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Published: June 24th 2011
It's been a while since our last blog. We are always running about a week behind, but this time its been more than 10 days since either of us even thought about it. Maybe its for the best as we experienced our first spell of real tiredness on this trip and the blog would surely reflect it.
The bad spell was broken by a Finish guy called Miko the night before we left El Nido. He asked me to think if I would be willing to switch my worse day of travelling, when nothing goes my way, I am all sweaty, can't find a cheap room, the taxi driver just scammed me and I am sitting on a pavement somewhere angry with the whole world with the best possible day I could have at work. I had to think really long and hard...no I didn't, I got his point straight away. Then he pointed out that we are just sitting on a beach, drinking a 50c beer, so we really have
nothing to complain about.
Back to our trip, since our last post we have changed three cities: Coron, El Nido and Puerto Princesa all on the island of
Palawan. We have slowed down drastically and started taking it more slowly.
Coron We landed at Coron airport and believe me that was an experience of its own. The airport runway was nothing more but a collection of big concrete blocks laid down. Once the plane landed (not a soft landing at all) you could feel every bump between the blocks. Then we got out, had a nice walk across the runway to the "terminal" and waited for our bags. There was no conveyor belt or anything like that it was just a bunch of guys who put all the bags from the plane, on to a trolley, push the trolley to the terminal and then handed each bag to its owner at the terminal. To be honest we got our bags faster than usual.
When we arrived at our guesthouse we managed to bargain the price down a bit and get a bigger room for it as well. Sally, the co-owner, seemed really nice at that point, we learned why when checking out five days later. She got paid on the amount of food that she sold and not by the room. We soon met her
granddaughter Sheena. The kid was an attention-w###e. Harsh, I know, but its true. With a bit of encouragement from Sally she started singing for us. Her first song was Justin B. (he is huge in the Philippines). Then Polona made the mistake of clapping and asking for more. The kid went on for hours, screaming, oops, I mean singing, making faces, acting like a diva, using seashells as a microphone. Ohh geez! For the next couple of days she was hugging Polona every time she saw her, wanting to play with her, pose for pictures and so on and so on.
We spent five nights in Coron and just relaxed. After a couple of days we decided to go for an island hoping tour. We joined two Australian ladies, hired a boat and set off. Krystal, co-owner and Sally's daughter, organised the trip for us. If you can call that organisation. Usually you can get food added to the tours for an extra 150 pesos but when we asked about it, Krystal just told us to go to the market, buy fish and the boat captain will prepare them for us. We got up early the next day, bought
all the food and departed more than an hour late as Krystal didn't sort out the boat yet and was asleep. Once the boat finally arrived we had to wait a bit longer as they had to go and buy gas. 😊
Our first stop on the tour was a fresh water lake just next to the sea. The water is actually a bit salty as high tides bring water into the lake. As soon as we arrived we noticed that we are not going to be alone. There was more than a hundred visitors already there. Mainly local tourists. You can not miss them, they come in packs and they always wear life-vests, as most of them can't swim. So they end up swimming in a long line, holding on to each other, getting pulled around by somebody who can swim. Its a bit ironic that they can't swim, living in a country which has more than 7000 islands and is completely surrounded by sea. The other thing that they love is taking photos. Even more so than our friend Vivi (sorry Vivi) 😊. They took a photo of every step they took on their way to the
lake. When we were checking in for our flight to Coron there was a group which took more than 10 pics just of the airline person printing their boarding pass. You got to love it!
The lake itself was beautiful, really nice. And as we could swim a bit further out, you end up feeling like you are there completely alone. Then we headed towards a snorkeling spot. The sea life was amazing but the downside was that there was a lot of trash in the water 😞. At one point I looked up and an empty plastic bag was just in front of me, well better that then getting hit by a flip flop like Polona😊.
When we headed out for lunch, the laziness of the lodge personnel came out again. Our captain was looking at the fish we bought and lets just say he was not impressed. Apparently the fish we bought weren't OK for grilling, even if the lady at the market said they were. Not to mention the captain's shock when he found out we have no rice with us. No rice?!?! He still managed to prepare a decent enough meal for us, even
if our peppers mysteriously disappeared. A bit more about Filipino food later on.
After lunch we headed towards some lagoons but when we arrived there we almost hit a "snake" of local tourist "swimming" in the water. They just managed to move away in time. I counted 15 boats on our arrival so all four of us agreed that we are happy to miss out on this spot and head somewhere else. We decided to go check out the skeleton, a piece of an old Japanese ship which was bombed in the WW2 (Coron is famous for it ship wrecks but this is the only one you can see without diving). I was really impressed by the skeleton even if it is really small and most divers would find it really boring, but its the first ship wreck I have ever seen. We stayed in the water just for about 10 minutes. As soon you entered the water you could feel something biting you. Loads and loads of little bites but you can't see anything. It stops hurting in a few minutes after you exit the water. We later learned they were small pieces left behind by jelly fishes.
