El Nido video

El Nido, Philippines

 We flew on Philippine airlines from Bali to Manila and then on Air Swift from Manila to El Nido. It is not an easy or cheap place to get to. But the beautiful islands and warm ocean made it all better once we finally arrived. The first place we stayed was called Shipwrecked Pension house. We booked it on line from Bali. It was right in the middle of town and not on the beach. We did not have a window in the room, which made it a little claustrophobic  but it was actually really quiet at night. We stayed there for a couple of nights, then moved on to the outskirts of town. We were now right on the beach and didn't have all the city busyness as soon as we walked out the door. 

The temp's were really hot!! We spent many an hour laying in the warm waters soaking up the sun. 

We also went for long walks to other nearby beaches. Jumping in the water along the way to cool off. 

Ahh!! This is the life!! We decided to stop on one of our hikes and take a dip and have a nice cold beer.

Miranda and I both love the water. So we hung out together laughing and finding things to talk about even after spending the last 3 months together 24/7

Sunsets in El Nido were fabulous!! 

Still having fun!!

More sun

More reading on the beach

Miranda talking on FaceTime with Brittany! SOOO exciting!! 

The streets of El Nido

Bikes, cars, people, motorized tricycles all trying to find space on the street. A little to chaotic for us. 

                   We found the best pizza joint in El Nido. Wood fired pizzas. So Yummy!!

We went on the island hopping tour A. We wished we had gone on it sooner, as we might have done another one while we were there. Very fun time going from island to island. Snorkelling at some and swimming at others. We saw where they filmed one of the survivor shows. Which we are huge fans of and really liked to see. 

We rented a kayak and paddled around the islands and into little bays that boats are to big for. Miranda jumped off the kayak to go for a snorkel and came flying back on just as quick when she saw massive scary looking jelly fish. It was very funny. 

The feast they made us on the boat during the tour. 

 The view of El Nido town from the water. It is a very bustling town full of friendly people and great food. It is a great place to go on island hopping tours and we had some of the most fabulous scuba diving ever. We found that 1 week was about enough for this area. Next time we would try to find an island that was less touristy. 

 Our place on the beach for 5 nights.

 The view from our little hotel on the beach. During the day, all these boats are out on tours

 We stayed at Entalula beach resort. It included breakfast and was right on the beach owned and run by a very nice lady and her family. She keeps the place running very smoothly. We had a great breakfast every morning delivered to our little deck.

After our time in El Nido, we could not take a flight directly to Cebu, which was where we were flying out of. So we had to take a 5 hour bus ride to a town called Puerto Princessa. This town is where most flights fly in and out of. Making it a little more difficult to get to when headed to EL Nido. Puerto Princessa is not really a town that you would travel to. Its a busy port town that you basically drive to to catch and plane to the island from. 

All is all our time in El Nido was good. We found the town to be much to crazy busy to really want to spend to much time in. There are very few really great places to stay here. It is more set up as a backpacker town and has grown to fast without much thought to planning out how things would work. There are some really nice restaurants and the scuba diving and snorkelling are what this place does really well. 

cooking class in Bali

One of our most favourite things to do while traveling is to take a cooking class. We had never done one in Bali, so we were really excited to do it!

We started the day at the local market. We learnt about the fruits, vegetables and meat that Bali has to offer and had a chance to taste and touch lots of different ingredients. 

Here are some really made offering baskets that the Hindu people buy early in the morning at the start of their day. Very colourful and beautiful.

All the ingredients that we used to prepare the feast

Everything was so fresh and bright

Our cooking partner mashing up peanuts for peanut sauce

chopping chopping  chopping

the peanut sauce is looking saucier

Everything is chopped and ready to start cooking 

using the mortar and pestle 

making soup

learning to wrap fish before steaming

steaming the fish

BBQing the chicken sate

the fish is ready!

Our completed meal!!

getting scolded.... Just kidding

Father daughter team!!

Nusa Lembongan. Indonesia

 https://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia/bali/nusa-lembongan

We spent 1 week on Nusa Lembongan. The fast boat to Nusa Lembongan is interesting. We had a driver pick us up at the airport and we had just enough time to make it to the boats that leave daily for the island. When we arrived at the boat area, there was a little  confusion as to where our boat was parked. The tide happened to be very low at the time and os the boats all moved to a different area along the beach. After our amazing driver ran up and down the beach asking about the boat, we finally got to the correct area. Had we not had a driver that worked so hard to get us there on time, we would have not made the boat and would have had to find an alternate place to stay that night. all our bags were loaded onto the boat by the boat company. We were asked to put all our footwear into the green basket and wade through the water to hop onto the boat.  

When we arrived on the island, the basket of flip flops was dumped onto the sand and it was a free for all to find our shoes.

We took an amazing snorkel trip to snorkel with the mantas and then the next day we couldn't resist going back to dive with the manta!! The trip to the location was an experience in itself. The scenery was spectacular!!

The morning we went on the dive, we left fairly early so we could get to the dive site before all the other boats arrived and we'd have the mantas all to ourselves. The plan worked perfectly and we  were able to dive with 12 mantas for 55 minutes before anyone else showed up. It was one of the most serene dives. Sitting at the bottom of the ocean watching as all around us these huge majestic creatures swooped and slide by us. Not seeming to mind one bit that we joined their breakfast swim. 

This is not our video, but it was close to what we saw while snorkelling the first time and then we were at the bottom scuba diving the second time. 

 

We decided to go for a day of touring the island. Scooter rentals are the most common and really the only way to go exploring. It 

Some of the streets were a little scary to maneuver  around. 

 Drying seaweed along the road. Maybe this is seaweed that we eat in our sushi??

We would occasionally hike over to the hotel down the road. They had an amazing infinity pool that they let the public use after 6pm if you ordered a drink. 

Our hotel view from our room front door.

We ate well every day.

We had a room for 3. Miranda got the mattress on the floor

The view from along the road when we went on our scooter trip. This is looking back over to the island after we crossed the little yellow bridge.

We found another infinity pool

One of the pools at our hotel. They were;t fancy, but they were all very refreshing.

More food. Mmm 

The room at Tanis Villas. Our home for the week we spent on Nusa Lembongan.

http://www.tanisvilla.com

 All in all Nusa Lembongan is a place we really enjoyed and a place I would recommend going to for 5-7 days