Busuanga Island

I had a couple of days in Manila during which I didn't do much - caught up on some emailing, did a little shopping and saw a movie (Easy A - okay, not fantastic) - before taking off to Coron on Busuanga Island.  Busuanga is part of the Calamian Group of islands just north of Palawan.  The Calamian Group is a cluster of tiny islands full of gorgeous beaches and swimming holes and great snorkel and dive spots.  Most people come here to dive or to island hop.  The movie The Beach was filmed in Thailand, but the book was actually written about a beach in the Philippines and it is rumored to be somewhere within this group.

Unfortunately, my trip to Busuanga came with two little hiccups: 1) a tour of the islands was kind of pricey and I wasn't able to track down someone to split it with and 2) I was hit with a pretty bad cold just before arriving.  This wasn't such a huge issue as I was pretty happy to lay in a hammock on the deck reading for large parts of the day, a the while being serenaded by strangled cat karaoke renditions of cheesy love songs from the bar across the inlet.

The view from the deck.

I know it probably sounds a little ridiculous that I didn't go check out the nearby paradise, but it just didn't seem worth it when I was sick and pretty drained from being on the go for so long.  I did break up the day to have a massage or wander around town.  A few pictures from Coron:

Coron's version of the Hollywood sign.

My beloved hammock.

I flew back to Manila after a few days and spent one last night in my regular hotel - Malate Pensionne.  It was one last quick afternoon of emailing and a bit of shopping and a quick visit with Inken and Katrin (they booked their last night in the same place as me) before flying out to Bangkok the next morning!