According to the internet and its infinitive lists, Coron is one of the most beautiful islands in the world. Located north of Palawan, there are all sorts of various treasures on the island, from waterfalls to lagoons to caves to neighboring islands. The one thing that Coron did not have is beaches. You must venture to the surround mini islands to go to those beaches. In order to make that journey, one has to hire one of the island hopping tour companies, which is what we have been doing for the past month. We are sure that many people love Coron with its endless activities, but it is very similar to what we have done and seen in the recent past. For this reason, and this reason alone, we shortened our stay to 48 hours.
We considered skipping Coron altogether, but our next destination was Cebu, which requires a flight. The only two airports in Palawan are in Puerto Princesa, where we came from, and Coron. PP would have been a seven hour van ride from hell, while Coron was only supposed to be four hours on a speed boat, which ended up being five hours. The ferry was rocking up, down, front, back, side to side, and in all sorts of various directions. Nadine was fine most of the ride, but Ben ended up laying on the disgusting dirty ground sick as a dog. The ride ended up being an extra hour, so five hours of misery. Five on a ferry was less than seven in a van, so it was a win, sort of.
Once we arrived in Coron, we were tired, sick, nauseous, and in desperate need of food. After a 50 peso ride in the city centre, we found a western place called Buzz. It was really expensive, but after one week of eating the same food, plus the horrors of the ferry ride, we were willing to fork over some extra dough. Two cheesesteaks later, our spirits were rejuvenated.
Without a hotel to go to, with full bellies and backpacks draping our bodies, we walked around town in search of a place to rest. Finally we found Darayonan Lounge. At $45 a night, which is a lot around here, there was a pool, AC, a fan, and the faintest of internet connection, despite showing full bars. We have come to realize that there is something wrong about nearly every place we stay. We aren’t negative people and certainly don’t go looking for problems, but they always seem to come up organically. In this case, it started when Ben was upstairs in the room writing this blog and Nadine was downstairs relaxing in the pool. Originally we only booked one night because we weren’t sure how long we were staying at that point. Still without a flight to Cebu, at night we re-booked again online for the following evening. Back at the pool, one of the workers asked Nadine what time we were checking out that day. She informed him that we actually reserved again for tonight online, to which he responded that Nadine must go to the front desk because there were no more rooms available that evening. It was there she was told that the front desk did not see Nadine’s reservation and the room was assigned to an incoming guest. They showed Nadine a different room, but it was not next to the pool, too close to the street traffic, and not up to Nadine’s lofty standards. Nadine put her foot down and we remained right where we were.
The next day we signed up for a shipwreck snorkeling tour, which was something new for both of us. The schedule included two stops snorkeling next to sunken Japanese ships from World War II, a diving stop with coral, and then lunch of a private island.
First we stopped at a ship called East Tangat Gunboat, which was really underwhelming and a terrible start to the trip. The vessel was a 35 meter long Japanese anti-submarine-chase that also served as a tug boat to other more useful ships. Why they called it a gunboat is anyone’s guess. The conditions around the ship were calm, making it easier to dive next to. It seems that for snorkelers there isn’t much to see. Based on pictures we have seen online and the positive reviews online, scuba would be more suited for this wreck.
Second we went to the Lusong Gunboat, which was sunk by US forces in a massive airstrike. The ship sank to a depth of just 10 meters and is currently lying on its side. It is easily viewed by snorkelers as well as scuba divers. In the past 70 odd years, all sorts of coral and marine life have formed on the vessel. We have seen better coral on our recent trips, but never on the side of a shipwreck. We really enjoyed it! Also, we saw more clownfish, which are our favorite fish. We are planning getting some for an aquarium once we get back home. They live in small spaces and prefer to live in solitary, so it’s actually not cruel to keep them in a confined space, which is our main concern for owning fish, or any pets for that matter.
The last snorkel site were the Lusong Coral beds. Very similar to other reefs we have seen, but we saw soooo many clownfish. We saw the normal Nemo orange one with stripes, bigger red ones, orange ones with one long white stripe on top, as well as a black and white one. There are dozens of different types. We LOVED it.
