COVER STORY
El Nido town, the
IT DOESN’T TAKE LONG FOR PALAWAN to cast its spell. On our first evening, after an early flight from Manila, we are
asleep by nine. The next day, we wake before dawn, not to the tyrannical beeping of email alerts and WhatsApp notifications, but to the quavering trill of birdsong and the susurration of waves. On the verandah, in the pearly half-light, we sit and watch an olive-backed sunbird feed on the nectar of a potted bougainvillea. We are at Lagen Island in Bacuit Bay, about an hour by boat from the little airport at El Nido which is served by daily AirSWIFT flights from Manila and the only airline that flies directly to El Nido, Palawan. I was last here 20 years ago and it has changed little. This is a good thing. El Nido, and the busy little coastal town of the same name, is backpackerInstagram nirvana. If the selfie industry had an annual conference, it would take place on the beaches and lagoons of El Nido. This is “Wow!” This is “dreamy.” This is “STILL ON MY LIST!!!” Lagen Island resort, its pretty white cottages set on stilts in a lagoon of celeste blue, is a world of its own. From all those years ago I remembered a place that was professionally tropical, where guests can relax without the unctuous attention that so many resorts think is a sign of class. Everything works as it should, but in a no-fuss Filipino way that adds to the charm. Guests are pretty much left to their own devices, safe in the knowledge that if watching the sunrise becomes too taxing, there are plenty of activities, and staff to help you organize them. It’s the peace I remembered most. At dawn Lagen is so preternaturally still, bathed in honeyed light, that we could be preserved in agar. 24
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jump off point to Bacuit Bay's whitefringed islands
