The majority of the day was spent travelling in the minivan on the 6 hour drive to El Nido. In fairness, it had only cost us 450 pesos each after a bit of bartering, which we thought was pretty good! The van was spacious with great air con so I sat and watched nearly 5 episodes of the Kardashians for the duration of the drive. I did stop to gaze out of the window from time to time, but staring at the gorgeous sunshine and not being out in it when we had just spent the last week in rain, was too much to bear!

On arriving in El Nido, it wasn't quite what I had imagined. We were staying at the main tourist part called Cabinsing Fishing village. It consisted of blocks of maybe four rows of shacks and buildings that led onto a beach/boat harbour. The beach was nice but not quite the 'paradise' I had imagined. With looking online for accommodation, there had been only two hostels available which were both really expensive but we booked two nights in one- Strong Tower Inn, and hoped to find cheaper accommodation once there. After checking in and seeing our room, we were shocked at how much we were paying for it so our first job was to find alternative accommodation for the remainder of our stay. After a disappointing wander round to find absolutely nothing, everywhere was full or stupidly expensive, we eventually stumbled across Bamboo Billabong Backpackers which charged 600 pesos (£11) a night for the two of us, that was more like it!

That evening, we ate on the beach front before booking up an island hoping tour the next day. There were four choices of tours; A,B,C or D. One of the main reasons I was so keen to visit El Nido had been to see the Big Lagoon which Tour A included so we booked in for that one at a discounted price! I was so excited for the next morning!

Before bed, Matt had been reading before a MASSIVE cockroach crawled up the wall next to his face! I would love to say he took it like a man, but that couldn't have been further from the truth! He leapt 4 feet in the air before darting across the room to the door. After realising what he had done, he sheepishly picked up a flip flop with the intention to kill. Well... 15 minutes later, with a flip flop flying all over the shop and lots of involuntary weird noises coming from Matthew's mouth, he finally killed the solo traveller cockroach... what a guy! Thank god it was only the one!

The next morning, Tour A included: Small Lagoon, Big Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, Shimuzi beach and Seven Commando Beach. The weather managed to stay good all day which was awesome, however, I was horrendously disappointed and angry when the boat captain informed us that we wouldn't be going to the Big Lagoon as 'Miss Universe' was filming there! That was the whole reason we had come on the tour so I was gutted, and I let them know it too! It annoyed me more that they knew before we booked and even left the harbour so to only tell us as we were pulling off was not on! We enjoyed the tour all the same and the food was very good, definitely worth 1000 pesos each but I was gutted not to see the Big Lagoon, if only I'd known I could have booked the tour for a different day!

On arriving back at shore, we marched to the tourist office where they very reluctantly gave us a percentage of money back, when would I ever get chance to see the Big Lagoon again! After a great meal at the Artcafe, followed by a calamansi (Filipino lemon which I'm obsessed with) and sugar crepe, we called it a night!