Said – done, except my mental math did not consider unknown X, because if I bothered to find the unknowns of this equation, the X would turn out to be exactly my mental state after not sleeping for 24 hours straight.

A true zombie, in other words.

Ely and Puish both offered to leave my suitcase at their places, but Ely was a little far, and my decision landed on Puish’s hostel. Funny enough, I really confused the lady at the reception, but after realizing that she is not the fan of the idea, I continued with a smile and persistence, in the end of the day just leaving it there near the reception desk. I ain’t carrying my 15 kg suitcase around Boracay, and definitely not dancing with it to “Gasolina”.

Ayrtron, Kay Anne, Ely, Puish, and a couple of other friends gathered to watch the fire performance at one of the bars (not sure if that was a coincidence, but feels like they got commission from that same bar for setting up their stage there).

I think I inserted a picture of the fire dancer in my Boracay post (L is for logic!) so feel free to check it out there.

We started a pre-party at Kay Anne’s hostel, where I decided to leave my suitcase together with my backpack. The owners judgementally watched the whole group of sketchy people make their way to the roof top of their hostel, definitely planning some mischief.

The “mischief” was drinking rum, dancing, playing music, and maybe a little bit of drunk kissing 😉  

It went a little bit of hand, so me and Carlos had to accompany the other two folks as they drunk slept. Out of 4 people sleeping on the hostel’s beds that night, only one was actually renting. I felt like a true hobo, and it was honestly kind of fun.

Ely woke us up to pay another visit to the Epic Bar – and the last visit for me.

After we all said goodbye to the three beautiful people (that is me, myself, and I), I grabbed a jeepnie to the port, and from the other side simply walked to the airport (thanks for the hint Ayrtron!). Meanwhile for a ten minute walk, the taxi drivers were asking 100 to 200 pesos. Scaaaaaaaam.

Then, the torture of waiting in the airport. The torture of freezing in the plane. The torture of waiting 7 hours during my layover. The torture of freezing in the plane again, then getting a van to El Nido from Puerta Princesa airport, almost dying in that van – just to make it to my hotel at 1:00 am at night.

Who said we love a boring life?

Instead of talking so much about leaving Boracay (you could tell I miss it), perhaps I should talk about El Nido, an actual topic of this post.

It is very beautiful, but identical to Ha Long Bay, so I cannot say a lot about how much I liked it. To be honest, I would even say it is a bit too overrated. The food is crazy expensive. There are only four tours available, no matter which agency you go with, and they all are quite affordable (approx.. 1200 pesos per person) until you start booking them – it is now when the environmental fee comes up, accompanied by the terminal fee, kayak rental, bay entrance fee… the list goes on and on. I took an island hopping tour with kayaking in the end, which, I do admit, was worth the money. One of our stops was the Secret Bay – you can only get there by swimming, through a small, tunnel like hole in the cliff. The tunnel opens up to the bay of jade green waters, surrounded by high, dusty – black cliffs.

The other stops was the kayaking in one of the other bays – a beautiful spot where you slowly go from the deep see to shallow, clear waters of the bay – and then again you face the deep waters as you row further inside, among the corridors and labyrinths of the bay cliffs.

El Nido is located at the north end of Palawan. I have heard and seen quite a bit of mentions of the Balabak island, in the south of it. Seems like a quiet paradise with traditional setting, without touristic crowds, and amazing, shallow waters with palm tree reflections all along the shore. Perhaps, I should have gone there?