The Philippines experiences approximately 20 hurricanes a year, mostly in the months of August to Late November, but they have been arriving as late as Christmas recently. A hurricane, typhoon and cyclone are all basically the same thing, different names from different parts of the world.
Hurricane Urduja (named after a Philippine warrior princess) had made landfall in Eastern Samar, and as far as we could see, was heading straight for us in Palawan.
We woke up Saturday morning nervous but optimistic about our ferry to el Nido. A call to the ferry office confirmed it was on. A stop at the ferry office to pick up tickets confirmed it was on. Boarding at the port said it should be on. We actually got on the ferry, found window seats, checked for life jackets and were about to depart when the ferry was cancelled, literally five minutes before it left. It seems the Philippines has gotten very cautious of sea journeys in bad weather.
Hugely disappointed, we found a hotel in Coron Town (Acacia Garden inn, actually very nice) and plotted our next move. After much deliberation we decided a flight to Puerto Princesa would be the safest - if the ferry didn’t leave today, with the hurricane still far away, what was the chance it would leave the next day as it moved closer? Having decided and booked, we figured we might as well see the town.
Coron Town proper is a chaotic shambles of a tourist town with a real backpacker flavor. The main street is a jumble of little stores, basic accommodation, restaurants, and dive shops with some goats, chickens, dogs and playing children thrown into the mix. Tricycles, known as “trikes”, roar around the town, transporting tourists and locals alike. Trikes are similar to tuk tuks but more like motorbikes with a sidecar which can accommodate up to 6 people at a squeeze.
We headed in the late afternoon to the base of mount Tapyas, the highest point in Coron Town, and climbed the 700 steps to its summit, passing many stall owners selling the ubiquitous water proof bags every tourist in Coron invariably buys. There is no entrance fee for the climb. The views from the top were incredible despite the lingering pregnant clouds. To us the sea looked really calm so we had to question the decision to cancel the ferry... A large white cross at the summit was lit up, and under it, also in lights, the letters C-O-R-O-N. We looked over at Coron Island where the majority of beautiful sights in the area were situated (Coron Town is actually on Busuanga Island). Surprisingly we were just in time for a beautiful sunset, lighting the grey clouds pink, so we joined the throng of selfie taking tourists for our own snaps.
After a hot and sweaty walk, the thing to do is to head for the Maquinit Hot Springs, just out of town. We found a trike to take us for PHP400, and he said he would wait 1 hour for us there. Our trike looked like a little mobile disco, with red and blue flashing lights all over, I nicknamed it the disco trike. Our driver went flying through town and onto a very bumpy dirt road, where he didn’t slow down except to try and overtake bigger vehicles. At one point we hit a section of erosion pretty badly and I thought the trike might be stuck but he managed to get it out. Disco lights were temporarily discontinued...
20 minutes later we reached the springs and paid the PHP200 pp entrance fee. The place was really nicely done, with pretty christmassy lights all around and benches to sit at. There was a large hot pool with two smaller ones running waterfalls of steaming water into it. No showers or change rooms unfortunately. We tested the water and it was HOT! Probably 38-40 degrees. It felt great to relax in the pools and unwind our tired muscles and minds. A light rain started but it didn’t bother us at all since we were feeling rather warm...
After an hour the disco trike was still waiting for us and raced us back into town. We went looking for a restaurant called KT’s Sinugba as balay (weird name) which had gotten great reviews. Seems quite a few other tourists had the same idea so we waited a while for a table, but it was worth it. The place had a great chilled vibe and was playing reggae music. We tried a “buko” (coconut) with our beers. Dinner consisted of mee goreng (noodles) and sizzling pork sisig with a raw egg on top, both were delicious with a distinctly barbecue flavour.
The day ended a lot better than it had started and we went to sleep tired but happy.
The next day we headed to the airport to see if there was any chance of getting a flight out of Coron. There were normally at least 6 flights a day, across 3 airlines, one of which we had booked. The airline took our luggage and we waited in the tiny waiting lounge with hundreds of other hopeful tourists. One by one the announcements came through that each flight was “definitely cancelled”. The airline rebooked us for the next day, luckily we had already checked in online the day before and got a lower sequence number, as many people were moved to flights two days later. We found a new place to stay in Coron (the Acacia garden was sadly not available) and found a transfer to the town for the usual PHP150 pp (the transfer buses line up outside the airport so this was no problem).
We arrived at the Apartelle Gabrielle and checked in, a strange place built into a kind of apartment block, at least the WiFi worked in the room some of the time...
We grabbed lunch in town at Altrove, excellent pizzas, and ran into most of the people who had been at the airport with us. After a nap, we checked out the local bar scene to drown our sorrows, but happy hour wasn’t that happy... Fortunately they had beers for PHP40 (R11) so we had a few and then headed for dinner at Winnie’s restaurant. Here the local rum and coke was PHP50, around R14. The food was good: meat spring rolls, pancit noodles and veg curry.
