Random Ramblings from El Nido

Sunday December 5, 2010

Wow! I can't believe it’s December.

There are a lot of Christmas decorations here in El Nido to remind us… but it still doesn’t seem like December when you spend your days at the beach in the sun!

This is where we enjoy our breakfast each morning

We have been pretty lazy these last days in El Nido. Steve ended up with a cold for a few days (it’s amazing how much faster you get better when you don’t have to go to work!) and then I ended up with some lingering dizziness after our kayak trip so we rested for a few more days. We’ve got two glorious weeks here anyway… and who doesn’t enjoy lounging at the beach? 

I’ve got more random ramblings about El Nido that I wanted to jot down before I forgot them… so here they are!

Guns- it’s interesting (and slightly frightening) to notice that not only do the police have guns, but even the security guards at your hotels have guns. At the banks in Puerto Princesa the guards had machine guns and handguns. I’m not really sure what kind of stuff has been going on here… but clearly they are trying to scare people into stopping it! Interestingly, I think it’s transferred into the children’s play. I have seen so many more kids playing with plastic guns then I’ve ever seen at home!

Westernization – I was surprised at how westernized the Philippines is. After being in Bali and Vietnam where the majority of things seemed traditional… there are a lot of indicators of the western world in the Philippines. I guess I was under the impression that it would be more traditional… but nope… everyone has a cell phone and there are plenty of Franchise restaurants if you want them!

The Post Office – I bought some postcards in a store and had to of course get some stamps. One girl told me twice that they sold stamps in the store, but when I got to the counter with my postcards the other girl said no… only at the post office. It’s not a big town… the post office was only down the street… so off we headed to get our stamps. When Steve went in to ask, the lady told him, "No stamps today, maybe tomorrow." I have to wonder what the post office was even doing open if they don’t have stamps??? Maybe they do something else in there too? Just so you know we went the next day and they still didn’t have stamps… Steve thinks we better wait until we are back in Puerto Princesa before we mail them… who knows how often the mail is picked up here!

This is the El Nido Post Office. They didn't have any stamps for the whole two weeks we were there!

Curfew – There is a curfew for all locals under 18 years of age in El Nido. At 9:50 PM a warning siren sounds (from the police station right across the street from us), and at 10:00 PM all locals under 18 are expected to be in their homes. We aren’t sure what happens if you break curfew… and don’t really want to find out!

Electricity – The electricity in El Nido is turned off between 6 AM and 2 PM for the entire town. What this means is that if you want a hot water shower (if you are lucky enough to have hot water like we do) you either get up before 6 or wait until after 2! There have been quite a few cold showers this week (we think those of you who like cold showers are CRAZY… you know who you are!). So in the morning we have no electricity in our hotel… but oddly the wifi still works?!? They must be running off a generator… I’m not sure who decided that Internet was a bigger priority than aircon or hot water…

Kayak Trip – One afternoon, when Steve was pretty much over his cold, we decided to rent a kayak and paddle out to some of the secluded beaches. The water seemed calm from the beach so it didn’t occur to me to take any motion sickness pills. BIG mistake. Once we got out of the bay there started to be some moderate swells, and I started feeling sick. We paddled over to a beach and I just had to lay down on the rocks while Steve explored a bit.

There were so many other places we could have paddled to, but I was just feeling too bad, so we decided to head back in once I was feeling a little better. As soon as we started paddling again I felt quite sick… so sick that Steve ended up paddling the whole way back without my help while I “fed the fish”. By the time we got back to the shore (about an hour) I wanted to get out of the boat and lay down. Steve was so focused on paddling me back in, he didn’t notice that his leg had fallen asleep. When he exited the kayak he fell right on his butt because his whole leg was totally asleep (I was feeling so sick, I didn’t even get to enjoy this stupendous fall!). His sunglasses fell off his head and floated away in the waves because he wasn’t able to get up to grab them. Next time we go out in the kayak I take the motion sickness tablets!!!! I’m not sure why it hit me so hard, but I was dizzy for about two days afterwards… and we were forced to laze about on the beach again... (It’s terribly sad… isn’t it?!😉)

This is Steve searching for his missing sunglasses

The Beach – The beach here in El Nido is beautiful. The sand is fine and coral beige, and the water is warm. We ended up wearing our water shoes most times we went swimming just because the sea urchins on the first trip scared me a bit 😀 But really the ground underwater is almost completely sand.

The Food – We have tried quite a few of the beach restaurants and have enjoyed the food at each one. The meal (including drinks for the two of us) typically comes to about 600 PHP, which is about $14… so food is good and cheap!

Kid’s Playing – One of my favourite past times while I lounge at the beach is watching the local kids playing. These kids love to play… and play a lot! (It’s so good to see kids happily playing outside!) They don’t have toys to play with… they just make do with what they find.

This usually involves sand, seaweed and boats.

• They use the boats in the bay as playgrounds. If a boat is anchored it seems it is fair game to play on. Even if the crew is on the boat getting ready they don’t seem to mind if the kids are climbing on it or it’s outriggers like a jungle gym, hanging off it, or using it as a diving board.

• Seaweed is used as a weapon in a game I like to call “Seaweed Fight”. This involves getting as much seaweed as you can and throwing it at the other person or whipping them with it. Sometimes you can get little brothers or sisters involved in collecting more seaweed for you while you battle your opponent.
• Sand has many uses. There is the obvious “making sand angels”. There is also a very fun game where you roll around in the sand so your entire body is covered in sand and then run screaming into the water to wash it off… I like to call this one “Sand Monster”. It’s also fun to bury each other in the sand. I do have to say that the favourite game with sand is “Sand Fight”. This can be as simple just picking up sand and throwing it at someone, or as complicated as teams of kids (10 or more per side) making sandballs and battling each other.
• There is also the ever popular throwing people around in the water game!

• Here is a list of other things I have seen kids play with quite happily for extended periods of time: sticks, buckets, a piece of Styrofoam, the tape out of a cassette tape, plastic bags and flip flops. (If you don’t have a ball you can always play catch with a shoe!)

The thing that really struck me is that the kids play happily for hours with nothing that we would consider “toys”. They’re not bored, they don’t complain and I have not seen any kid cry or get angry once. It certainly makes you think!💖