From Manila to Coron

I landed in Manila in the afternoon after a good flight, which cost me next to nothing in the end, as I was finally able to use some airmiles to book a flight!

Unfortunately, I landed with a migraine, so it was straight to the room and in bed with some sumatriptan. Luckily, I decided to splurge (another hotels.com voucher) for my first night, and booked the Conrad hotel on the sea front and close to the airport, so I had a luxurious bed and ensuite.

The following day I woke very early thanks to jetlag and was still suffering a little with a bad head, but I eventually made it down to breakfast for about 8am, and was really treated. It has to be the best breakfast buffet I have ever had in any hotel in the world so far. There was literally everything, but I tried to stick to traditional Filipino food. So I opted for a lot of chocolate based dishes! There was some bitter, strong and VERY thick hot cocoa, which was delicious. Some kind of chocolate porridge type thing, I also had some daal and fried veg with rice, and at one point a guy came round with some traditional street food and served it at your table. It was warm silken tofu with soy milk and some little jelly things. Was also surprisingly nice.

After breakfast, I went for my first look outside, just a short walk along the seaside and down towards a big mall, before grabbing a taxi over to the city centre and Rizal Park.

I stayed in the park for about an hour before heading back closer to the hotel for some lunch and to check out to grab my domestic flight to Busuanga (Coron).

As soon as I landed, I was approached by locals asking me where I was going. I was immediately on my guard, as usually this means people are trying to get you to pay them extortionate fees to get into the town. But as I said, no, I’m ok thanks, I’m ok… I realised that there was a system here, and every person waiting had a minibus ready to take the new arrivals to their guesthouse for free. I hopped in the people carrier bound for Coron Outpost Hostel (and some others along the way).

I had picked a little hostel in Coron Town, and in the run up to the trip had been worrying about this choice after my last hostel experience in Ecuador had been so bad. And although I stayed in dorm beds religiously during my big backpacking trip 10 years ago, I was starting to think I might be “too old” for hostels now… How wrong I was!!

I honestly had the BEST time here, and it reignited my love for hostels. The key to an enjoyable hostel stay is often just in the luck of the draw, as in my opinion, it’s 100% to do with who else is staying there at the same time as you. And I happened to be very lucky in that there were quite a few 30-somethings also staying here at the same time, and we formed a small group and hung out together the entire time.

The other part of the hostel I had worried about was the “games”. I saw in the reviews and they told me on check-in too, that they did games every night in the bar. And again, I worried they might be a bit cringe, or a little too much like “organised fun”. But once again, I was proven wrong, and the games were a great way to meet new people.

The game on the first night was a treasure hunt game, with the grand prize being a free day trip boat tour the next day. I didn’t officially win, but I helped the guy who did, so when he won the prize, he gave it to me, as he had already done the tour. So the next day, I joined the gang on the boat trip, for free!

We went to Twin Lagoon first, then Coral Garden, where we also had lunch, before heading to Barracuda Lake.

It was absolutely incredible, the colour of the water and the looming karsts were just stunning, probably some of the most turquoise water I’ve ever seen. It was so beautiful. But also, even though I am usually against group tours of any kind, it was actually really wonderful to share the boat with the group, and I had a great time hanging out with the 2 Jordans, Alex, Courtney and Justine.

When we arrived back in Coron Town, I headed over to a little vegan restaurant called Verde Rekado, which was only OK – half the stuff on the menu was not available, but it was ok.

Then that night we went out with everyone from the hostel and had an amazing night in the local bars.

The following day, I must admit, I was quite hungover, so most of the day was spent chilling by the hostel pool and looking after myself haha. A few of us also went down into the town for a massage (which was incredible) and a really delicious evening meal.

That night ended in a similar bar, but I tried to take it easier that night and avoid any more hangovers!

On the last day in Coron, I wanted to go out to a less touristy place, and had read about Black Island, off the West Coast of Busuanga which was supposed to have some of the best snorkelling in the area.

I convinced some of the crew from the hostel to come with me and we were going to get motorbikes initially to get from the hostel to the coast first, where we could try and catch a boat over to the island. But after the last night’s drinks, we decided it was wiser to get a minibus taxi for us all. It was also cheaper than each hiring bikes anyway.

So we asked the taxi to drop us off at Busuanga port near Salvacion town, and from here we were able to arrange a boat taxi to Black Island.

We arrived and the island was pretty much deserted. There was a little cave and some fresh water pools we cooled off in, and then tried some snorkelling, and it was absolutely amazing, crystal clear water. But unfortunately there were loads of little stingers on the water, most likely sea fleas, which got pretty uncomfortable in the end and forced us all out of the water.

We got coconuts and sat chilling on the deserted beach, everyone had an amazing day and thanked me for encouraging them to try something more DIY ish.

We arrived back at the hostel quite late and went to the bar again. That night we joined one of the games, which was beer pong. Ollie and I made a team. And anyone who knows me, knows how competitive I get at games like this, so of course we did well, and made it all the way to the final against the bar staff. With everyone watching and cheering on, Ollie and I were the clear underdogs here… We took an early lead and got down to one cup quickly. The tactic often, was me to go first, get one in, then Ollie to aim for the same cup so we could lose 3 in one go. We made an excellent team haha. However, the staff team pulled it back and we were 1-1, just the final cup left. My moment of glory came when the opposition got a ball in our cup and it was sudden death, I had to get mine in theirs right now to stop from losing. Everyone was cheering me on, building up my shot, it was so low probability to get, but I got it, and literally everyone went mental hahahaha it was amazing. Sadly we did lose in the end, but I had so much fun! And here I was worrying I was too old for hostels!!! Haha

I had an amazing time in Coron, just what I needed. I do love living on my own, but it can sometimes be a little lonely. But spending time in hostels, where you are with people all the time, is a fantastic way to fill the social meter and feel connected again. Especially when the people are so awesome and you have so much in common (usually your love of travel is what connects you!).

I can’t believe how wrong I was about Coron Outpost, and how glad I was that I did stay there. I would recommend it to anyone.

The only thing I was disappointed about was the snorkelling, I had read that Coral Garden and around Coron was apparently some of the best in the Philippines, but so far the snorkelling was just “OK”.

But the next part of trip was the snorkelling expedition, so I was super excited to see what else the Philippines had in store…