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| Ruins of Mile long Barracks on Corregidor |
Our trip began with a brief stopover in
Manila, a crowded bustling city of 1.6
million people. Manila was bombed flat
by the Japanese in WWII; then again by the Americans when they liberated it, so
almost anything of historical significance is gone. You can easily cover what
is there in one day. If you are going to
stay a bit longer the day trip to Corregidor is definitely worth the effort. Corregidor, an island guarding the
approaches to Manila, is
where the Americans, against all odds, held out for five months, before
surrendering. It’s where Douglas
MacArthur issued his famous “I shall
return.” The ruins are quite
spectacular, including the tunnels where the Americans held out for months, the
mile long barracks, and the sophisticated artillery that was made instantly
irrelevant when the airplane was
invented.
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| Coron on Busuanga Island |
From Manila, it is a one hour flight to
Coron on Busuanga Island. Coron is
visited chiefly by backpackers and scuba divers. The little town is perched on
the edge of the ocean and much of it is built on stilts. The town looks like the movie set from the
Popeye movie. It also has pristine
beaches, and one can live quite well there for a modest sum. Accommodation
in Coron can best be described as “Spartan.”
We each have one of the deluxe rooms on the third floor of the Seadive
Resort. Our rooms are up several very
steep flights of stairs, have a comfortable bed, air conditioning, and hot
water - some of the time. The walls are paper thin, but it’s clean and
comfortable. It rents out at the
princely price of 30 dollars Canadian a night and includes a great
breakfast. If you are on an even tighter
budget you can rent a ground floor room (shared bath) for only $15.00 a night
and most of these rooms have multiple beds.
Almost everywhere in Coron has free Wifi!!
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| Our hotel |
Coron is one of the “must do” places to
visit if you’re a wreck diver. A large Japanese fleet sunk there during WWII provides some fantastic
diving. One of most fascinating dives I
have ever done was at Barracuda Lake. It’s
a reverse thermal lake. That means the top twenty feet is fresh water,
and below that is a layer of salt water. The lake is so warm you don’t need a
wetsuit. You can just dive in a t-shirt
and swimsuit. The water temperature of the fresh water layer is about 28 Celsius
(80F). Because fresh water is less
dense than salt water you rocket down 5 meters till you
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| Manicure on the bottom of the lake |
hit salt water and then
bounce a bit before you float just below the interface. The salt water layer is over 40 degrees C!
(104). It’s like swimming in a hot tub, minus the band-aides, beach towels and
bikini tops. The lake is populated by
some unique marine life: barracuda and manicure shrimp. If you put your hand down on the sand, the
shrimp appear and begin cleaning your nails!
For twenty dollars a day you can rent a
banka (a small trimaran with captain and
crew and cruise from deserted island to island with time to sample snorkeling
at each stop. Lunch is also
included. The cost of the excursion
wouldn’t even cover your parking in Hawaii!!!
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| Our private yacht |
The diving went well at
Coron except for the “BCD” incident. I was doing quite well and everyone seemed
impressed with my abilities as a diver. I was regaling everyone with one of my
stories as we were suiting up to dive. However I was having difficulty getting
my BCD (dive vest) on. It seemed to have somehow shrunk during lunch, and no
matter how hard I tugged on it, I couldn’t get it to fit. Finally I asked my
dive buddy to come over and give me a hand. He tugged and tugged, but still couldn’t
get it to fit. Finally he suggested I take it off and proceeded to examine it to
see if one of the buckles was jammed. While all this was going on I noticed a
little Japanese girl looking strangely at me.
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| diving with just a t-shirt.... and bathng suit |
“Excuse me,” she said
politely, after Bruce has completely taken the vest apart, “but I think you're trying to put on my
vest!”
I looked down, and sure
enough, her extra small vest was sitting on the floor by my feet - it wasn’t
even the same color as mine. When I looked up Bruce was banging his head
against a post. My credibility among the other divers sort of went downhill
from there. Good thing it was our last dive day in Coron.
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| Room at Los Flores on Cebu |
From Coron we took a flight to the island
of Cebu. We are staying at Los Flores resort which is the complete opposite of
our previous accommodation. The Las Flores
Country & Beachside Hotel is a four star resort that looks and feels more
like a five star property. The hotel is
immaculately decorated and at times it feels like you’re staying in an art
gallery. The hotel has a small swimming pool and a private beach and is not far
from a public golf course. The cost per
night was about $90.00 Canadian.
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| Our own personal staff |
The only “slight” problem is that Bruce and I
are the
only guests here and the three Filipino staff members hover
around us like hummingbirds around a feeder trying to cater to our every need.
If we want a beer they get it, pour it and stand by while we drink it. I think
one of them tried to “burp” Bruce.
If we mention we might want
to go swimming towels magically appear out of nowhere and when we go to the
pool they turn on the showers and wait for us to come out of the pool.
One strange thing is the
fire instructions on the door. In case of fire we are given precise instructed
to:
“ Leave my room immediately, firmly close the door and
yell “Fire! Fire! Fire! Then run up and down the hall and knock on each door
and again yell ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’ ”
What happens if I only yell it twice, or
four times? Does it count?
Today we're going to hang
around the hotel, and get massages. Tomorrow it's off to Malapascua for more
diving.
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