Weekend Blast...or....Blasted Weekend?

February 9, 2013

This is it! This is the day of my flight to Coron, Palawan. I woke up early to finalize my travel necessities. I was a bit worried because of the dark clouds--it looked like it was going to rain. Thank God it didn't! :) As I was having breakfast, my sister arrived from Singapore. And guess what? She bought my dream jigsaw puzzle design--1000pc. Joy of Autumn Leaves by Peter Ellenshaw! Okay, so this is not exactly something a normal person would ever expect out of the bag of a relative working overseas, but HECK!  I AM TOTALLY DELIGHTED!!!!

Going back to my Coron trip...

Our original departure time was 1 PM, I was called up the night before and it was moved to 3 PM. Since we didn't have a choice, we decided to accept the proposed time. We just looked on the bright side--that is--we didn't need to meet up that early as agreed.

While in line at the check-in counter

My travel buddy and I saw a gorgeous looking European guy.  I presumed that it could be luck on our side--but we were very wrong.  

Our turn at the check-in counter

The lady informed us that the flight was overbooked. She was telling us if we were willing to give up our seats, in exchange will be a one-way ticket to any Philippine destination+hotel accommodation and she assured us that there will be a confirmed flight for tomorrow at 9 AM.  Imagine our panic-stricken faces when we heard the details. We told her--with full conviction--that we would like to take our original flight schedule(naturally!) and we were assured that we would have seats to our flight. Whew!

Gyudon and Tonkatsu @Raku (Food court NAIA Terminal 3)

After giving us our boarding passes, we took our lunch and waited for our departure time.

3 PM

We were informed that the aircraft will be delayed. So we left the airport at approximately 4 in the afternoon.  What a disappointment! Our original plans for the afternoon instantly went down the drain and would have to be rescheduled tomorrow.

Arrival at Busuanga, Coron

We thought that the departure time was the last of our delays for the day--WRONG! We were near the airport but our pilot announced that there is still an aircraft having mechanical issues so we circled some islands for 10-15 mins. How nauseating!

View from above: Circling some islands for 10-15 minutes

After that, Alas! The time to land has come. It was a bumpy landing--'nuf said.

Coron Town Proper 5:30 PM

The road leading to the town proper was not that bumpy--or maybe we didn't notice much because my buddy and I were having an interesting conversation. You'll think that after the events at the airport, there couldn't be a worse scenario--BOOM! We were dropped off at the wrong lodge! The driver was informed that we're supposed to be dropped at Ralph's but we were informed by the agency that we should be staying at Lilian's. So to clarify things, we went inside Ralph's and asked the front desk if there was a reservation under my name. Indeed there was no reservation so we asked them for directions going to Lilian's Lodge. Seeing that the town was small, we assumed that they know it. Unfortunately for us, they don't. We asked several people pointing us to different directions. Until finally, I ended up calling Ma'am Lillian for instructions(this was my last option since I don't have much credit to make a call, good thing that time, I had enough). She advised us to take a tricycle and tell the driver to drop us at "Aqua Best" "Bancuang". Like children, we followed the instructions only to find out that it was 1.5 blocks(approximately 5-8 meters) away from Ralph's...and we paid 7php each. Talk about needless expense--sheesh!

Our room

Sunset viewed from the lodge's veranda--Just in time! :)

Upon reaching Lilian's Lodge(the real business name is "Seaview Homestay"), we met the proprietor. She was very friendly and accommodating. The place had a home-y feeling and we were right on time for the sunset! Yay! After spending some time taking photographs, we were led to our room. It was a simple room. 1 queen sized bed, a bathroom(w/o hot&cold shower...good thing that I brought my portable water heater ^_^...and they have a pail and a dipper inside or else the heater would've been rendered useless..Ha!) and a shelf. The room has an aircon. Little did we know that most of the time they have no electricity and they only turn on the generator at certain times. Since generators couldn't handle the electric load needed for the aircon, we were provided with a good 'ol electric fan. So after settling down, we decided to take our dinner.

Bistro Coron

Coq Au Vin - Chicken cooked in red wine with mushroom
and carrots

From all the blogs that I've read, it seems that this restaurant has been popular. Since this was just right across the street from where we were staying, we decided to eat here(we were also hungry then so we didn't bother with anywhere else). We were both surprised with the menu. Everything in it was expensive o_0
So I just convinced myself that this is a vacation so why not splurge once in a while, right? I also read on a certain blog that the 'Coq Au Vin' was enjoyable so we decided to try it. It was 220php. I consoled myself with the fact that it's cooked with wine that's why it's that expensive. When our orders came, it was a shock. We were served with three pieces of chicken and 2 cups of rice. Warning: If you're not into wine or alcoholic beverages mixed in your food, DO NOT ORDER THIS! Don't get me wrong--the taste was fine, but it gradually becomes salty. It was a waste not to eat everything, so in the end, we were full.

Dad's Coronzy Coffee & Tea
After our dinner, we suddenly wanted something sweet and refreshing so we tried looking for ice cream. But because of the electricity issue, I guess no one in town would be risky enough to sell ice cream(to our disappointment). There's a shop selling flavored shaved ice but we weren't interested in eating overpriced ice , I'm also not interested in fruit shakes, so we decided to have iced coffee instead. I forgot the name of my drink but it has caramel on it. It was fairly priced at 130php and the coffee was prepared just the way I like it. A bit on the strong side with a dollop of cream and a swirl of caramel.

The temperature was a bit high so we decided to spend time on telling stories at the veranda while drinking our coffee. After that, lights out. Little did we know that we made a wrong decision in scheduling things.
Overall, for me, the first day could be categorized under 'Blasted Weekend'.