner together. There were 8 of us, pretty much all from different nationalities: Taiwan, Israel, USA, France, Canada... It was a really good night and I really would have loved to hang around a little longer but I was exhausted from my short night and stressed about my next day, on the bangka. So I went to bed early, wishing I'd have stayed another night just to be with this lot or part of it.

That night was another bad one. I kept waking up.Every hour, I would read the time and not believe it. I guess it was the stress from the bangka...

I arrived at the port quite early to find that many people were already waiting but I had been told to be first on the boat to chose my spot. Which I did ! I managed to get a spot just by the captain's cabin, so I could seat properly. Most of the people were against the sides of the boat, which didn't seem really comfy at all !! I managed to sleep and to get almost comfy only because I had my earplugs, mask, small pillow and the life jacket to use as a mattress. The sea was quite rough, especially for a small boat like a bangka but I didn't get seasick. You do not want to get seasick when you're stuck for 9h40 at sea. Yeah, it took that long to arrive in Coron. I was happy I had booked my accomodation and that it seemed like a really nice one. Considering the nights I had before, I needed a good night sleep.