Day 1. Fly to El Nido

Flight to Manila

Our first leg was a United Airline direct flight from SFO to Manila. At SFO, Ethan dropped us off at Terminal 3. We checked in our bags and walked to the gate at the international terminal. 

The flight was scheduled to depart at 11:35pm. It was a 15-hour flight and filled with small events. Once we were onboard the airplane, it was announced that we had to wait a few minutes before leaving because they forgot to load about 100 luggages. In-flight, someone had a minor medical issue and they were asking for any passenger with medical background to help. When they served dinner, they ran out of chicken quickly so we only had veggie noodle. Then it was announced that a water hose broke in the back of the airplane and water was spreading because we were descending. I put my backpack on my feet so that it would not get wet. The final 30 minutes before landing were used to the highest efficiency, we were served breakfast, finished eating, were given the custom form, and finished filling it. With all these, we happily arrived on time at 6:45 am.

Manila Airport  

Immigration

The rules and documents needed for Philippines entry were not clear online. I did a lot of readings but still got two things off.

  • I did not know that we needed to fill immigration forms online at https://etravel.gov.ph/. This would be better done at home pre-travel. There was a free WiFi service called OHP at the Manila airport, so we were able to do the online registration there with our phones.
  • Since I am traveling with Claire without Ethan, I was not sure whether I needed his notarized consent letter. I even emailed and asked the Philippines consulate about it, and as told better to bring the letter. It turned out that it was not needed at all.

At Immigration, the nice officer just checked our passports and we were all cleared. She said that Claire's last name "Aleman" was a Filipino last name and asked whether Claire has any Filipino blood. I told her that my husband was Mexican and it must be a Spanish thing. 

T3

We then got our luggage, went through custom, and reached the area where there were many shops. The terminal we arrived at was T3, the international terminal. There were many money exchange places. The best rate was 55.35 PHP for 1 USD. This rate was offered by a couple of places, but only one BDO Bank had a long line of people in front it. I decided to follow the crowd and got my local currency there. 

SIM card shops were next door to the BDO bank. There were two companies, Smart and Globe, next to each other. I bought one Smart SIM card for 1600PHP that has like 70G data. 

It was 9:30am at that time, three hours since our last meal on the airplane. We walked to a restaurant and got two noodle bowls, chicken and beef. It only cost 240PHP total, like $5. And the food was delicious.  


T4

We then walked to the airport terminal shuttle to go to Terminal T4 to catch our domestic flight to El Nido with AirSwift airline. We were lucky that the shuttle arrived right after we got to the shuttle place. Our flight was 2pm, and we arrived the terminal at 10am. AirSwift check-in counters were not open till noon. They also told me that all earlier flights were full so we could not be switched to another flight. 

T4 was an interesting setup that the terminal was a one-story building on a small business street. It felt more like a bus terminal to me. There were restaurants right across the street. Inside the terminal, there were not many shops in the wait area. There was one money exchange with much worse rate than T3, less than 49PHP for 1$. There was also one snack shop and a coffee shop.

There were no good restaurant options inside, so I walked outside of the airport and bought chicken BBQ, pork adobo, and a bottle of water for our lunch. It was 700 PHP total. We liked the food.

After 12:00, we checked in our luggages, and walked to the gates. There were five gates and they would announce which the gate to board right at the boarding time. 

Our flight departed at 2:05pm and arrived at 3:30pm in El Nido. Only water was served during the flight. 

El Nido

Sea Cocoon Hotel

I had asked the hotel (Sea Cocoon Hotel) to arrange an airport pick up. There was some miscommunication between the driver and the hotel that the driver got my first name wrong. Despite of that, we were able to find the driver and got to the hotel smoothly.

There were many tricycles at the El Nido airport. It cost 300 PHP to go to town. Cars needed to be prearranged. Our hired car cost 500 PHP. So much more comfortable than tricycles.

We will stay at the Sea Cocoon Hotel for four nights. I booked through their website and paid a deposit during booking. I paid the remaining balance with my credit card during check in. I also paid in cash 2000PHP deposit and 500PHP for the airport pickup.

The hotel has free breakfast from 7-9am, but we needed to order our entry the day before and specify when to eat. So we made our breakfast selection at the check in and asked for 7am breakfast.

While I was doing checkin, Claire was petting a large beige dog next to the front desk. The front desk person commented that there were two dogs here. This chow chow was very friendly and anyone can pet her. There was another brown dog, if we see her, we should not pet her. 

The hotel is one of the larger hotels in El Nido. It has a swimming pool. Our room was clean, bed was comfy, we had nice cold AC. While facility was great, street noise was loud at night and earplugs are a must to sleep. The hotel does not allow you to take towels outside and you have to pay a rental fee to do that.

Tours

I wanted to do Island Hopping Tour A the next day. By the time we got settled in our hotel room, it was too late to book tours online for tomorrow. The online per person price for Tour A at both Klook and KKday was 950PHP + entrance fees. All local shops including our hotel was asking for 1200PHP + entrance fees. 

After visiting several places, I eventually booked the tour from Stingray Travel and Tours. It was the best deal with them because they lowered the price to 1100PHP + entrance fees and they offered free towels. I highly recommend this place. It is not on Google map, it was cross street from El Nido Boutique Artcafe. Their WhatsApp contact is +63 933 323 5576.

The entrance fees for Tour A are 

  1. 200 PHP per person environmental fee. This is good for 10 days, so ask for a receipt so that you can use it later. When I got the receipt, I noticed that it was100 PHP for Claire since she was a minor. The tour company charged me 200 so I asked and got 100 back.
  2. 200 PHP per person big lagoon entrance fee. 
  3. 300 PHP kayak rental for big lagoon.

1 and 2 were collected by the tour company at the booking time. 3 is paid on the boat during the tour.

After booking the tour, we walked to the nearby beach area. There were lots of tour boats there.

Vibes Restrobar

We walked to the restaurant Vibes Restrobar for dinner. Claire got a chicken skewer with fries and I got a shrimp skewer with fries, total 900PHP. Really amazing food. 



After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night from street noise and put on my ear plugs. Then I was able to sleep again.

 


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