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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Trip: Coron Town

Date Budget: PhP 0
Actual Spend: PhP 0
Quality: 3/5
Service: N/A
Accessibility: 3/5
Fun Factor: 3/5
Overall Experience: 3/5
Highlights 
  • Small, relaxed town with great character
  • Coron marker ala-Hollywood
  • Romantic Coron Sunset by the bay
The Experience

We arrived at Villa Hermosa around five in the afternoon. It was a bit late for a paid tour so we decided to just stroll around town. 
Coron is a typical small rural Filipino town. Life seems to be pretty much laid back and relaxed.
It has a few unique scenes though that will really catch your attention. One is the cross at the top of Mt. Tapyas, the highest point in town.
A few hundred meters from the cross is the Coron town marker ala-Hollywood. This reminded me of Gov. Vilma's "brilliant" proposal to have something similar in Taal.
You can also see foreigners roaming around town, even in the public market. 
Their public market is like any other. You can buy fish (marinated danggit FTW!), vegetables, meat, and some souvenir items. One good buy is their customized leather key chains which sells for PhP10 each with free name engraving. You can also get 11 pieces for only PhP100.

If you're looking for Palawan's famous cashew nuts though, it would be better to buy from a local dealer than from (tourist-priced) market souvenir shops. One cashew dealer's shop is located a few meters from Centro Coron Restaurant / Ice Valley.
We also got to see their boat terminal. Though we were going on pre-set tours, we took a snap of the boat fare for reference.
We also got a shot of Coron's church. They have two masses on Sunday: 6am and 5pm. We opted to attended the morning mass before our island hopping tour.

Coron town isn't really much of a tourist destination. You need to ride a van, tricycle, or boat from town to reach the more "fun" parts of the Calamian island group. 

Still, experiencing the simplicity of the town through a free DIY walking tour  is time well spent. The best way to end it is with a romantic sunset by the bay.
Though less colorful (thus much less polluted) than Manila Bay's sunset, Coron Bay provides a more natural presentation of this daily event.

Spend Breakdown
Walking tour of Coron Town
0
Actual Spend
0

How to get there

  1. From the Busuanga (Coron) Airport, ride a van going to Coron Town. You can save the Google map below in your Android phone to help you locate places in town.
     
    Landmarks: Coron town marker, Mt. Tapyas Cross
    Address:
    Coron Town, Busuanga Island
    Palawan, Philippines
    2. View Larger Map
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