Blogs from Busuanga, Palawan, Philippines, Asia
February 18th 2012
Feb 11th It is a flight day. I woke up to take a flight to Manila and then after a 4 hour wait, take a connecting flight to Coron City on Busuanga Island. There were regular boats between El Nido and Coron, but I had already bought flight tickets. The hotel I was at drove me to the airport. We boarded and left the airport about 30 minutes early, thus arriving at Manila 30 minutes ahead of schedule (the wonders of a small airport). I was in Manila for several hours, picked up a new set of headphones to replace the ones that stopped working the day before. My flight to Coron was delayed by 1.5 hours. I arrived in the small airport and found Vicky who ran the guesthouse I was going to. They drove ... read more
January 30th 2011
It wasn’t until the engine blew with a bang that my myriad of concerns crystallized into a single controlled panic. A cloud of dense, oily blue smoke erupted from the fantail and obscured the boat’s wake. One of the three crewmen who had been cloistered in the phone booth-sized bridge hustled back along the narrow starboard deck, stepping over oblivious passengers who were dozing on top of their neon orange life jackets. After shutting down the number two engine and a brief conference in the phone booth, the American man, who was ostensibly in charge of the boat, ducked his head into the small passenger cabin with a plastic smile plastered on his face and announced that we would be two hours later getting into El Nido from Coron City than originally planned. I did the ... read more
January 18th 2011
The plane was full of holiday makers. Mostly Filipinos with a smattering of westerners all headed south to the island of Busuanga about an hour’s flight via a twin engine turbo-prop. Flying into the island is not unlike the trip into Phuket, Thailand. Limestone karsks dominate the verdant landscape. The airport is small. Very small. The baggage handlers wheel the luggage from the plane to the terminal in hand carts and walk them in. There is a comfortable van that will transport you to the main town of Coron City about 45 minutes away via goat clogged roads. The cost for the ride is 150 Pesos (about $4 US) and the driver will drop you at your hotel of choice. Karen and I chose the Amphibiko Resort based on a recommendation we had received from an ... read more
April 25th 2010
Busuanga is a perfect getaway for couples who loves diving! To reach this place, Sangat Island Reserve you need to take a flight rom Manila to Busuanga Airport via Cebu Pacific. After reaching the airport take a 2 hour mini bus ride to Coron and about 30-45 mins boat ride to Sangat Island. For me the journey took ages, but once our feet touched this magnificent island, every thing else behind is forgotten. This Island is so much worth the effort and hassle of commuting.... read more
March 2nd 2010
Coron town (the port town on the island of Busuanga) doesn't have a whole lot going for it - it is mostly just boat docks and tricycles - but the surrounding islands and Japanese ship wrecks are what people come for. Our boat from El Nido to Coron was advertised to take 4 hours, but most people we asked said it would take 6 or 7. It ended up taking over 9 hours. This was partly due to an engine break down shortly after we left El Nido, which took them a while to fix, and then another one about half an hour later. We were a little worried that the engine would fail when we weren't so close to shore but the boat men just laughed and said that if we did break down we ... read more
February 29th 2008
The night previous to travelling to Palawan the group went on another bender in Boracay, minus ourselves - either we are boring or sensible! We knew we had an eventful half day of boats, jeepnees and planes ahead, unbearable for some seeing the state they were in All went pretty smooth, apart from the having to unpack all our luggage on the runway due to our western body weights hitting the kg limit alone. Understandable when you look at the size of the plane! Finally we arrived at El Rio Y Mar. All bad thoughts of luggage arrival and hangovers were wiped clean when we saw the resort - it really hits all expectations and more! The welcome singing brought tears to many. Again, really made to feel special. Seems to be the warm Philippino way. ... read more
November 12th 2007
hallo derhjemme.... i kulden saa er vi kommet til Busuanga, en ikke helt smertefri tur. Vi landede i gaar med vores 19 passagers fly (uden stewardesse! og vi kunne stort set se ud af piloternes vindue. dem var der dog to af, altsaa piloterne!hmm)omkring klokken 14.00 paa en landingsbane med tilhoerende skur(groft sagt). Efter at have fundet vores bagage fik vi at vide at der holdt en jeepney som koerte til Coron ude foran. Problemet var bare, at den var helt fuld, saa der var ikke plads til os. her paa filippinerne har man dog en helt anden maade at udnytte en bil paa, pladsmaessigt, saa vi blev laessset op paa taget, sammen med al bagagen og 7 andre personer. her sad vi saa i 45 min paa en meget ujaevn grusvej og holdt fast saa ... read more
September 10th 2007
The reason people come to Coron is for the diving. Specifically for the wreck diving. During World War II, the Japanese put a large amount of their supply ships in Coron Bay. Their thinking was that its location was too remote and far from USA troops to be affected. That was a major miscalculation. In 1944 the US launched its longest range attack ever. They had just enough fuel to get to Coron Bay, drop bombs for 15 minutes, and then head back to their base. During that short time several ships were sunk. Luckily, for scuba divers, many sunk in waters shallow enough to dive. I ended up entering 7 ships, all about 150 meters long. They were actual ships that you can enter and squeeze through parts. If you feel comfortable in tight spaces ... read more
Puerto Princesa and Palawan - From Riches to Wrecks
Published: May 31st 2007Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Busuanga
May 31st 2007
We got to Cebu and it rained. And rained. We’ve been lucky with the weather so far but the rainy season is making its grand entrance. In the taxi to our accommodation -picked by the close your eyes and point a finger at the page method (it turned out to be a bit scummy but you get what you pay for..) a road had flooded and the local kids, in partial and total undress were running and splashing alongside the jeepneys and taxis, clearly having the time of their lives. Cebu City was fairly disappointing on the whole, not that we had any great expectations. It was grubby, stinking hot and just another big city. We enjoyed navigating around by jeepney, it was fairly easy although we spent the majority of our time sheltering inside ... read more
November 16th 2006
Went to Coron via Seair. A small plane - a 19 seater one, transported us to the island of Palawan. I really loved our islands especially Palawan! Saw small and large islands since the plane flew low, sort of just glided thru the clouds. The air strip in Busuanga airport was small and empty. Then, we hit the dirt road via jeepney going to Coron, a 1 hour ride. We stayed at Darayonan, a nice lodge. Well, I had work to do in Coron (we are setting up GWAPS, an electronic Kiosk) and was not able to go around. I had to go back here...really, really....for a vacation. We had a stop over at El Nido airport - view was breathtaking!... read more
