Our First
Anniversary trip to Puerto Princesa last year was a very memorable one. It
opened our hearts desire to travel more and explore, if not all, atleast some
of the tourist spots that the Philippines can be proud of. Before, I was hoping
to take a trip around the world, but after Puerto Princesa, I realized that I
need to travel first our country before going out. So when the time comes that
someone would ask me, what can the Philippines offer? I would proudly state every
places I’ve been to, until they’ll get tired of listening :P
The area
around the wrecks has rock formations which provide for snorkeling
opportunities, with underwater
visibility extending up to 80 feet (24 m). The water is often calm. Coron
is one of the most visited destinations for wreck diving in the Philippines. Wreck dive sites are found in depths as
shallow as 10–30 feet and as deep as 120–140 feet (37–43 m). Most are in the
range of about 60–80 feet.
 |
Kayangan Lake, you'll see more of this on Day 2
courtesy of Wikipedia |
With this
information, and not to mention a lot of blogs about how beautiful this place
is, BF and I decided to
come back to Palawan for more! Hehe. But this time, we will go to much laid
back place which is the Coron Island. My former board mates, Kwek and Jah,
together with their BFs, decided to come along since they haven’t been to any
places for leisure and vacation outside Metro Manila.
November 11,
2011 (11-11-11), a seat sale from Zest Air was announced which cost Php 11.00
one way (excluding other surcharges). But I wasn’t able to book on the
mentioned day since their site was not accessible and having an internal server
error. Probably a lot of people were trying to book a flight. The next day,
Nov. 12, 2011, I checked the website of Zestair again, it was now accessible.
So I tried to book a flight for our desired travel dates, and BOOM! The eleven
peso seat sale was still available, on our desired travel dates that include
our exact Anniversary (Aug. 20)! I immediately booked a flight from August
19-August 22, 2012, contacted Kwek and Jah, and borrowed my officemate’s credit
card for payment. (I paid my officemate immediately, don’t worry :D)
Fast
Forward, three weeks before our flight, raining was non-stop! The sun was not
even showing even for a while! I was really anxious that on the day of our
trip, there will be a storm. There was TS Gener, Habagat then just days before
our flight, there was TS Helen. Luckily, TS Helen just spent four days in the
Philippines, the sun shone on the day of our trip and our flight with Zestair
was smooth and on time. I was really thankful to Jesus that He granted my wish.
Seriously, He never fails to listen.
 |
| our tickets |
 |
| in case of emergency |
 |
| getting nearer |
 |
| and nearer :D |
We
arrived in Busuanga airport around 10:05AM, picture taking with the aircraft
(hahaha), waited for our luggage then proceeded outside the airport to look for
our van that will bring us to Coron town. Since we availed the package tour
offered by Coron Wonders (as recommended in Girltalk), they provided the van
for us. I saw my name and Kwek’s holding by a man, then he pointed Kuya (I
forgot). Kuya asked how many are we then he accompanied us to his van.
Actually, I was a bit shocked and disappointed when we were not alone in the
van; there were other tourist inside (around seven of them I presume). I
thought that the van service will be all ours but it turned out that it was
not. I thought of this because when we tour in Puerto Princesa, Palau-yo Tours
provided a van for us and it was all ours. No other tourist hitched with us
even though we are only two.
 |
| touchdown Coron! |
 |
| Francisco B. Reyes Airport |
 |
| Couple Pic! :) |
 |
| our names..vans are waiting |
Anyways,
back on our trip, the travel time from Busuanga Airport to Coron town is
approximately 30-45 mins. The road going town was already cemented so the ride
was smooth. Mountains and nature can be seen along the way.
