Sunset in Palawan: Getting to Coron Island
Getting to any island in the Philippines is never a straightforward undertaking. Sometimes you would need to book your flights on separate airlines with extremely inconvenient timing, especially if you're on a budget, just to reach your designated island.
I heard about ZestAir promo to the Philippines (which would turn out to be the biggest mistake of my trip, read on) and went online to check the price and found the rates extremely attractive, and then I got greedy and saw another promo flight from Manila to Boracay under RM200 return all-in fare and booked that too (again, biggest mistake).
My objective of the trip was to visit famous jewel of Philippines - Palawan and do some diving there; so Boracay came as a bonus trip. But since there was almost no direct flight between most islands in Philippines, to get from one island to the next would require travellers to fly back to Manila and out again.
And yes, I've searched, that is the fastest cheapest method you could go for. Unless you're rocking a 13-hr (to 20 hr) local ferry ride idea which has been rumoured to have stopped operating since 2012.
So basically my travel itinerary to the Philippines went like this:
Kuala Lumpur -> Manila (via ZestAir)
Manila -> Coron, Palawan (via Philippines Express Airlines)
Coron -> Manila (via Philippines Express Airlines)
Manila -> Boracay (via ZestAir)
Boracay -> Manila (via ZestAir)
Manila -> Kuala Lumpur (via ZestAir)
That's six individual flights on a single trip!
And out of the four ZestAir flights I took, all FOUR of them were DELAYED! Every single time!! For more than 1 hour, sometimes up to 4 hours! One time I even had to wait till past midnight before I could board the plane.
Never taking ZestAir again.
Palawan has several places you could visit:
Coron being the best island, followed by El Nido.
Forgo the more visited and commercialised Puerto Princesa which could be easily accessed from Boracay, but will take up to 12 hours just to travel to El Nido from there and then another 13 hours on a local ferry (if you can find one) to reach Coron.
Coron Island, taken with my Casio ZR700 (no edit).
Casio ZR700, Art Mode, HDR Level 1.
Art mode -> Toy Camera
It's my first time bringing my then brand new Casio ZR700 on a travel so I was fascinated with the different mode this camera could do.
But there you have it, once you arrived at Busuanga Airport, get a local taxi to Coron Town or have your hotel fetch you to your hotel. Mine was located on an island away from the main island, which required a boat transfer to complete isolation.
Banka (or crab boat)
Sunset came early so it was golden moment to play with our cameras before dinner time by the sea.
Art mode -> Pop
Art mode -> HDR
Best Shot mode (this displays the image in its most natural colour to the original scenery)
Best Shot
Art mode -> Pop
I heard about ZestAir promo to the Philippines (which would turn out to be the biggest mistake of my trip, read on) and went online to check the price and found the rates extremely attractive, and then I got greedy and saw another promo flight from Manila to Boracay under RM200 return all-in fare and booked that too (again, biggest mistake).
My objective of the trip was to visit famous jewel of Philippines - Palawan and do some diving there; so Boracay came as a bonus trip. But since there was almost no direct flight between most islands in Philippines, to get from one island to the next would require travellers to fly back to Manila and out again.
And yes, I've searched, that is the fastest cheapest method you could go for. Unless you're rocking a 13-hr (to 20 hr) local ferry ride idea which has been rumoured to have stopped operating since 2012.
So basically my travel itinerary to the Philippines went like this:
Kuala Lumpur -> Manila (via ZestAir)
Manila -> Coron, Palawan (via Philippines Express Airlines)
Coron -> Manila (via Philippines Express Airlines)
Manila -> Boracay (via ZestAir)
Boracay -> Manila (via ZestAir)
Manila -> Kuala Lumpur (via ZestAir)
That's six individual flights on a single trip!
And out of the four ZestAir flights I took, all FOUR of them were DELAYED! Every single time!! For more than 1 hour, sometimes up to 4 hours! One time I even had to wait till past midnight before I could board the plane.
Never taking ZestAir again.
Palawan has several places you could visit:
Coron being the best island, followed by El Nido.
Forgo the more visited and commercialised Puerto Princesa which could be easily accessed from Boracay, but will take up to 12 hours just to travel to El Nido from there and then another 13 hours on a local ferry (if you can find one) to reach Coron.
Coron Island, taken with my Casio ZR700 (no edit).
Casio ZR700, Art Mode, HDR Level 1.
Art mode -> Toy Camera
It's my first time bringing my then brand new Casio ZR700 on a travel so I was fascinated with the different mode this camera could do.
But there you have it, once you arrived at Busuanga Airport, get a local taxi to Coron Town or have your hotel fetch you to your hotel. Mine was located on an island away from the main island, which required a boat transfer to complete isolation.
Banka (or crab boat)
Sunset came early so it was golden moment to play with our cameras before dinner time by the sea.
Art mode -> Pop
Art mode -> HDR
Best Shot mode (this displays the image in its most natural colour to the original scenery)
Best Shot
Art mode -> Pop
0 kissed Nicole