El Nido is a pain in the butt.  You’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there after 7 hours of pot-holed roads.  Ok, to be fair, there are stretches of nicely paved roads, but you kinda take those things for granted considering the hefty chunk of money the government bites off of your payday.  What should get every local tourist’s goat is that of all those pork barrel funds given every year, why not pave the roads properly, all of it?  You kinda wonder whether this is a punishment to local tourists who take the more scenic route instead of patronize Asean Spirit (at around P12K roundtrip, who would?).

But there is a silver lining to all of this.  And somehow I am torn between wanting a nicely paved road and keeping it as such, so that the place remains not-so-accessible thereby slowing the march of commercialization.

To those who have never been to El Nido, you need to go there– it’s PERFECT.  And it’s not only for the rich.  You just have to weather the 7-hour ride to get there (like I did).  There are a lot of dirt-cheap pension houses if you’re in a tight budget.  If you can gather enough number of travelmates, it becomes very affordable.

Pictures after the jump.

Oh well.. Pictures.

If these pictures won’t tempt you to save up and visit the place, nothing else will.