We walked through a narrow alley, finally emerging on a wooden platform, then on to a wooden bridge, passing the mangrove and jutting out into the sea. Welcome to Krystal Lodge.

Next to Ponce Suites, this is the most interesting places I’ve stayed in this year. Krystal Lodge is a series of huts on stilts over the sea. There’s a main house, that has the caretaker’s quarters, some rooms, the kitchen, and a common area, then further out are three more huts. Mhye welcomes us and shows us our rooms. Gail and Marc gets a room in the main hut, while Eric, Ferdz and I share the hut furthest out to sea. The hut was surprisingly roomy and quite breezy. We are amazed at the facilities of our little shack on stilts: one bedroom, a bar, a small dining area, a kitchenette, a loft and yes, it has a functioning toilet and shower! Outside, we have a small porch, a hammock and a smaller hut with seats and a table.

Eric and I shared the downstairs bedroom, while Ferdz had the loft to himself. the bedroom was quite roomy — there are two beds, and a huge shelf for our things. There’s also two tables, a fan and access to a changing area. And if you’re wondering, yes, there’s electricity too!

Of course, you can’t have an accommodation like this without its quirks. First, there’s the toilet and the shower. The toilet and the shower area are separate, but is right beside each other. Though the toilet had a door that locks, the shower only had a very thin curtain that blows out whenever there’s a slight breeze. Also, the wall that separates the two was a piece of translucent roofing… you know, the ones they use for skylights. Another thing about the toilet was this diamond hole in the wall at crotch level. When you’re sitting down in the toilet, it lets you look out into the sea and the island across.

Though there’s running water in the hut, it can sometimes be a problem when it slows down to a trickle. It was especially bothersome when the electricity went out on some parts of Coron and Krystal Lodge was affected. Not only do we have to navigate through the alley and the rickety bridge in the dark, we arrive at our hut, exhausted and sticky from island hopping, only to find the water’s out too. Though it was already midnight, Mhye did everything she could to have the water and electricity restored in our hut.

Krystal Lodge is rustic, rugged and certainly not for the high maintenance traveler. However, it’s these very same things that makes it charming.

Krystal Lodge
Coron Town, Busuanga, Palawan
Phone: (02) 4536343
Mobile: 09284108074
E-mail: mhye_310@yahoo.com.ph

Everybody was nodding off as we putter from the Siete Pecados to the Maquinit Hot Springs. As the boat docked, Gail and I were only concerned about finding the toilets. We hurried through the wooden brige that winds though the mangroves and into the Hot Springs’s only two toilets.

Afterwards, we settled into a hut. The day’s exertions in the sea left us famished, and our dilemma was that we haven’t any food. Ferdz and Marc made their way to the concessionair stand, and came back with a couple of bags of chips and a bottle of soda — the only things that the store sells. Once the chips and soda were gone, Marc, Eric and I went off to dip in the hot springs. And boy, was it HOT! I’m used to soaking on heated pools, but at the spa, it’s advised to go gradually — first taking a dip in the 36 degrees Celsius pool, then the 38C, and finally, the 40C. In Maquinit, however, there’s only one temperature, and nothing to prepare you for the near 40 degrees Celsius water. That’s why we were adviced to go here during the evenings!

The heat of the pool certainly woke us up. As the sun set, we made our way to the entrance. Roge, our boatman, promised to send his brother-in-law who owns a tricycle to pick us up at 7:30 pm. As we were walking, the lights went out. Perfect! To makes matters worse, the tricycle wasn’t there, and we’ve no way of contacting Roge!

The way tricycles work in Maquinit, is that you hire one at the town to take you there, wait for you, and take you back to the town. Since we went there by boat, we didn’t really have any arrangements, save for the tricycle Roge promised to pick us up. Luckily, Roge sent two — but only one arrived. We waited for a couple more minutes, and as hunger and made its presence felt, we managed to convince one of the drivers to drive us to town while waiting for his passengers.

My camera’s battery died on me, and we were pretty tired to take any more photos, so this is the only one I have.

