Fun in the sun winter 97/98 part 1 THE PHILLIPINES, what a trip Manila is one ugly city, from a tourist point of view, or at least to me it was...No real tourist area other than Angeles city, porn city of the Phillipines, a great place to avoid as I did...The area I stayed at seemed more like a industrial area than where a city would like to have it's tourists some to when first arriving there, give them a good first opinion...Something like Kosan road in Bangkok, Pham Ngu Lao street in Saigon, Ubud in Bali, nothing of the sort I am sorry...... Arrived Saturday am and left Tuesday morning, other than walking around and reading, I was not impressed, I did however find one dam good rack of beef ribs, I knew would be the last red meat in a while... I was quite impressed with all the armed guards everywhere sporting pistol grip 12 gauge pump action shotguns, everywhere.... Met up with Jon O, my paddle partner from Vietnam when we got in trouble, he's born in Manila lives in USA...We're gonna paddle together for 10 or so days until he has to return to the USA... By Tuesday morning 7 00 am we were at the terminal for a short flight to Coron city on Busuanga island, part of Palawan province, what a colourful flight, aboard a 10 seater, being but a few thousand meters off the ground, we could see the incredible spectacle that the myriad of islands offers a flyer. What a sight, so many islands, thousands of beaches, all whiter than the next, and coral formations everywhere... Magnificiant!!!! Totally weird my flight to coron was 50 USD, and my boat was 107 USD and it came the next day as the plane was full and overloaded, all the luggage came the next day, delivered to KoKosnuss where we were staying... Brian and Jeremy were there waiting for us to us, wondering who these characters coming are .....Real hospitable, real nice guys, Brian from USA and Jeremy from New Zealand... On our first day there we took out a Aire inflatable of Sea Canoe Int. out to Coron island, to wet our appetite a bit...We went out for 3 - 4 hours, feeling out this inflatable thing we're in and the magnificiant corals formation around this magical island, sheer limestone cliffs going up 75 - 100 meters straight up, black as coal with the most colourful corrals this paddler ever seen...Looking better and better all the time... Sleep came real easy that 1st night at koKosnuss, away from the pollution and noise of Manila, charged from our short exploratory of the afternoon, ready to head out and enjoy... The kayak made out quite good on the plane, except for a couple paddles which are now duct taped together just like new...Finding a boat to take us to the bottom of Coron [paddle with the elements]about 30 kms south west...some shopping and we were heading out on our 3rd morning in Coron city... The ride down the island was great, looking over the massive cliffs that form coron island, checking out the beaches, casing it out, it looks like a great paddle, numerous beaches, great colours and hot... A real Paradise.......... Yours naturally sylvio lamarche Wycliffe organic gardens & Exotic locales all over the globe *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jul 21 1998 - 05:58:58 PDT
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