The Philippines - The Islands of Coron, Chapter One

A short one-hour flight from Manila (the capital city of The Philippines) is the stunning island chain north of Palawan, the area of which goes by the name of Coron. Even the flight here was out of this world, with the several islands in plain view directly beneath, lost in the vastness of the blue that seemed to go on for miles. I was absolutely shattered from the 12-hour flight between London and Manila last night so I had originally planned to sleep on the plane to Coron, but was kept awake by the sheer beauty that beheld me outside – I couldn’t look away. Eventually we arrived over the main island of Busuanga, the rolling hills disappearing into the distance. The plane began to shake as it descended, finally landing violently onto the simple island airstrip. Beaming and excited, I was finally here, on the island of Busuanga and was very ready to explore.

A van took me from Busuanga airport to the sleepy town of Coron, which was the main hub of the island and where the island trips were taken from. After a short 30 minute ride from the airport, I finally arrived at one of the coolest hostels I’ve stayed – Hop Hostel! It was awesome for several reasons:

1. Free shots at 7pm and happy hour between 7pm-10pm
2. Free dinner in the evenings
3. Friendly, helpful and can help organise whatever you need!
4. Mini cinema room, rooftop bar and comfortable beds
5. But last and certainly not least this. Stunning. Magnificent. Panoramic. View.

In fact, reason number five alone is the reason that this hostel ranks so highly in my top hostels ever visited. I mean look at this view... And for a small cost of 10$ for a fan room, how could you ever say no to this?

And this is where I met some new friends from the hostel, on top of this rooftop bar. In fact, my colleague Anthony was here traveling around Asia and he happened to be in Coron at the exact same time as me – what a coincidence! So that evening, we booked an island trip by boat for the next morning for $25, got back to the hostel, and drank/talked/laughed the night away with the rest of our hostel-mates.

The next morning was a relatively early start as we were picked up at 8:30am. Along with a few others from the hostel, we were taken to the docks of Coron where a boat was waiting for us. But there was one catch – the boat that was ours was tethered to the back of a line of about four other boats! So with our bags in tow, we crawled through each boat to the end before jumping onto the next one, eventually making it to the our boat with thankfully no one falling in! The island trip was to last the whole day, between 9am to 6pm including lunch and snorkels/flippers. So for $25 this was an absolute steal! After putting on our lifejackets, the captain started up the rudimentary engine and off we went to the first island – CYC Island.

The “CYC” in CYC Island stands for Coron Youth Club, due to the fact that a lot of the youths take to the island by boat to party and have barbecues away from the prying eyes of adults and police. Despite this fact, by day the island is gorgeous to look at, surrounded by mangroves and with beautiful white sand to one side of the island. This island only measured about 400m across, so was surrounded by a beautiful shimmering blue. A few boats were moored along the beach, letting tourists off to explore the small beach. So after a few minutes snorkelling, I decided this was the best time to take my drone out for a spin to see how beautiful this island really is from the sky.

It. Was. Out of this world.

A shimmering light blue, encompassing golden sands and fertile greens of the tree canopies, swaying in the wind, in rhythm with the gentle rocking of the boats moored against the beach. This view was to die for.

_{D E T A I L S}
🌏 | Coron, The Philippines
📷 | Samsung S8 and DJI Drone
🎨 | Lightroom Mobile edits used

Over the next few weeks I'll be trekking through The Philippines and I'll be sharing with you my stories, emotions, advice and tips about this wonderful place. I will be doing this while sharing my photographs with all of you too. I sincerely hope this inspires you to go out there and travel!

Please do follow if you want to keep up with my journey through this country <3

Any upvotes or reblogs are hugely appreciated! Much love, everybody.

_{P R E V I O U S   P O S T}

Click on the photograph in case you missed the last adventure...

---

_{I N S T A G R A M 📸}

Follow on Instagram for more! Comment and say hello 💙

@stephengreenprice