What a hectic day. It started with an early flight from Chiang Rai to Macau, where we would then have a few hours layover. We spent the time in the airport lounge so that was a nice change to eat and drink whatever we liked. We then had took our next flight to Manila, which would land approximately 4.30pm. We had planned to do the overnight ferry from Manila to Coron, as it would work out a lot cheaper and we didn’t want to spend any time in Manila anyway. However, the ferry only leaves once a week on a Friday, the same day we were landing, leaving at 7pm. Our tickets said that boarding closes at 6.30pm, and factoring the time to get our bags etc, we knew it was going to be tight but the drive should’ve only been about 20 minutes. Once we walked out the airport – chaos. Hundreds of cars and taxis everywhere, all hardly moving. We booked a grab taxi which took a long time to arrive, and due to the traffic the drive was looking around an hour. Credit to our driver, he was weaving in and out to try and get us there as quickly as possible. I think we arrived at about 6.50pm, and ran with our bags and just managed to check in and board the ferry. Needless to say, we celebrated with a beer on the ferry.
We were excited getting off the ferry, the sun was shining and it was so warm. Thailand was hot but this is the kind of warmth you can sit at the beach all day in! We were staying at Joval Homestay, and was warmly greeted once we arrived. Reggie gave us loads of information about things we could do, where we could go for food, and travel arrangements if we needed them. After having some lunch we then took a tricycle to spend the majority of the day at Cabo beach. The beach wasn’t that big but was still nice. Whilst we were in the sea some Philippine kids were chatting away to us and were amazed at the colour of Laura’s skin! In the evening I decided to go play some basketball, as there are courts everywhere I decided to buy one from a shop earlier that day. I went to court at the police station, where I joined a few teens playing.
The next day we decided to get a tricycle to Siete Pecados. This is a marine protected site which we were told is a great spot for snorkelling. Two young lads took us around the 7 rock formations on a little boat, where we jumped out a different spots and took a look underwater. We saw lots of colourful coral and an array of fishes, however the current was so strong we were being conscious of not being pulled away! Plus we still didn’t see a turtle, so our quest to find one goes on… Once we arrived back at our hostel we dropped some things off and went to climb Mt Tapyas. The climb wasn’t too difficult, as it just consisted of continuous steps (I think around 700?). Once we were at the top we sat on the bank and were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.
Another early start to the day, as we had booked one of the day trips Reggie had suggested. First we were picked up in a van, and driven to go get breakfast whilst making a stop along the way to view a Catholic Church. After breakfast we were taken to Calauit Wildlife Sanctuary, the main reason why we booked this day trip. The sanctuary was home to wild Giraffes, which obviously sounds peculiar for the Philippines. We learnt that they were acquired from Africa in the 1970s for reasons we couldn’t quite hear, but the giraffes that are now on the island were all born there so they are completely wild. They are free to roam where they want and live there, as well as some small zebras and deer. We were allowed to feed them whilst we were the ones behind bars (human zoo?), and stroke them whilst feeding. It was definitely not something I expected to do in the Philippines but it was amazing nonetheless! After lunch we were then taken on a boat to black island. The name is given due to the black rocks rising on the island, and also that the sun sets behind it so apparently later in the day from the mainland the island looks completely black. The island had a beautiful beach which we snorkelled at, and we also went inside a dark cave that was there which was really cool! It was a long journey back to our hostel, and a long day overall, so we had some dinner and took an early night.
For our last day in Coron we went back to Cabo beach and decided to spend all day there. We both did a fair bit of reading, taking some dips in the sea and trying not to get too burnt! That evening Laura decided to call home, so I took the opportunity to go and play some more basketball before we left Coron. It seems that it is very rare you can join in if there are already teams playing, but once one game finally finished I was recruited to join a team to play if I wanted to wager 100 pesos against the other team, this is the equivalent to about 80 pence so I didn’t mind if I meant I could finally play. Although we lost it was still a good cultural experience to join in with the locals national sport, and to see guys in flip flops and bare foot making loads of shots!
Lee Teivans Travel Blog 