We
were dropped-off in our hotel, which is R2R Bayview Inn. There was confusion
between Coron Wonders and R2R. Coron Wonders thought that we booked R2R through
them. I didn’t hear their argument until Kuya (forgot his name, they said it
was the owner of Coron Wonders) called Ms. Rina and she confirmed that we
directly booked the hotel. That was the only time that we were allowed to enter
the hotel and accompanied to our rooms. But here’s the thing, R2R haven’t cleaned
the rooms for us! Only one room was clean enough for us to stay while waiting
for the other rooms to be cleaned. So we waited for like 20 minutes before me
and BF can have our own private room (room 208). Also, our assigned tour guide
(forgot her name also, I am not really good in remembering names!), seems that
she doesn’t know our itinerary. She told me that she will pick us up in the
hotel around 5PM for our Maquinit Hotspring. A question mark drew all over my
face. Then I told her, “Akala ko mag-mt. Tapyas muna bago maquinit? (I thought
we will be climbing Mt. Tapyas first before proceeding to Maquinit?)”. Then I
showed her the itinerary that was sent by Ms. Rina. After reading, she changed
the time to 4PM. Actually, before Mt. Tapyas, according to the itinerary, we
will be touring around the town. But since according to my officemates who
previously went in Coron and to the blogs and forums that I had read that Coron
is just a small town, and thinking that we can do the town tour all by
ourselves, I decided not to discuss it to her anymore. Also we were a bit tired
from the travel.
 |
| our hotel for four days and three nights |
I did not bother to rant about these scenarios
during our trip, because I don’t want our vacation to be ruined. But as I was
writing this blog, I felt really annoyed to what happened to us on our arrival
and we can’t do anything about it.
Proceeding to
our trip, lunchtime came and we were really hungry. Exactly 12nn, we went out.
We really don’t know where to eat. I just relied on what I had read online.
Lolo Nonoy’s came up to my mind and Centro Coron. BF and I let our new
tourmates (Jah and her BF, Reinier) decide where to eat, and they chose Centro
Coron.
Centro Coron Bed and Breakfast is located near
the market. It is right across Ralph’s Pension House and GMG Hotel. It also
offers package tours and accommodation. The restaurant is quite small. Actually
the whole building is small as for me. I heard that this restaurant have
delicious meals. The four of us just shared the meal since it was a bit pricey
but has big servings. We ordered sinigang sa miso (pink salmon), pork liempo,
six rice (the BFs have a huge appetite..haha) and 1 mineral water. The food
taste is…OK. It doesn’t taste bad but it’s not that delicious. Good for very
hungry people (like us!). It’s forgettable hehehe. Our total bill was Php
800.00. For the taste and because we are “kuripot” (thrifty), the food is a bit
expensive. We didn’t experience bad customer service, probably because there
were few clients by that time.
 |
| pork liempo |
 |
| pink salmon; it's pink when you open the head |
 |
| BF and Me with Jah and Reinier |
After
eating, we decided to roam around the town. I wanted to see what I have been
reading about in blogs for so many months :). First, we went to the market. It was like a
typical market. The difference is there was souvenir items (shirts, ref
magnets, keychains) sold in the shops. Almost all of the eatery was carinderia
type, small but I think their food were reasonably price. I want to see how far
the port to our hotel is. The port is located at the back of the wet market. We
passed by Coron Gateway Hotel. This hotel is the nearest hotel to the port, but
it is very expensive to stay there.
 |
| road signage |
 |
| Mt. Tapyas View from the Market, the cross cannot be seen, too much light |
 |
| lualhati park |
 |
| near the market |
Overlooking
the port was different accommodations on stilts. One of them was Sea Dive
Hotel. It has its own docking area. It looked clean from afar. I noticed that there is a restaurant with
mermaids design. I later found out that it was La Sirenetta. Good location for
a restaurant right? It would be a romantic place for lovers especially when the
sunset is coming.
 |
| la Sirenetta |
 |
| sea dive |
 |
| the port |
Since
it was around 2PM, the sun is really, really high and it was super hot. We went
back to the location of Centro Coron and decided to have a mango shake beside
it. The shop is pure white. I really love its color. It looks really clean,
neat and relaxing. It’s called Ice Valley. They only sell different kinds of
halo-halo and shake. Bf wanted the special halo-halo but it was not available.
So we all settle for a mango shake. But the mangoes can only make three shakes!
The other only available shake would be banana shake. BF gave way so he was the
one who availed the banana shake. I just let him sip my mango shake. hehehe
 |
| Menu |
 |
| fave shot for the day :D |
 |
| Mango Shake and Banana Shake |
After
some chit-chatting and photo ops, we came back to our hotel. It was around 3PM
so we will have an hour to prepare for our Mt. Tapyas and Maquinit HotspringTour.
No comments:
Post a Comment