When we wanted to leave a lady on a small boat peddled to our boat asking for an admission (100 pesos per person). We had to pay admission for the lake, snorkeling and even the lunch spot as local tribes own the individual islands and charge the visitors. But this time it was a bit too much. We didn't even step on the islands. We swam in the sea and surely the tribe doesn't own the sea?! We got there to see the wreck and that belongs to Japan (when I mentioned that, our boat captain could not stop laughing). We ended up paying 50 pesos for person and left in quite a bad mood. A few days later I remembered that I should have asked her for a receipt as its illegal in the Philippines to sell anything without it (still everybody does it). I do wonder what these tribes did for money before the tourism arrived to Coron.
On our last day in Coron we climbed the hill above the town to go check out the view and see the big cross on the top from a bit closer. It didn't take all that long to
get to the top even if the locals claim there are 900 steps to the top. I doubt it. Ohh, we did see a great sign on the way, dedicating the stairs to the Palawan taxpayers. Nice to see that at least once the taxpayers get the credit for something 😉. The views of the archipelago were great, seeing loads of small islands the limescale stones and the whole city from one spot.
In the evening we headed towards the last of the Coron's attraction. The hot springs. We managed to lower the price of the tricycle from 300 pesos to 200 pesos. At the end I would be happier to pay the extra 100 pesos (probably not) as the driver didn't shut up the whole way there and back explaining to me that the regular price is 300 as there is no other way to get there, he has to wait for us, the last bit of the way is a dirt road etc. Come on, you agreed to the price, nobody forced you.
The hot springs were lovely. They are just next to the sea and the water is a bit salty. The whole thing looks
like a pool built next to the sea but its filled straight from the hot springs. The water is really warm and it felt amazing.
Here we once again seen a few European men with local Filipino girls. You can see a lot of it across the country. We are trying our best not to judge and to assume its all about the money, but its a bit hard to do when you see an old, in this case toothless man with a young girl. A Slovenian guy who we met in El Nido (more about El Nido in out next blog) calls them "sprijenci". Hard to translate, but its a good word to use. Of course there are differences with each case. Some guys come here for a few weeks and "find" a girl to keep them company, some guys end up staying here with them, marrying them and having kids here. The "good" thing about all this is the Filipino law. In case the couple gets divorced the Filipino person gets everything! Good for them.
After returning to the hostel we went to pay for our room and food bill and Sally pretty much tried to
rob us. The food menu has individual items like eggs, ham etc or you can order a set menu. We were ordering individual items each day but Sally wanted to charge us for the whole set menu, even if she didn't even have half of the things from the menu available when we tried ordering them. Polona had none of it and held her ground (good girl!) but Sally just insisted?! At the end Krystal had to step in and sort everything out. And she did. But the whole thing just ruins your stay at an otherwise really nice place a bit. After the kid, tour (why didn't you serve us food there) and the bill you just want to get away from the place. Its seems that the whole family is just too well off (some of them live in Australia, Singapore, Sally travels to NY every year) to care about the lodge and the people staying there.
Usually we would not eat at hostels anyway, preferring to go out and eat in local restaurants or just from the street, but in Philippines that is a bit hard. First of all the food is quite bad (comparing to
Malaysia it's horrible) and the portions are really, really small! I need at least two, closer to three to get full. When I first arrived to the country and saw all the places serving spaghetti and burgers I was really excited but just for about a day, then I wanted something else. Probably the best thing I had so far was the Filipino breakfast which consists of an egg, garlic rice (of course, rice) and a chorizo sausage. But the rest of the food is really bland. Vegies is mainly cabbage and even if the meat is tasty enough (there is a choice of pork, pork and pork) you could not fill an italian espresso cup with the amount you get. So I can admit that we are mainly eating in hostels or at restaurants that serve more European food. In Coron we ate at a Bistro owned by a French guy. Pizza there was amazing when comparing it to other food at the Philippines, but if I got it server anywhere in Europe it would be s##t!
We left Coron to El Nido with a boat and paid almost 50 USD for it. After food, admissions its just
The cross above Coron town
We passed around 900 steps to get to itanother example how they try to get as much as they can out of tourists in Coron. Looking at things really short term and hoping people will just stand for it and come back.
Looking back at Coron it was not all that bad as we thought when leaving. We had good weather, a great place to relax and a nice tour. I would not trade my week in Coron for a week in the office. I am pretty sure of that!
Till next time when we will cover the paradise that is El Nido, changing of 3 rooms in less than a week, another island hoping tour, hairy friends and more...
+++More pics from Coron and the rest of the Philippines+++
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Maja
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Ejgaaa
Tok sem not padla v vajin blog...ej sam zdej tole slikco pa morm pohvalt :))) js bi jo kr za tapeto na steni imela. Vidim, da se imata super in uživata. Kar tako naprej. Uživam v vajinih objavah, v slikah pa še bolj :)