Our last stop was some white sand island with palm trees that could easily be confused with a screensaver picture. If there weren’t maybe 100 others walking around admiring the same beautiful stretch of land, it would be heaven on earth. The crew from the ship cooked us chicken, pork, fish, rice, and vegetables, the same set up as the other tours. Always the same food, always the same amounts, always the same quantity, which is fine by us because they are always pretty flavorful and needed after a long day in the water.
The next day the only notable event to write about has to be our second bizarre interaction with our hotel. For the previous two nights for dinner, we had eaten at the restaurant in the hotel. Ben had ordered the chicken cordon bleu, which was enjoyable both times. He tried to convince Nadine that the dish was named after it’s created Cordon Ramsey, but she wasn’t having it. Now tonight was the third night at this place, and both of us were planning on ordering it for our Last Supper in Coron. The waiter comes over and gives us the menu, which is merely a printed piece of paper on a clipboard. Crossed off on the menu was the 160 peso price of the cordon bleu, and handwritten in was a new price of 195 pesos.
We asked him what the deal was, and he explained that it was a printing error and that the price had actually been changed ONE YEAR AGO! He went back into the dining area, which was locked for a staff meeting, and came outside with our bills from the previous two nights. Funny enough, on one bill, from the previous night, I (Ben) was charged 160 pesos for my cordon bleu, and was shown the receipt, which I signed. The bill from the night before had the price of 195 pesos written on it, but I had not signed, or even seen, this bill. I do know that when I confirmed with the waitress how much it was before I ordered it, she told me 160 pesos for the cordon bleu, and an additional 20 for the white rice on the side. I had already seen the menu price, so I knew it to be true, but I am in the habit of confirming prices anyway these days. She confirmed 160 +20 = 180. Sababa. Now this guy is trying to tell me that the price hasn’t been 160 for a year, there was an error in the menu, and I have to pay 185 for this particular meal, plus the two previous dishes, including the one I had signed for at a lower price. We sort of made a stink about it, to the put where the waiter promised us we would only pay 160 for all four dishes, and then went inside to retrieve his supervisor. When she arrived, she apologized for the confusion, but then told us we would be paying 195 per meal, despite what the waiter said. Again we said no, this ain’t happening.
Nadine asked the woman why the price of only this particular dish went up, to which the answer was because the marketing budget went up and they have to order the chickens from Manila…huh?!?!?! What does a marketing budget have to do with the price of cordon bleu specifically? And if this weird Manilan imported chicken answer was true, then why weren’t the prices of other chicken dishes raised as well? If the cost of all chicken plates went up, then fine. It’s weird that you would retroactively charge us more, but at least the story would make sense…The point is, the guy lied to us about the price changing one year ago. The supervisor lied to us with her weird imported livestock and marketing budget story. None of it makes sense. We want our damn chicken at 160! In the end, like most cases, we won.
To put it in perspective, the price different is only 45 pesos, which is 88 cent. But we were ordering two plates now, plus the two from before, so it’s 88 x 4 = rough 3.5 dollars. It’s not a lot of money, but neither was the $4 that Hotels.com took from us in Nacpan. Neither was the extra dollar the taxi driver in Manila acquired from us. Neither was the extra $1.5 we were forced to pay in Mumbai when the driver intentionally took us to the wrong terminal. Neither was the 10 extra rupees we were charged for bananas in Goa. The list goes on and on. It’s never a lot of money per incident, but these little extra charges, or whatever you want to call them, certainly do add up. Money aside though, it’s a matter of principle. In this case, they knew we had ordered that particular item on the menu twice in the past two nights, and raised the price this night knowing we would order it again, as well as assuming we wouldn’t read the bill from the previous nights. It’s not right and really cheapens the whole experience. Yes they double booked a room, screwed up the reservation, and handled the situation wrong, but this is not just unprofessional, it’s dishonest. This incident took us from saying yes, we would recommend someone to stay at this location, to no, they are unprofessional and not worthy of our business. Sad but true.
Lucky for us, the “Cordon Bleu Incident” will forever sketched into our travel history and looked back on as a fond and humorous memory.
We were off to Dumaguete very early the next morning. The hotel was nice enough to make us two small sandwiches for our journey and provided a 300peso van to the airport for both of us.
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