MONTHLY CHALLENGE

A Relaxing Beach Day or Island Hopping Snorkelling?

You can guess what Stacey chose…

The day started early with breakfast on the beach at Marygold Cottages. Stacey had chosen this accommodation as the first day’s island hopping tour’s meeting point was the beach in front of our cottage. We enjoyed a Western breakfast of toast, butter, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit and a cup of tea. And waited for our tour. And waited. And waited.

Several boats pulled in to the beach. I ran to ask which tour they were. None were ours so I sat down to wait. Eventually, we were found and ushered to our boat. Our boat was parked much further down the beach. No one had met in front of the Marygold Cottages. I’d been sitting there the whole time.

We were the last passengers. The formalities were dispensed with including the mandatory lifejacket. Not to worry — we are both excellent swimmers. We snorkelled the Big Lagoon, Shimizu Island, and the Secret Lagoon.

Stacey tried her hand at kayaking. I stayed on the boat.

After snorkelling, I went and sat on a wall in the shade. I unwittingly had sat directly underneath a coconut palm. I was advised I was in danger of being hit on the head by a falling coconut (the tree was loaded!) so moved away. A very noisy volleyball game was being played behind me but I didn’t get involved. I would have loved to. (I played A grade volleyball many years ago.) I had a mean serve.

Back to El Nido to shower, dress and head to Bulay Isla Tours office by 5.30pm for the orientation of our 4 day — 3 night camping boat trip island hopping. (All different islands than we had visited today!)

We walked down the road so Stacey could take photos of the sunset and spotted a rooftop restaurant which Stacey decided she’s get better sunset photos. so we climbed up three flights of stairs to find the blinds were down blocking the view. After the exertion of the stairs, we decided we might as well have dinner here. It looked a little expensive but at least the prices were advertised on a menu board on the ground floor. Italian again but I could eat Italian every night so it didn’t bother me.

The owner/chef greeted us warmly as Italians do and gave us his recommendations — the carbonara and the sfiziosa pizza. Ricardo was a good salesman — he convinced us to upgrade the bacon to “pig’s cheek”. It was delicious but I told him I like my pasta softer! He was slightly affronted but laughed, “Oh, you Australians!” Stacey assured him it was perfect!

He improvised on the sfiziosa pizza so I don’t know exactly what went on it but it was the best pizza I’ve had anywhere in the world - including Italy. After my criticism of the undercooked carbonara, he was chuffed and proceeded to explain the type of flours he uses to create the base which was the “pièce de résistence”. The crust was crisp on the outside but light and fluffy inside. I could have eaten the base on its own — it was so good. Stacey mentioned I had just had my birthday and he brought us dessert on the house — fresh fruit with chantilly cream.

The restaurant as well as the rest of the town lost power during dessert, but came back on after a few minutes. He was so apologetic! We were the only ones dining so as an extra treat, he brought us shots of limoncello — my favourite — he said he knew. You know Italians — full of charm.

Stacey went to pay the bill fully expecting it to be very expensive. It was only 1500 pesos (about $40AUD) for a truly memorable meal including four San Miguel beers.

When we descended the stairs, we noticed all of the restaurants on the ground level were empty too. Maybe people eat much later here?

We climbed into a tricycle who dropped us at the laundry where we collected all of our clean folded clothes wrapped up in a bundle of plastic. Some serious repacking needed to be done tonight. Everything we won’t need for the next 4 days and 3 nights has to be packed in our big suitcase which will be put in the hold of the boat and the things we needed like togs, towels, sunscreen, mozzie spray etc had to be packed in our daypacks. Of course, it all didn’t fit so I packed two extra bags — one with toiletries and one with swimming gear. I crashed and left Stacey up packing.

Enjoy Bell Dae’s sandboarding adventure!

And suffer with Melissa Rach as she hiked Montserrat!

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