With a promising weather forecast we optimistically rented a scooter (for double the price of Bohol - El Nido is far more expensive than anywhere else we have been in the Philippines) and set out for Nacpan Beach, a fifty minute drive North of El Nido.

The roads for the majority of the journey were winding though good quality and wide. Filipinos were raking our rice on black netting all along the roads, drying there produce in the sun while the rain was elsewhere. Apparently, for rice to grow successfully the paddy fields are flooded to cover 1/3 of the rice's stalk whilst they grow. When the rice begins to yellow and drop off (roughly three months after planting) the fields are drained and the rice is either cut by hand using sickles or sharp knives or machinery is used. The rice is then dried to lower moisture in the grain, this is called 'rough rice' which is now ready for milling.

Inevitably, we had to leave the pleasant, smooth road and continue our route down the most pot holed and bumpy road in Asia. After twenty minutes at a crawling pace we arrived at Nacpan beach.

Nacpan is roughly fourteen kilometres long and boast luxurious, cream coloured sand. As we led in the shade of a palm tree the place got increasingly busier and a vast assortment of scooters accumulated in the carpark as more tourists poured to the beach. There was plenty of sand to go around however and we had a nice time napping and reading while what seemed like hundreds of dogs zig zagged around the tourists.

One point of comedy/tragedy was the poor lifeguards on the beach. Whilst there, they had to blast on their whistles and sprint down into the waves on several occasions to save struggling Chinese and Indian swimmers - I mentioned in earlier blogs that there is always a drowning Indian. Hearing the whistle blasts the whole beach would stand up and watch as people were escorted, spluttering, up the beach. Shamed by everyone's benevolent stares.

Eventually, we retired back to El Nido, we returned our scooter unscathed and had a meal at the very nice and very popular 'Art Cafe'. There wasn't much artwork in sight but the food was delicious and we had a good seat on the balcony overlooking the bay.

Tomorrow we had a dense itinerary to complete concerning visas and passports photos so we got back to our new hostel double quick.