I got up nice and early in Loboc since I had a tuktuk ride scheduled for 6:30am. The drive to Tagbilaran City was about an hour, but as we were driving, I saw something out of my peripheral vision that was on my seat. I looked down and realised it was a huge spider (that almost looked like a twig)! Trying not to freak out too much, I casually stood up in the moving tricycle. The driver was confused and pulled over, but the spider had crawled back into my seat. The driver grabbed a stick and squished the spider before proceeding, which I was kind of grateful for or I would have been staring at the hole in the seat for the duration of the trip. I got to the ferry at about 7:30, but it wasn’t scheduled to leave until 8:20am, so it gave me plenty of time to check in and get a coffee. This time, I got to sit in the air-conditioned part of the ferry, which was quite nice! We got to Cebu at 10:20 and then I requested a Grab to take me to the airport. Traffic was quite bad and when I asked the driver if it was normal, he said, “Nope, just today.” Lucky me! I got to the airport and avoided the check-in counter so that they wouldn’t weigh my bag. There was no way I’d be wearing my heavy clothes in 30+ degree weather! However, I was in for a surprise because when I was about to go through security, there were some flight attendants who ushered me to the scale. Shoot, well what do I do now? I can’t exactly say, “Be right back” and change all of my clothes. I walked up to the scale and hoped for the best. 8.3kg. Dang. “Okay, you’re good!” the flight attendant said. “Really? Okay!” I definitely lucked out! Once I got through security, I looked around the airport searching for food but again, I didn’t see any stand-out options that were gluten-free, other than a sad garden salad. But suddenly, I heard an announcement for final boarding for my flight! I quickly rushed to the gate and had to get on a bus that transferred us to the plane. We left a half hour early and arrived to Coron a half hour early as well (after a short 1hr40min flight) – so far, I was really impressed with Filipino airlines! When I got to Coron and exited the airport, there was a desk with people asking you to pay 200 pesos as an environmental fee. I guess you couldn’t leave the airport if you didn’t pay! After that, there was another crowd of people offering shuttle rides. Luckily, this time it seemed a lot more organised, as certain shuttles went to certain accommodations. I found the right shuttle and we waited until everyone else had left the airport. Only one other person went in the same shuttle as me, but she was going to a different hostel. I had originally booked a different hostel, but after spending three nights in accommodation by myself (and seeing that my new accommodation would also be quiet, AND not have air-conditioning), I made a last-minute decision to change hostels to somewhere that had air-conditioning and seemed like it would have more people. However, I was sorely mistaken. There were a few people, but the hostel owner said that this should be their high season. Normally people couldn’t even extend their stays because they’d be fully booked every night, but now, they didn’t have any new bookings until May. When I finally got settled, I was starving and needed to get a (late) lunch since it was nearly 3pm. I found a place but was a bit shocked by the prices, as everything seemed more expensive than everywhere else I’ve been. However, I was too hungry to keep looking, so I ordered Pork Belly with rice, which was really good, but also really sweet. I’ve noticed that this has been one of my main issues with Filipino food. This is not something new to me – I tend to always avoid sweet-flavoured meats, as I 100% prefer when it’s savoury. I don’t like barbecue sauce on my burger (or on anything), I don’t like teriyaki sauce, or honey garlic, or sweet chili (on meat). And a definite no to maple-flavoured bacon. Save the sweetness for dessert, please! So when PRETTY much all of the meats are sweetly flavoured in the Philippines, I realised I’d either have to grin and bear it, or try to find something else. I found it very difficult to finish most of my meals though, as my stomach couldn’t handle it. Anyway, after I finished eating (and researching tours to take), I went back to my hostel to book a tour for the following day: The Ultimate Tour. I’d be picked up between 8 and 8:30 the next morning, so it would be another early morning. I got everything organised, and then chatted with one of my dormmates for a bit. One of the reasons I chose this hostel was because apparently, they serve free rum and pineapple juice every night as a way to get everyone to meet each other. When I went up at 7, the lights were out and nobody was there, so I headed back down. Most people started going out for dinner by that point and finally right before 8, the hostel owner said he’d be starting drinks. I went upstairs and it was only me and another guy with the hostel owner. I just stayed for one drink and they told me about a restaurant that I’d have to try for dinner, so I headed there. I still wasn’t completely hungry since I had eaten such a late lunch, but I knew if I didn’t eat anything, I’d be hungry by the time I went to bed. I ordered chicken curry, which was good, but again I couldn’t finish it. I headed back to the hostel, got ready for bed, and chilled out before going to sleep.
The next morning, I got up at 6:30, got ready for my tour, and went to find somewhere that would be open for breakfast at 7am on a Sunday (which was quite difficult). Luckily, I found a place called Follow Your Taste, which I also ended up going to the following two mornings. I just got an easy bacon and eggs with a latte, and then I headed back to the hostel to wait for my tour. The tricycle came, and there were already four people in it (plus the driver). I squished in and they drove us to our boat. I sat next to a girl from Quebec and she was with a guy from Switzerland. Apparently they had randomly met during a hike a year ago while travelling and just decided to meet up again in the Philippines, which I thought was so cool! We also sat with a guy from Perth who has been living in Singapore, so the four of us hung out throughout the day. Our first stop was Kayangan Lake. They dropped us off on the shore and to get there, we had to go up about 180 stairs and then back down another 180 stairs. Between the two sets of stairs, there was a viewpoint but the lineup was so long so we decided to check it out on the way back. Honestly, I didn’t love the lake but it was probably due to the overwhelming amount of people in it. Our tour guide hadn’t given us any times, so we had no idea when we were supposed to be back. After what we thought was a sufficient amount of time, we headed back towards the boat. This time, the lineup to the viewpoint was longer but we decided to wait. It took so long and once I got closer to the front, I realised that it was because every person was doing about ten poses in front of the viewpoint. I wasn’t sure if the entire boat was waiting for us so I just decided to take a picture from where I was and head back to the boat. However, when we finally got to the boat, I saw that we were the first people to arrive – I guess we could have continued waiting!
