Coron... the place to be... the place to beat...

June 12 to 15 -- the bear and I went to Coron for a summer getaway. Yep! 4D/3N. The trip was supposed to be a bear's company outing (at Puerto Princesa) with me tagging along. But due to ficklemindedness of some people on their party, the trip got cancelled. Of course, me, being excited over the whole thing, really got pissed off. My rage brought me planning an exclusive trip... to Coron.

I chose Coron over Puerto Princesa because the place really has a lot to offer in terms of the sites to be visited and the nature it holds. I imagined myself swimming and treking and being under the sun all day.

The Palawan trip was relayed to me when I was still in Dagupan... around last week of March. The cancellation of the whole was communicated in the second week of May. I got really furious when I heard the news. The first thing that came into my mind is the cost of the plane fare (because the later you book, the more expensive it gets). But before I booked plane tickets, I just had to make sure that we have a place to stay first. I researched a lot in the internet... reading countless reviews and looking for good itineraries. I also called Ms. Jereza, our travel agent for the Bohol trip but I find her rates quite expensive as compared to my computations for a DIY trip. The hard part came when I started calling the hotels/resorts... most of them are already fully booked for the long weekend. Luckily, when I called CORON VILLAGE LODGE for the second time, there's an available room. The first time I called them, they were sorta fully booked because of some 'pencil' bookings -- meaning the reservations weren't final yet but I still volunteered to be waitlisted. Extreme joy is what I felt when I finally found a place to stay... and it's cheap too... P950/night. I even got to talk with the owner, Ms. Bec Fernandez, who is kind enough to entertain my questions on where to go. She went against having a package type of trip as it will only be more expensive for us. It would save us more if we DIY the whole thing.

Next is the plane. I checked Cebu Pacific first but the flights for that date were tagged as NO SEATS AVAILABLE. Good thing, PAL's website is already repaired and I got 2 tickets to Busuanga for P3,924/pax. Quite expensive than the promo rates but I took it anyway because as I mentioned earlier, it would only get more expensive with each passing day. Although Zest Air's fares are cheap, I simply don't have the balls to fly with an airline formerly called Asian Spirit...

Finally, the itinerary. This one's the easiest. Since the Lodge also offers packages, I simply copied the whole thing. I made additions of 2 places based on research.

Since the plane, lodging and itinerary were all in place, the bear and I did a little shopping. We bought our own snorkeling gear (w/o the fins) because we don't want to rent. Just imagine how many people have bitten the mouthpiece... and with AH1N1 around.... hehehe... I was contemplating on purchasing an underwater camera but I settled with a digicam pouch (P1,450). Canon D10 is my target because it's water, freeze and shock-proof but it costs P26K++. I also saw Olympus My Water (P16,995) but then again, I settled for the pouch. I also bought original Crocs slippers for the both of us just for the trip... It's really disappointing to see pirated versions selling for cheap prices at chiangge stalls in malls. I even tried to fit one -- but it feels like plastic. One can really say that a person buying a pair of original Crocs is really paying for comfort and quality. For my camera (since I expected a lot of picture takings and videos), aside from the pouch, is a 4GB memory stick which is really sulit (P1,200). Of course the clothes... and food... and etc.

What happened in the whole trip? That would be on my next post, with pictures.