I’m home

Hello hello hello! Last time I posted was when I was still in the philippines in the first week of my vacation. But now i’m back stateside. On my instagram (@mellahhhhh) the last thing i posted was of a cyclone warning in Coron. Yeah if we stayed any longer on that island man. I was going to go crazy!

The original plan was to stay in Coron for 2 days then take a cargo ferry to El Nido (another beautiful island) and then travel to Puerto Princessa (another beach town north of El Nido)

Wellllllll. The only place we reached was Coron. And there were only 2 ways to get off the island. By plane [which only flew to two places Cebu and Clark Airforce base (which we flew out from) ] and by ferry which was going to head to El Nido.

Dont get me wrong the island hopping was fun and beautiful. But staying there for 4 days being stuck practically indoors for 3 of those days. Yeah not fun.

We were supposed to head out to El Nido the 3rd day. So we got up bright and early and took a tricycle to the port where we were supposed to take the ferry. 20 minute bumpy wet and suprising cold ride to the port. We were the first ones there. Got our tickets and paid for the terminal fee. (You ask what is a terminal fee… well it’s a fee that you have to pay for waiting in the lobby. There is a freaking fee for that! Kinda like what a tollway is.) Not even 5 minutes later a person comes out from the back and says the ferry is canceled. Not just for the morning. But for the ENTIRE day. there was a freaking gale warning. And they explained to us that if there was a gale warning in the morning all boat trips would be automatically cancelled. THE waves were going to be 8 or 9 ft high apparently. But not on the island I was on with my family but on another Island in the area. This happend 3 days in a row for us! Maybe even 5 if we stayed there!

Dont get me wrong better safe than sorry.

But being in the center of the town which honestly wasn’t very big. But easily confusing. Pretty much the only way you could travel far was on tricycles or you’d have to rent a scooter for a day.

On one of those days we were thinking about going to the natural hot springs. But the only way to get there was by hiring a tricycle driver to take you and would wait there for you till you were done which was roughly 500 php that would be for about an hour. But that didnt include the entrance fee to the hot springs which was 200 to 300 php. The reasons why the prices would very is if you were an obvious tourist aka not filipino at all aka tall big and european/american looking they would charge you more. So it does really help if you speak the language or have someone who is filipino in your party. So you dont get jipped or taken advantage of. We didnt end up doing it because it rained.

sidenote

Yeah the currency exchange roughly now is 50.20 php to 1 American dollar. It is cheap because you are in a developing country. But head my warning You dont want to carry too much money on you or even take out your wallet. And you should separate the money that you do have in different pockets. For example if you place a third of the cash you have on hand in your wallet. And split the remaining cash among other pockets of your clothes/bags. And then if you forget where you put your money it’s a little treat for when you do find it! This happened to me twice

end sidenote

Anyways back to being stuck in Coron. Dont get me wrong. It is a very beautiful place. And I had a wonderful first full day there. But I was ready to continue on the adventure. And after 2 days there you’ve already seen the basis of what the island has to offer. Little town lots of tiny hole in the wall convenience stores and it was in the beginning stages of becoming a huge tourist destination. ALSO IT RAINED EVERYDAY. Lucky enough it only began to rain after the tour ended that day.

And on top of it all because our ferry trip was being canceled 3 days in a row (we only planned on staying for 2 nights) and we were now on the 4th. Our hotel/lodging accommodations were threating to kick us out because of overbooking and the fact they didnt expected so many people to be staying in town instead of leaving it. Stupid gale warning. By the end of that day I was over it. And I could feel myself begin to catch something. It could have been the weird weather I was putting myself through. Constantly on the move and not really adjusting well to the time difference. Being in the water all day the first full day. BARELY drinking any water. At least the amount I am used to is at least 3 liters a day. (Its a lot but it helps me not to get sick. It flushes out all the bad stuff) There could have been a multitude of things. I was just over it. And I think my parents were as well. So we ended our trip early and flew back to Clark. My parents had a hassle of a time getting their money back from the ferry tickets. And then on top of that we were supposed to flight out from Puerto Princessa. They couldn’t get their money back from that. What a waste.

Stupid gale warning.

This ends my trip to Coron. Which was only halfway through my trip. But doesnt end my stay in the Philippines. More to come later.