The evening ended on a lighter note, as the owner, an ex-Swiss guy who had married a Filipino, came to chat to us. He was joined by Shamus, an Irish tourist and “Oo”, his Cambodian girlfriend. All had been drinking a lot and Oo proceeded to pass out on the couch opposite our table. We chatted a while and were also joined by Joe, another Irishman. They seemed to want to chat about anything except the hurricane, which was good for us!
The next day we headed back to the airport, fully expecting to be sent away and possibly rebooked two days later. The queue to get into the airport was huge and took probably an hour. At one point they started calling for passengers on air Asia, and we got an inkling that at least one flight might make it. Then Werner went to check and we were told we could go in due to the flight we were booked on. At check in they seemed optimistic - the flight from Manila had departed. That hadn’t happened the previous day... when the first flight landed in Coron Busuanga airport, everyone cheered and clapped. A second flight landed shortly after, it was our plane, we could hardly believe it! Finally we departed, about an hour late but so grateful to be getting out of Coron!
We flew Cebu Pacific, a local low cost airline with a bad reputation for being delayed. But there were two good things about this airline: 1. They always played awesome music before take off and after landing (Philippinos love American music) and 2. They always have a competition on board where you can win prizes answering questions. I actually won something on our second flight!
We landed in Manila and had a bit of a mission trying to transfer terminals, the free transfer was full so Cebu Pacific airways made a plan for us. We hurried since there was little time before the next flight, even being pushed through bag drop, but we didn’t need to as this flight was even more delayed. Nonetheless, we made it to Puerto Princesa and got a taxi to the purple fountain inn, a beautiful little hotel.
It was pouring with rain most of the time but we were grateful to be in a new place and to try and catch up our tour. We went for dinner at a restaurant recommended by the Finnish couple we had met at the Cashew grove, it was called Kalui. Like many restaurants in Palawan, they asked us to remove shoes before coming in. We waited a while but soon got a table. The decor was fantastic and the restaurant large. We decided on a calamansi (Philippine lime) ginger shake, buko (coconut) shake and the set meal for two. It was the best meal we had in the Philippines! It consisted of soup, seaweed with lime juice (looked gross but tasted quite nice!), tempura veg with a delicious sauce, grilled tuna, rice, sweet and sour prawns, and rolled fish. The rolled fish was the absolute highlight, they stuffed it with spinach, ginger, garlic and other aromatics, then rolled it up, tied it, breaded and fried it, and served with a curry coconut sauce. Totally amazing. They even gave us a small dessert of fruits with brown sugar served beautifully in a coconut! It was a great experience.
Hurricane Urduja (named after a Philippine warrior princess) had made landfall in Eastern Samar, and as far as we could see, was heading straight for us in Palawan.
We woke up Saturday morning nervous but optimistic about our ferry to el Nido. A call to the ferry office confirmed it was on. A stop at the ferry office to pick up tickets confirmed it was on. Boarding at the port said it should be on. We actually got on the ferry, found window seats, checked for life jackets and were about to depart when the ferry was cancelled, literally five minutes before it left. It seems the Philippines has gotten very cautious of sea journeys in bad weather.
Hugely disappointed, we found a hotel in Coron Town (Acacia Garden inn, actually very nice) and plotted our next move. After much deliberation we decided a flight to Puerto Princesa would be the safest - if the ferry didn’t leave today, with the hurricane still far away, what was the chance it would leave the next day as it moved closer? Having decided and booked, we figured we might as well see the town.
We headed in the late afternoon to the base of mount Tapyas, the highest point in Coron Town, and climbed the 700 steps to its summit, passing many stall owners selling the ubiquitous water proof bags every tourist in Coron invariably buys. There is no entrance fee for the climb. The views from the top were incredible despite the lingering pregnant clouds. To us the sea looked really calm so we had to question the decision to cancel the ferry... A large white cross at the summit was lit up, and under it, also in lights, the letters C-O-R-O-N. We looked over at Coron Island where the majority of beautiful sights in the area were situated (Coron Town is actually on Busuanga Island). Surprisingly we were just in time for a beautiful sunset, lighting the grey clouds pink, so we joined the throng of selfie taking tourists for our own snaps.
After a hot and sweaty walk, the thing to do is to head for the Maquinit Hot Springs, just out of town. We found a trike to take us for PHP400, and he said he would wait 1 hour for us there. Our trike looked like a little mobile disco, with red and blue flashing lights all over, I nicknamed it the disco trike. Our driver went flying through town and onto a very bumpy dirt road, where he didn’t slow down except to try and overtake bigger vehicles. At one point we hit a section of erosion pretty badly and I thought the trike might be stuck but he managed to get it out. Disco lights were temporarily discontinued...
