Where is Matt right now?
DECEMBER 23, 2011 - Today I'm learning to dive at Fun and Sun Dive and Travel on Malapascua, Philippines (http://bit.ly/vAoQjP). In three days, we be swimming with thresher sharks. Merry Christmas to me :)
To escape the suffocating traffic and staccato of firecrackers that besiege Taiwan every Chinese New Year, several friends and I booked tickets on a budget carrier, Spirit of Manila, to the city of Coron on Busuanga Island in the Philippines for five days of snorkeling, island hopping, and rum drinking. The tickets were very cheap, about USD$200 round-trip. In the end the trip only cost me about $USD650, including a shopping trip in Manila on the way home. For further travel information and great accommodation deals visit Manila hotels.
It’s worth noting that Busuanga wasn’t the only highlight of the trip. During a layover in Manila on the first night I was fortunate enough to referee a midget boxing match in a local strip bar.
Day 1
We arrived and found our room, a stick and thatched grass cottage on stilts over the water with a bar and sunset view. Five of us split it for about USD$30 per night. Our arrival celebration that night resulted in several scrapes and bruises from wrestling, one very large angry Swede with a broken cell phone, and several empty bottles of Tanduay (the cheap local rum).
The first supper
The walkway to our hotel
The view from our room
Our living room and bar
Day 2
We went island hopping for the day on a traditional banca boat, a slender vessel with bamboo pontoons. The seas and islands around Busuanga contain some of the finest dive sites in the world, partially because of numerous wrecks from a Japanese supply fleet sunk during WWII. There are 12 diveable wrecks within a day’s boat ride from Busuanga in addition to the famous Barracuda Lake and Cathedral Cave dive sites. On Day 2 we snorkeled the Skeleton Wreck which was just 5m deep—shallow enough for me to dive down and swim through it.
A banca boat
Boat boy surveying the sea
My dream house
Day 3
Most of us took the day off. I worked on an article about blogging for TransitionsAbroad.com. That evening we planned a two-day island-hopping trip we would take with a local guide.
Downtown Coron
A tuk tuk in downtown Coron
A Filipino boy giving me a present
Day 4
We woke up to a breakfast of fruit shakes, Tanduay, and Extra Joss (a Philipino energy booster illegal in most Western countries) and found our way to the docks to hop on our banca boat where we started drinking the beer because, well, drinking straight rum all day long just plain excessive, and also a mild safety hazard when you’re planning to swim.
All aboard
bottoms up
The rum ninja in repose
Day 4 (cont’d)
The first site we snorkeled was a reef around a jagged limestone rock rising about 20m out of the narrows between islands. The reef was lush and colorful and swarming with fish. The current, however, was very strong and many of us returned to the boat after just 20 or 30 minutes.
Afterwards we moved on to Cayangan Lake on Coron Island. The cove where we docked was spectacular (pictures below). A short steep hike over a small pass lead us to the freshwater lake where we spent the afternoon swimming and taking goofy pictures.
The dock on Coron Island
The second stop
Myself, Christine, Sarah, and an enormous yellow hat
Filipino cave dwellers can be dangerous, but these two were very friendly and appeared to be intoxicated
Tim and Lauren by Cayuga Lake
Day 4 (cont’d)
That evening we headed for a small private beach where would camp. As we approached the beach we were overtaken by another banca boat with foreigners on it. It landed on the beach a few minutes ahead of us. We were upset that these tourists had spoiled our private paradise; we decided that the most appropriate course of action would be to consume large quantities of rum, talk loudly, and wrestle each other in the sand until the invaders either joined us or fled in fear.
As the banca pulled up to the shore I heard somebody shout, “Matt”. On the beach I saw Rose, a friend from Tainan. All of the foreigners on the beach were our friends, English teachers, from the city where we lived in Taiwan.
That night we drank rum on the beach and talked by candlelight under a shimmering dome of stars. The ocean glittered with phosphorescence. When we swam we were adrift in a symphony of light.
Kayak boy
A dog on the beach
Postcard sunset
Day 5
Day 5 was quiet. We visited the famous Barracuda Lake, where the limestone rock formations flicker up from the earth in sharp spiny formations. The rocks are impossible to walk on without shoes and look enormous cathedrals of stone flames. Underwater the walls of the lake look like vast intricate underwater cities.
That evening we ate our last supper in Coron, and the next morning flew home.
The last supper
The children that lived along the pathway to our hotel
Postcard Sunset
DECEMBER 23, 2011 - Today I'm learning to dive at Fun and Sun Dive and Travel on Malapascua, Philippines (http://bit.ly/vAoQjP). In three days, we be swimming with thresher sharks. Merry Christmas to me :)
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4 Comments
David S. Wills
01 Apr 2010 03:04 am
I think I’ll follow in your footsteps next year… Looks like a great trip.
I’ve only been to Moalboal, Cebu, but it was fantastic – $1 bottles of rum.
harvy annq
20 May 2010 09:05 am
The hotel you stayed in is great. I’d like to stay there for 3 nights. Have you got contact numbers?
Thank you harvy ann.
howard
(@Twitter) 28 Mar 2011 10:03 am
hey, i’ll be headed to coron next week, any contacts for the place you stayed at/ island hopping tour operator?
Matt Gibson
(@Twitter) 28 Mar 2011 11:03 pm
Hey Howard. Sorry, I’m afraid that I don’t know the contact info. I think it was called the Crystal Lodge (and it was an awesome place). Here is a website that looks like the same place: http://krystallodge.tripod.com/
They didn’t operate tours, but if you just take a stroll downtown you’ll find several tour operators ready to hop you around to all the islands you like.
Have a great time. I’m totally jealous!