El Nido

Our second week together was a complete contrast to the first. We traded the damp rice terraces of central Luzon in late December for the palm trees, bright sunshine and blue waters of Palawan in early January. The difference could hardly have been greater.

The elongated islands of Palawan lie in the west of the Filipino archipelago. From their most southerly point on Balabac Island, it is only 30 miles across the water to Banggi Island in Malaysia.

El Nido in the north is probably Palawan's best known and most exclusive resort. Depending on what you are prepared to pay for your accommodation, you can enjoy the luxury of a private beach and house if you so wish. Alternatively, you can travel on a very reasonable budget indeed. We decided to do the latter and it nevertheless proved to be an unforgettably fulfilling few days in every respect.

El Nido undoubtedly corresponds to most people's perception of the way the whole of the Philippines look. Should you be old enough to remember the backdrop for the Bounty commercial from yesteryear advertising 'the taste of paradise', then you already have an accurate picture of El Nido's surrounding bays, coves and inlets in your mind. If you love sun, sand and the open sea, it's a dream come true. I don't like the open sea I have to confess, but I still thought it was a dream come true. Admittedly the electricity in the entire resort is turned off every day between 6am and 2pm, but to be honest that just adds to the feeling of remoteness and isolation. The chances are you'll want to join one of the island-hopping tours which depart from the waterfront each morning anyway. As an added bonus, if you decide to lie-in each day, (as Kev and Jule did), you might even be lucky enough to miss the crowds and get a pump boat to yourselves at no extra cost. Since there were four of us, we also had the luxury of spending most of the day by ourselves with our own private boatmen who were very amenable to our rather liberal interpretation of time-keeping. Then again, it's worth remembering that 'Filipino time' is a concept that's universally understood here, irrespective of which island you are visiting. That is to say, things get done, whenever they get done and not before.