20 minutes later we reached the springs and paid the PHP200 pp entrance fee. The place was really nicely done, with pretty christmassy lights all around and benches to sit at. There was a large hot pool with two smaller ones running waterfalls of steaming water into it. No showers or change rooms unfortunately. We tested the water and it was HOT! Probably 38-40 degrees. It felt great to relax in the pools and unwind our tired muscles and minds. A light rain started but it didn’t bother us at all since we were feeling rather warm...
After an hour the disco trike was still waiting for us and raced us back into town. We went looking for a restaurant called KT’s Sinugba as balay (weird name) which had gotten great reviews. Seems quite a few other tourists had the same idea so we waited a while for a table, but it was worth it. The place had a great chilled vibe and was playing reggae music. We tried a “buko” (coconut) with our beers. Dinner consisted of mee goreng (noodles) and sizzling pork sisig with a raw egg on top, both were delicious with a distinctly barbecue flavour.
The next day we headed to the airport to see if there was any chance of getting a flight out of Coron. There were normally at least 6 flights a day, across 3 airlines, one of which we had booked. The airline took our luggage and we waited in the tiny waiting lounge with hundreds of other hopeful tourists. One by one the announcements came through that each flight was “definitely cancelled”. The airline rebooked us for the next day, luckily we had already checked in online the day before and got a lower sequence number, as many people were moved to flights two days later. We found a new place to stay in Coron (the Acacia garden was sadly not available) and found a transfer to the town for the usual PHP150 pp (the transfer buses line up outside the airport so this was no problem).
We arrived at the Apartelle Gabrielle and checked in, a strange place built into a kind of apartment block, at least the WiFi worked in the room some of the time...
We grabbed lunch in town at Altrove, excellent pizzas, and ran into most of the people who had been at the airport with us. After a nap, we checked out the local bar scene to drown our sorrows, but happy hour wasn’t that happy... Fortunately they had beers for PHP40 (R11) so we had a few and then headed for dinner at Winnie’s restaurant. Here the local rum and coke was PHP50, around R14. The food was good: meat spring rolls, pancit noodles and veg curry.
The evening ended on a lighter note, as the owner, an ex-Swiss guy who had married a Filipino, came to chat to us. He was joined by Shamus, an Irish tourist and “Oo”, his Cambodian girlfriend. All had been drinking a lot and Oo proceeded to pass out on the couch opposite our table. We chatted a while and were also joined by Joe, another Irishman. They seemed to want to chat about anything except the hurricane, which was good for us!
The next day we headed back to the airport, fully expecting to be sent away and possibly rebooked two days later. The queue to get into the airport was huge and took probably an hour. At one point they started calling for passengers on air Asia, and we got an inkling that at least one flight might make it. Then Werner went to check and we were told we could go in due to the flight we were booked on. At check in they seemed optimistic - the flight from Manila had departed. That hadn’t happened the previous day... when the first flight landed in Coron Busuanga airport, everyone cheered and clapped. A second flight landed shortly after, it was our plane, we could hardly believe it! Finally we departed, about an hour late but so grateful to be getting out of Coron!
We flew Cebu Pacific, a local low cost airline with a bad reputation for being delayed. But there were two good things about this airline: 1. They always played awesome music before take off and after landing (Philippinos love American music) and 2. They always have a competition on board where you can win prizes answering questions. I actually won something on our second flight!
We landed in Manila and had a bit of a mission trying to transfer terminals, the free transfer was full so Cebu Pacific airways made a plan for us. We hurried since there was little time before the next flight, even being pushed through bag drop, but we didn’t need to as this flight was even more delayed. Nonetheless, we made it to Puerto Princesa and got a taxi to the purple fountain inn, a beautiful little hotel.
It was pouring with rain most of the time but we were grateful to be in a new place and to try and catch up our tour. We went for dinner at a restaurant recommended by the Finnish couple we had met at the Cashew grove, it was called Kalui. Like many restaurants in Palawan, they asked us to remove shoes before coming in. We waited a while but soon got a table. The decor was fantastic and the restaurant large. We decided on a calamansi (Philippine lime) ginger shake, buko (coconut) shake and the set meal for two. It was the best meal we had in the Philippines! It consisted of soup, seaweed with lime juice (looked gross but tasted quite nice!), tempura veg with a delicious sauce, grilled tuna, rice, sweet and sour prawns, and rolled fish. The rolled fish was the absolute highlight, they stuffed it with spinach, ginger, garlic and other aromatics, then rolled it up, tied it, breaded and fried it, and served with a curry coconut sauce. Totally amazing. They even gave us a small dessert of fruits with brown sugar served beautifully in a coconut! It was a great experience.
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