The Chronicles of Coron - Day 1
I can't keep myself from thinking so much about how fun and exciting the trip was. So as much as I want to reminisce the memories by looking at the photos, here's the blog of the wonderful trip with my closest CS friends.
By invitation from Cath, we all embarked in this journey of a thousand miles! This by far would be the most adventurous and undeniably most fun trip of the year 2010. You'll know why if you read along.
Day 1 - Expect the Unexpected
The night before the trip, of course, I made sure I have packed all my stuff in. From toiletries to clothes to swim wear, yep I got all of them. It was past 1am when I finished or probably I was just too excited to sleep early.
I woke up at around 5:30am and left the house at a quarter before 7. I wanted to have enough time for me to catch a cab to the airport and besides, it's Friday, it can still be rush hour early in the morning.
Luckily, I was able to hail a cab immediately and by a few mins past 8am I was already at NAIA Terminal 3. Our flight is at 10:30am via Air Philippines, so this means I'm not late.
Since I'm still early, I walked up the second floor of T3. I've never been up there before. So it was good to see some newly opened shops and cafes to grab something. Since I wasn't really hungry I just got myself some Mentos candy and a pre-paid card and sat somewhere to wait for the rest of the guys travelling with me.
Cath has replied to me that she is already on her way.
T3 is also equipped with a wifi so I'm glad I have the time to still check up on my facebook while waiting.
In a few minutes, Cath came with Abby, followed by Joyce, who we already met at the check-in counter. We checked in our bags. Went up again and sat somewhere near 7 eleven.
By this time, we just waited for Charlie, Rand and Jester. A few minutes of waiting passed by and I received a call from Rand. Quite a bad news, that there's no more seats left for Jester on our plane. We rushed to them to find out why and what we can do about it.
And there goes the first adventure of the day...we had to talk to 'Nike' boy who left us clueless about our situation. Good thing Cath proved to be in a very powerful position being her the birthday celebrant. ;) She did a great job following it up with the kind gentleman from Airphil who made sure Jester gets a seat in the next flight. We waited until it was time to board to confirm that Jester gets his seat.
But we had to leave him behind as we already need to board the plane. The gentleman from Airphil promised he'll do his best to get him in the next plane to Busuanga at 3pm.
First lesson of the day - if there's any other way you could avoid a flight with Airphil, then avoid it as much as possible. This is my first flight with Air Philippines and I'm just not very happy. I know they did what they can but I'm sure they could have done better. I can't imagine our flight being moved to the 12:30 flight with no apparent reason. And most of all having one of us not getting a seat in our flight. I have not encountered this before so hopefully that was the first and last.
So got up to the gate just in time to board our plane. Of course, it's sad that we are leaving Jester behind, but the excitement has just rolled into me. I'm finally going to Coron! Another new destination added to my list!
The Air Philippines plane is quite small compared to Ceb Pac. It's also a little old from what I can tell with the seats and the air conditioning seems not very satisfactory as well. But I'm fine with that, what I'm worried is that my stomach is already growling out of hunger. It's past twelve and we haven't eaten lunch.
A few minutes up in the air, they served us food for free. We choose between Jollibee burger steak or 1 pc chicken joy. I got the chicken joy but since we are getting off the plane soon I decided I'll just eat it at the van on our way.
Well, they earned a point for serving us lunch coz I'm just sleepy and hungry.
After less than hour, we landed in Busuanga airport. We immediately got all or bags and head to the van that takes us to Coron Town and finally to our accommodation at Sea Breeze.
So we got to Sea Breeze and just after fixing up our things and meeting up with our CS contact there, Angela, we walked around the town to find some place we can hang out to get Wifi connection. So we head to Coron Village Lodge for a quick drink.
Next we head to the Cashew nut store - there were packs that they sell for 50 pesos and 100 pesos. I thought it was still pricey so I settled only for the free taste. haha
Next we climb up the Mt. Tapyas's 700 steps. It wasn't all too easy actually. There was a point our muscles are already tired, Rand even had a song for it. It was just all in the mind so we sang "Hindi, hindi, hindi nanginginig". But finally we all successfully completed the more that 700 steps. Up the top we had a great time taking photos and enjoying the relaxing view of the green mountains and overlooking the island. It's beautiful indeed.
Later on we decided to go back down since it's getting dark. We plan to head to the Maquinit hot springs to soothe our tired bodies.
We went back to the lodge and then had an adventurous trip going to and at Maquinit Hotsprings. We took a tricycle to go up to the hotsprings. In the middle of our trek, the tricycle stopped three times due to lack of gasoline? Not sure. But we are lucky that on the third time, a police car managed to help us and took us back to the main entrance and helped us get another tricycle. Glad that on the second tricycle we were able to reach the hotsprings.
Just in time to enjoy the relaxing dip, we wowed upon seeing the hotsprings and then poof! Lights went off or rather the generator shuts down. We were just all too surprised these mishaps keep on happening on our first day! Anyway, these didn't stop us. We still continued our plans and enjoyed the night swimming in the hotsprings.
By past 9 we went back to town to fix up ourselves and get dinner. Our dinner is taken cared of by the Binalot eatery just some walking distance from Sea Breeze. Walking at night around town should be fine.
After dinner, we then called it a night. It was a long day full of misadventures and what nots. The following day should be better, we are expecting Jester to arrive and we head on to some island hopping and an overnight stay in Banana Island. Woohoo!
Photo Credits: Cath, Charlie and Joyce
