8 Things I Love About Pangulasian -- Palawan (Part 2)

[1] Canopy Villas

It was a blissful stay. We had our own villa on the treetops. Personally, I prefer this to the beach ones. We had the beach casita before, and I always had to make sure sand doesn't make its way to the bed or the bedroom floors. Haha. At least, with the canopy villas (treetop), your feet will dry off as you walk to the top.

There's the occasional monkey visit to our terrace, but I pretty much prefer that than reptile ones by the beach. Haha.

[2 & 3] View and Food by the Sea

Pardon the weird photo. I was testing our cheapo wide angle phone lens. But you get the idea. You dine by the beach with a roof on your head and you can hear the waves crashing.

One of our favorite menu item was this miso chicken pizza. It has the perfect hint of salt and sugar in it. Yum!

During breakfast, you can eat al fresco inside their dining hall with a fully loaded buffet that starts inside and overflows to the veranda.

You can have this view while you eat.

[4] The Lagoons

Lagoon visits are a must when you travel to El Nido. Pangulasian Island Resort gives complimentary tours to these wonderful places. I think my jaw dropped when I saw the lagoons of El Nido.

[5] The Arts and Crafts Scene

We were welcomed with palm leaf necklaces when we arrived. The crafter in me wanted to learn, so I asked the staff if I could.

One of them taught me. It was pretty easy and so fun!

I also learned how to make anklets using these beads.

See? The string we used was what fishermen use to make their nets. How awesome is that?


[6] The Staff

They are one of the friendliest people I've ever met. It's always a treat to talk with them about the resort, how they came to work there and maybe a little showbiz chismis on the side, but not too much.

[7] Sustainability

The resort gave us reusable water bottles, small canvas pouches and bayongs to store our stuff while trekking the island. It's one of their ways to promote waste reduction. They whole island has its own sewage treatment plant where they reuse the water to flush the toilets. Oh, and for those who asked about the canvas tote, that one is a gift from Pine Sol. I need to change the monogram though.

[8] The Company

Most of all, I love the company. I was with my best friend and my life partner during this visit. It was truly an amazing experience for us --  a much needed vacation away from the concrete jungle. And it was perfect.

Visitng the World's Best Island -- Palawan (Part I)

For two years in a row, Palawan has been hailed by Condé Nast Traveller as the Best Island in the World, beating Bora Bora and Maldives, two places I would love to visit too.

This is only my second time visiting Palawan; the first one was several years back at Amanpulo, long before GoPros and social media. If we weren't ready then to document our travel, we were ready now, kinda.

My husband and I were both beach buddies, and if there was one place we wanted to spend time together by ourselves, it had to be Palawan. We were lucky too because Palawan is just a couple of hours away from Metro Manila.

We knew we wanted to save as much as possible without sacrificing the quality of our stay, so we decided to scour the travel fairs for the best deals. July to September are the best months to get the coolest deals for local and international travel. We found a great El Nido Resorts deal for a 4-day stay at Pangulasian Island. We spent about $2,500 for everything including airfare, lodging and food. This is just about the normal rate for the accommodations, so in a sense, we were able to get free airfare and food.

The resort had its own aviation travel partner, whose Manila airport was smack right where Amanpulo's is. It really brought back memories. The El Nido lounge has a breakfast buffet set for us, and we had our own reserved table.

Getting to Pangulasian was very easy because everything was already arranged for us. Let's see. We rode a plane from Manila to El Nido. Then this huge jeepney took us from the runway to the airport lounge, where we were served Palawan delicacies.

It was high tide when we arrived, so we rode a speedboat from the marsh behind the lounge to get to the bay and ride the bangka to the resort. Normally, visitors have to ride a jeepney to go to the port and ride a bangka from there.

Finally, we arrive at the resort! There were probably 10-15 people who welcomed us at the shore.

They gave us these palm leaf necklaces. Fruits were waiting for us inside our villa.

This is how the villa looks inside.

(to be continued)