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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Review: Palawan - Eulen Joy Transport Service

My first review on this blog. 

As much as I want to write only positive things, sadly as we all know, there are things that are just beyond our control. Or maybe it's within my control, but the adventurer in me took risk, hence this review. 

I booked the earliest flight to Puerto Prinsesa because I wanted to arrive in El Nido the soonest. Thinking we will be in PP around 7am, I will be able to catch a van leaving the city at 8, then set my eyes to beautiful El Nido just before sunset. 

Flight delay caused our plane to arrived at PP around 7.30am. I ask the person on the tourist information desk at the airport lobby where I can catch a van to El Nido, he excitedly said "you can book with us, now". Wow! That was easy! I asked what time is the van leaving, he said 8am. I glanced at my watch and it says 7.46. Great! Just perfect!

This guy then endorsed me to another fellow just outside the airport. We walked a few meters to a nipa hut office where they have these booklets that shows ETD of vans. It says there: 7am, 9am, 10.30am etc.  Hmm... no 8am schedule. I didn't mind that I was lied to by the first a--hole! But that's fine. I can have breakfast while I wait until 9am. 



9am arrived with no signs of any van leaving. I asked some men in the area if they know what time the van will leave, they said anytime soon. Great. And there was no one in the nipa hut office too! Awesome! 

So I stayed for a few minutes, read a very thank goodness entertaining book called 'Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore' oh wait wait! I saw the fella who booked my ticket for the 9am van. He's giving, I assumed, another group of passengers their receipt for their transportation. I calmly asked him what time is the van leaving, he just answered "now" and pointed to the group saying "they're your companions". The thing is the people in this group were just ordering their food! So obviously, the van is not leaving now! Darn it!

Oh well, this is supposed to be a vacation. And I know that stress causes cancer, so what the heck. I returned reading (Travel Tip: Books - a travel essential) and what do you know, a man(which happened to be the driver) approached me and asked if I am headed to El nido. I answered yes, and he took my bag and put it inside the van and finally, we're leaving PP. Yehey! Happiness. Almost! As it was already 10.30am.

PS. Googling Eulen Joy, it seems that they have quite some positive reviews, so maybe my experience is just a one off. What do you think?

1 comment:

  1. I am glad you take pride in what you write. This makes you stand way out from many other writers that push poorly written content.
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