Our next stop was the Twin Lagoons, which were absolutely gorgeous and way less crowded! The lagoons were surrounded by limestone rock and the colour of the water was unreal. Oftentimes, we felt like we were the only people in the lagoon! After this, we were wondering how we were going to fit more things in the day since it was already 1 and we had only went to two places!
We headed to Smith Beach, where we were served lunch. We had some fish, some clams, and got to try some of the local seaweed, which was different but I actually really enjoyed it! The seaweed had balls of liquid that would pop in your mouth, like roe. After lunch, we were able to enjoy the beach for a bit and then we continued on our tour. By this point, most of us were already pretty exhausted! We stopped at a place to do some snorkelling, and then our last stop was CYC beach, where we could also do some snorkelling, as well as sit on the beach. By the time we got back to Coron, the sun was already starting to set! I got a ride back to my hostel, showered, and waited for my laundry to come (the hostel had been doing it that day). By the time I finally got it, it was about 8 so I headed back to the same restaurant as the night before. This time, I got butter garlic shrimp, which I figured would just be butter and garlic (savoury) but I was wrong haha it came with a very sweet sauce. Towards the end of my dinner, the power went out! (Which apparently is quite normal on the island). I headed back to my hostel to see that the power was out there as well, but luckily it turned back on about 15 minutes later. Earlier, a friend had told me to go to the Black Island so I asked if I could do a tour there. Unfortunately, none of the tour groups were going there because there wasn’t enough interest and they’d need a minimum amount of people. Instead, I decided to do “Beach Escapade C2.” That night, the hostel ran out of water, which isn’t great when you have 8 people sharing a bathroom. Luckily, the place across the street let people shower, and then they filled up buckets of water to use for the sink and toilet. Quite an interesting experience – I felt like I was camping again.
On Monday morning, I woke up at 6:30 and did the same thing as the day before. When I got dropped off at the port, the tour guide said that my boat was the last one along a long chain of six boats that were connected from front to back. This was probably the most stressful part of the day, as I was so scared that when hopping from one boat to the next, I’d slip and fall into the water with my phone and camera. I was so relieved when I got to the boat, and I was the first one to arrive! This time, I sat beside two solo travellers! We were all able to relate (and somewhat vent) about how most travellers in the Philippines were couples, and how difficult it’s been to find other solo travellers. I remember it being like that when I was in Thailand as well, and I remember being so relieved when I got to Vietnam and it was pretty much all solo travellers. So I hung out with Katie (from the US) and Adi (from the Philippines) the entire day! On this tour, we only had three stops but the first one took between 1.5-2 hours to get to. My butt couldn’t handle sitting on a wooden board for so long – I was seriously struggling! Our first stop was Ditaytayan Sand Bar, which was absolutely stunning! You could walk along the sand bar and have water on either side of you. Apparently it was high tide, so I’d be interested to know what it would look like during low tide. We spent a lot of our time doing some snorkelling, and then headed back to the boat after our 45 minutes were over.
We then headed to Coco Beach, which is where we’d be served lunch. While waiting, we snagged one of the elevated huts to do a quick photoshoot. This lunch tasted even better than the one I had the day before! After lunch, we got some coconuts and then enjoyed some time on the beach before we had to go back to the boat.
Our last stop was Malcapuya Island. The boat had to stop on the other side of the peninsula (since boats weren’t allowed on the beach), and then we walked up and down a hill to get to the beach. We were told that if we paid 100 pesos each, a boat would take us to look at giant clams and since none of us had seen them before, we signed up! It was a cool experience because the boat had a rope along the side, so we just held onto the rope and snorkelled while the boat pulled us along. It was much faster than kicking! The clams were huge – I’d say they were bigger than a basketball. After we finished, our time on the beach was almost done so I enjoyed the last few minutes in the water.
Then, we started the long journey back to Coron. After about an hour, we saw another tour boat in the distance that was stopped. They had been wrecked, so all of their tour members got onto our boat while the drivers stayed behind with their boat (we were still about an hour from Coron, and the sun was setting!). We finally got to shore and got into our shuttle, which dropped us off at the restaurant that we planned to go to. It was an Italian restaurant and while the pizza smelled AMAZING, gluten-free dough and gluten-free pasta doesn’t seem to exist in the Philippines. My only option seemed to be a shrimp salad, but it was actually much better and way more filling than I expected! After dinner, we said our goodbyes and then I headed back to my hostel to shower and get ready for bed.
On Tuesday morning, I did the exact same thing as the previous two days. This time, I stayed at the cafe longer to work on my blog for a couple hours. I had also gotten an email the night before that my flight from Sri Lanka to the Maldives had been cancelled, so I needed to sort that out. The flight was 1hr40, but my options were to go the same day but take a 13-hour trip (with a long layover somewhere), or leave a day earlier. I opted for the earlier day, but had to shuffle some things around since I’d be getting one less day in Sri Lanka. I headed back to the hostel to book a shuttle to the airport for 1:30 and then went to grab a quick lunch. I got back to the hostel right at 1:30 and the driver had already been waiting for me – oops! So I grabbed my things and we drove 30 minutes to the airport, so that I could fly to El Nido. But that will be for another post! Love always
Prairie Girl Abroad 