Coron Boat Trip, One Last One

My Coron boat trip!! The whole reason I wanted to come to this city was for this very boat trip, the Super Ultimate Tour of Coron. Island hopping around Coron was the highlight of this stop as the city itself is small and more run down than others, but the nearby nature areas are absolutely gorgeous. 

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the boat trip the night before so I put myself down as a maybe, but then when I woke up and realized that it was one of my last days in Asia, even if the weather was good for only one stop, it would be worth going on the tour. So I went down to the desk at 7am to let them know I was for sure in, scrambled to find a breakfast place that would take card because I was almost completely out of cash. I ended up just eating at the hostel and waiting for the transport to pick me up. While waiting, told that we should be ready by 8, I sat in the lobby as the rain started pouring down, like a downpour. The transport took a while to come, at one point I was just hoping it wouldn’t so that I didn’t have to go out in these conditions. But, at the same time the rain lightened, we got picked up, at 9am. While waiting, I finished my book, Court of Wings and Ruin, and downloaded my next read on my kindle, Circe. 

While waiting, I met two people in my group, Lily, a British fashion designer, and Rory, an Aussie man that works for Deloitte Consulting in Sydney... you can bet we had a lot to talk about. I walked out with them to go to the van and it was just us three in there, same with getting to the port, but then we met up with our group on the boat. They would become my friends for the day and they were an absolute joy to be around. I felt grateful they let me in, and again for this experience to gift me with the most wonderful of friendships.

Our first stop was to this lovely cove, Kayagan Lake, with a hilltop viewpoint and then a lake to swim in on the other side. We climbed up the hill and had to wait in line in order to take our photo. While in line, a group of guys from Dubai started chatting with us and we bonded, it was fun getting a group photo with them even though we barely knew them.

We went to the lake area, it was a nice swim just floating and chatting about the large friend group I am newly apart of. This is the solo traveler's dream day trip, how fortunate I feel to have had a fun day with cool people, but how sad it makes me to think this is truly one of the last times I will do this. A bittersweet realization surely.

The next stop was a quaint one as well, Barracuda Lake. Another lake but this one got warmer the deeper you dove down. Sadly I wasn’t up to diving down too deep, but I got far enough where I felt the water heat up and my ears plug from the pressure. Most of the time, I just floated and took in the view and was trying to accept the fact that this would be the last time I would be doing stuff like this while at the same time trying to treasure and savor it to my absolute best ability. For the most of it I talked to Rory and Lily, we sat on our lifejackets and chatted, hoping that the guide or the others in our tour would alert us when it was time to head back to the boat. 

Our third stop was lunch and we got dropped off at the table area literally built into a rock that was near a great snorkeling spot, probably the best place I’ve ever snorkeled. It was called the secret garden. After eating, we went straight for the snorkeling. This was the longest duration I actually snorkeled during my whole trip because it was really cool. Oddly not many people went, you had to swim a bit to get there and I think that those gathered in our boat. But it was so worth it.

Funny story, when we were wrapping up at this stop, the guide let me know it was time to come back to the boat but only told me. I wasn’t sure if he had already told Rory and Lily, so I just headed back to the boat. While we were waiting in there, my friends hadn’t come back and the tour guide came over to ask me where they were and was slightly mad at me when I said that I didn’t alert them before I came in. Idk why I didn’t, I think I thought he would tell everyone and I was quite far from them. So. the whole boat waited longer, essentially because of me.

Our next stop was Twin Lagoon. This was what I was most excited for, but we arrived right as a storm came in so the water and sky were darker than they had been all day. But, we spent all of our time in the water, floating on our life jackets as they told me real estate was a great investment, them both looking to buy a place to live in their hometowns. It's fun the different conversation topics you can have with the people you meet, along with the varying circumstances. For example, for Rory it was such a good purchase in Australia because of the current economic state and the location. Also, with the differences in life, for them knowing Sydney/London is where they want to settle, whereas for me on the other side, I am not ready to buy because I want to explore more of the world before staying put in one city.

Our next stop was snorkeling at a shipwreck, I had already done this on my expedition so I just stayed above water and floated and looked at the view. It was actually quite incredible because to my right was jagged cliffs, to my left was the expansive ocean, and straight in front of me were rolling hills on the island that the city of Coron was on. It was breathtaking, I thought it was a better alternative to snorkeling something I’d already seen. I was so content with the day, ready to go back to be honest, as I was getting a bit tired, but we still have one more stop because it really was the super ultimate tour. 

The last stop was to the only public beach in Coron (the rest are private or owned by hotels/locals). The only bummer part was the waters around the beach were infested with jellyfish to the point that only 4 people in our group went in to the island. It was low tide so our boat couldn’t pull up to the shore, therefore stopping a swim away from the beach in which you would have to go right through all of the jellyfish. Two people took their kayak out and made it to the island, the other two people to try swimming there were my friends! They were the guinea pigs for the group to see how bad the jellyfish were, and during their first minute in they were alright, but then we started hearing them say “ow” and soon enough Lily turned around and came back to the boat, sitting down next to me, itching her skin that was covered with red marks and saying in quote “I got stung literally everywhere.”

Somehow Rory made it all the way to shore, he must have been quite determined, and those three walked on the beach as the rest of us chilled on the boat truly ready to be done for the day. Rory luckily got a ride back on the kayak, almost sinking it, but anything is better than another swim through the thick of the jellyfish. 

And that was the conclusion of our tour, such a long but great day! We got a ride back to the hostel, I immediately showered to refresh after the hefty day, and get ready to find some dinner. While heading back to the hostel, my van passed this lovely looking vegetarian place just a ten minute walk from my hostel, so I had that for dinner. They had a vegan banh mi, one of my favorite foods I discovered in Asia, it was only fitting to have as one of my last meals on this continent. I also treated myself to mango cheesecake, diet would start when I got home. 

I returned to my hostel after my feast, and I packed up all my stuff, one of the last times I would have to do that I am happy to say that thought has never made me happier. I capped off the night by watching Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift with Grace and Liv, one more lovely movie night hang with them!