Coron travelogue

Navigate: Home - Southeast Asia travel photography

Coron was our next destination where we arrived by overnight boat from El Nido. The boat was moored quite far away from the harbour so we had to take a very small boat out there, including all the luggage which provided for quite a bit of excitement. Everyone slept in a big room on the boat which was open on the side, providing a nice breeze at night.

The main reason we went to Coron was wreck diving, and its also on the way back to Manilla. Coron Bay is home to several sunken Japanse warships from WWII, most of which can be reached quite easily. beautiful sunset in CoronThe water around the first wreck, the Akitsushima, was so was murky that I didn't realise I was inside the ship until I looked out, so that was not very spectacular. The Taiei Maru was much more worthwhile - we entered a massive room spanning several floors with good visibility after which we crawled through a tiny manhole barely large enough to fit our gear. The space underneath was just about as high as our oxygen tanks, not for the fainthearted. Come to think of it, this was only my sixth dive so technically this was not allowed. All the more a thrilling experience.

All of the 14 wrecks that can be found in the bay of Coron and around Culion and Busuanga island were sunk in what was at the time (24 Sept 1944) the biggest air raid ever. It was carried out by Hell Diver and Hell Car fighter planes of the US Third Fleet, Task Force 38 under command of William Halsey. You can read a narrative of the arial attack from the coronwrecks.com website The town of Coron is not unattractive, but if you are not interested in wreck diving, there is little else to do. We had to give the wildlife park near Coron a miss due to time limitations. We went back to Manila with the overnight WGA Superferry and from there caught a flight to Saigon.

Navigate: Home - Southeast Asia travel photography - Palawan pictures