Conquering Coron!

I have heard so many good reviews about Coron, Palawan so this year, I decided to include this in my list of travel places. Finally, I grabbed the opportunity this May 17-21, 2012 when I saw a promo fare from Zest Air and Air Phils. 

Regarding accomodation, I am torn between Mt. Tapyas Hotel and Coron hilltop so I ended up to the best hotel in Coron - Asia Grand View Hotel for the first 2 nights and Sunz En Coron for the remaining 2 nights. No regrets because these 2 hotels are the best! I will have a separate blog review about these hotels. 

 

Anyway, our flight to Coron via Zest Air is 9:40am but as usual it was delayed for an hour and half. We boarded the plane at around 11:30am but we took off at around 12noon. People around us are very stressed already. They are telling that this airline should close etc. Well it not my concern because my biggest worry is that it is my first riding a propeller plane. All planes to Coron are propeller due to a small runway in their airport. I am very scared when we take off because I can hear all this propellers as if it is going to blow. For 45 minutes, all I did was listen to the troubling sound of the propeller. It was a sign of relief when we landed at around 1pm in Busuanga Airport. First time to see a very small airport and also the check in baggage are manually distributed because there is no available electricity in the airport. We are fetched by the hotel's van together with other occupants of the hotel. 

On the way to the hotel, some got dizzy because we travelled through many zigzag roads and the van was speeding at times. There are times we need to stop because one woman have motion sickness. I even gave her the Zest Air bag if ever she will vomit. Thankfully she didn't and we are back on the road. After around 45 minutes, we arrived at Asia Grand View Hotel. They served welcome drinks. 

We just rested a bit and since we are hungry, we went to town and took our lunch at Sea Diver Restaurant. It is very famous and recommended here in Coron. Sea Dive Restaurant and Bar is an open air dining area above the sea water. You can see a very nice view and enjoy the refreshing sea breeze. We enjoyed our food except for the tinolang manok that tastes like tinolang tahong haha. My tip is never eat here when you are super hungry because they serve slow. There is only one waiter who has no knowledge of the restaurant's menu he need to ask the cashier person first. Anyway personally, I do not recommend this restaurant. Maybe once but that's it. Nothing special but the view while eating. 

We got back to the hotel and the receptionist advised us that the Coron Town Proper Tour is scheduled at 4:30pm that includes trekking to Mt. Tapyas. I said "What?" I'm not prepared but yeah I said go for it. We just need to rest for about an hour and half to be ready. Then around 4:30pm we are fetched by a big tricycle that can hold up like 7 passengers. Main highlight of the tour is Mt. Tapyas trek but we decided to pull it off at around 5pm to enjoy the sunset above. 

Coron town is just small so we passed by the boulevard which is like Manila Bay. We also dropped by some souvenir shops and bought magnets and key chain. Nothing much to buy. The shirts are not good. At around 5pm, we started climbing Mt. Tapyas - the mini mountain of Coron with 746 steps to reach the top. I read that 30minutes is needed to reach the top. We did it in 15 minutes haha. We already! But I was drenched in my sweat it was like running on treadmill nonstop. It was soaking hot! We are accompanied by a kid who sells gatorade and water. Unfortunately for him, I just bought 1 gatorade to reach the top so we just bought another one and gave him an extra tip by following us thinking we might buy when we are dehydrated. We spent an hour on top just taking pictures especially with the big cross as a mark of the mountain peak. Watching the sunset is beautiful. We never mind the eew feeling of the sweat, we still enjoyed taking pictures around.  

Afterwards, we needed to refresh to we decided to head to Maquinuit Hot spring around 30-40 minutes ride of out tricycle. Since it was late already, the road is very dark we are so afraid. Only the tricycle's light can be seen or else it is full darkness. Upon arriving the hot spring, we didn't feel like taking a jump in the water because it is crowded and there are so many insects flying around. We just looked around and went back to the tricycle.

We were dropped by Kawayanan Grill Station for dinner. In Kawayanan Grill, we ordered sizzling seafood and carbonara with shake and buko juice. Ambiance is quite nice under a nipa hut though they need more lights around. Overall, it was good and we are satisfied. 

Outside Kawayanan, we saw a basketball league where Pat watched for a while. He wanted to watch the whole league but I was kinda tired so went back to the hotel to freshen up. We were supposed to take a night swimming but we changed our minds so just enjoyed our very big room and sleep. 

Tomorrow is island hopping day, gotta rest well!