THE COVER STORY I AT LONG LAST
El Nido Resorts
01
02
AT LONG LAST
—EL NIDO RESORTS Preface Escaping the bitter winters of New York in search of paradise in the country that is home. WRITER
Raphael John C. Oriel PHOTOGRAPHERS
Roxanne C. Oriel, MD Neal Joseph, MD
It’s a bright 6AM in the morning—the sun is crisp and blazingly warm. We have arrived in Puerto Princesa, Palawan—ready to embark on a five-hour journey to El Nido—the faraway, remote, and mysterious, yet immaculate destination we’ve profusely googled, read, and heard countless things about from family, friends, colleagues, to features in Conde Nast and the National Geographic. We’ve come to see if this place lives up to the hype or if it’s just another byproduct of hyperbolic marketing strategies that the competitive travel industry has grown accustomed to. Does El Nido deserve to be on a bucket list? Is this place really worth the 24-plus hours of travel time from the East Coast of America? Are the stories true about this hidden paradise? Is this where I can find refuge, solitude, and get re-centered from the current state of my American life? Why did we choose El Nido instead of Bali, Phuket, 42
BALIKBAYANMAGAZINE.COM
03
the Great Barrier Reef, a Mediterranean Cruise, or even the South of France?—This better be worth it. As I hear the giddy pitch and tones of Filipino accents intertwining with Tagalog and foreign tongues ranging from American, Asian, European, and Middle Eastern English, I am hit with the vivid memory and darkness of those cold, blistering winters of New York City. I smile and think—I’m just happy to be back home and f inally bronzing under the Philippine Sun. This must be what my parents feel when they say there’s nothing like going home to the Philippines. Amongst the scores of foreign and local travelers deplaning, we find our driver holding a sign with our names on it. We say to him, “El Nido Resorts?” In a rather adorable yet sinister grin, he smiles at us—as though he knows of a beautiful secret that we are about to be told—that we are about to see and experience something unique.
04