A weary traveler rests in Coron

I'll be traveling around Asian next month, and was looking over some old photos I took in 2006. I'll be doing a recap of previous trips before I take 2 months touring the 3 countries - Kyushu in Japan, Philippines, and Thailand.

The story starts in 2006 when I finally made it to Coron, the most northern island in Palawan, Philippines. Laid down on a hammock on the roof of the hotel sitting on top of the water.

This lone shack caught my attention. With the emerald green waters enveloping the surrounding buildings. I was in heaven. The screaming of the pigs and market next to the hotel was pretty much of a downer.

If you do get out, there's an island hopping tour which you need to prepare in advance. There's also Calauit Island that has giraffes, zebras, and some other exotic African animals that the late Dictator Marcos brought over.

So I arrived in Coron via small airplane. These other tourists were getting on jeepneys to be taken to the expensive resort across Coron. I think it was like $100 dollars a day or something. With that kind of money, someone better pick them up.

There's an internet cafe on the street near the hotel I stayed at, so that was cool. Bringing a laptop with me on my next tour.

Coron is a quiet place, really quiet town. If you want to just relax, unwind and lounge around doing nothing. This is the place.

Sea Dive resort is also PADI certified so you can learn scuba diving on the cheap. Lots of WW2 wrecks around the islands.

The way to the hotel was a walk through a narrow aisle through local restaurants and family houses. I stayed at the Sea Dive Resort. People were excellent, staff and the other tourists were all great people. Especially when you're eating and drinking at the bar area, watching cartoons late night with other tourists. Most of the other tourists were either from Europe or Australia, only a few American old codgers feeling their way around the town looking for girls.

Between Sea Dive and the Coron market is a smaller hotel that has a bar. I was too lazy with the hammock and the great and cheap food at Sea Dive to get out much.

Before you do any of those, go to the Makinit Hot Springs. I flew on a tricycle from the town's nice paved roads which became dirty roads, and really narrow roads and finally I arrived at the entrance to the hot spring.

It costs a few pesos to enter, I think it was a buck. Tell you the truth, when I first saw it, I thought the area was pretty danky. The hot spring is surrounded by dirt and trees. It didn't look like they paid for maintenance.

But you finally get near the hot spring, and its bloody clear! Damn nice I thought, and its hot, really hot. Once you drown your body in that water, its like you're in another world. The body's nerves just tingles with the feel of the water.

I went to Makinit Hot Spring when it was just after noon, so imagine. The temperature is around 90 degrees outside, and the hot spring is around 100 degrees! I was warned I should wait and come back when the sun sets. Forget that, I'm a man.

It felt really good, better than better.

One issue I had. Maintenance has to be kept up! The hot spring was overgrown with algae. Really pissed me off. Overall experience was pretty good. Clean that algae people!