 
Since we were fairly dry and utterly starved, we decided to have the trikes drop us off at a restaurant for dinner. We ended up at La Sirenetta, a fancy restaurant out in the water, which is a short walk from Kystal Lodge. Revived by the thought of food, we eagerly studied the menu, not really caring that the prices is going to blow our budget. Hey, we deserved a treat! Excitement, however, soon became annoyance as our orders took a lot of time to come to the table. After close to an hour, we were finally served the dishes we ordered. The food was quite good, making it somehow worth the price and the wait. But as much as we enjoyed our pasta, chicken, fish and pizza, it was hard to fully appreciate the service.

With our hunger satiated, we made our way to Krystal Lodge. Seeing houses with the lights on left us with hope that we had electricity in our lodgings. However, it seems only a portion of the town has electricity, and unfortunately, Cyrstal Lodge wasn’t one of them. Slowly, we made our way through the narrow alley and unto the rickety wooden bridge to our accomodation, with Ferdz’ headlamp the only thing ligthing our way. We finally made it to our little shack on the sea. We were all exhausted, but we just had to shower before heading to bed. I gathered my bath things and went to the bathroom. I turned on the tap and was welcomed by a very weak trickle of water. Uh oh. I left the faucet on and went out to fix my things as I wait for the bucket to fill with water. Thirty minutes after, the bucket was less than a half full. This isn’t good.

With three of us needing to use the bathroom, this wouldn’t do. It was almost midnight. Ferdz went to wake up Mhai, the resort manager. The power outage somehow affected the water pump in our room. It couldn’t be repaired until the morning, so in the meantime, Mhai let us use the bathroom of the other hut that was recently vacated. I used Unit 9’s bathroom, while Eric used the bathroom inside Gail & Marc’s room. It was almost 2 am when we finally finished. What a day!

Can’t get enough of the scenery

 
I sat on an aisle seat on the flight to Busuanga, so I didn’t really see the terrain as the plane drew near the island. When we finally landed though, I was pleased to see plenty of green mountains all around me. The runway of the Francisco Reyes airport was surprisingly paved, and a bigger airport terminal was being constructed; a clear sign that there’s a huge influx of tourists lately, and that they’re obviously expecting the numbers to rise.

Pang Friendster.

 
Inside the small airport, we were asked to fill out a form declaring our names, nationality and purpose of visit. It’s similar to filling out an embarkation card when you enter a country. There are no baggage carousels in this airport — you have to pick out your luggage from the contraption where they put in the luggage after unloading from the plane. Seair provides a jeep transport to the town. Oddly enough, the sign up top says “Club Paradise,” which is on the other side of Busuanga. Unless you have somebody picking you up, this jeep is your only ride into town. For Php150, it may seem pricey, but it’s a pretty long drive and gasoline is not cheap on the island. I asked our tricycle driver and as of last Sunday, June 8, he said gasoline is priced at Php63 per liter and rising by Php1 everyday.

We’re in Coron!

 
Majority of the road from the YKR airport to Coron town is still unpaved. However, it wasn’t a bumpy ride. The roads are pretty flat, and is already primed for laying on concrete. In fact, the local government have already started on paving the road from the airport and into town, and you’ll see portions of concrete roads along the way. Though not bumpy, the is the dust that gets kicked up by passing vehicles on certain areas.

The rickety wooden bridge. And the Mangrove. Hee.

 
The ride into town was actually quite pleasant. The jeep has huge windows so you can gape at the towering mountain ranges, and animals that roam free. Gail, Eric and I reveled that you can stick out your arm and camera and take photos, without any danger of it getting swiped or hit by a passing vehicle. The air felt so refreshing and to add to the wind streaming in through the windows, the driver of the jeep opened up the windshield.

Our neighbors

 
The jeep’s last stop is at Seair’s office, but if they’re passing your resort, they can drop you off there. Knowing that we had reservations at Krystal Lodge, the jeep stopped at the path that leads to our accomodation. When I saw the small alley that marked the entrance, I began to wonder what kind of accomodation Ferdz booked for us. We walked through a narrow concrete alley, and when we stepped on the wooden walkway, I knew we were already on the water already.

View from our hut

 
The pathway turned into a rickety wooden bridge, made with several planks of wood, some more wobbly than others. Paranoid thoughts ran into overdrive. What if I trip while walking? What if I drop something and it slid through the gaps? And is that a person I see hiding in the mangrove? (heehee)

All these thoughts were pushed aside as we took in the view from our hut. We had a clear view of Coron island, and with this stunning mix of blues and greens, falling into the water (and monsters in the mangrove) is the furthest thing in my mind.