Wayne Kerr's Busuanga Island Expedition, Philippines

Loads of other photos of Phu Quoc Island Here, but very unlikely they’ll make it on here. Been on the road for the past few weeks, floating around the Philippines and China. Mostly business but I managed to sneak in a bit of fun. Here are a few pics.

Busuanga Island, Philippines

First stop was Busuanga Island, about an hours flying time south of Manila. I friggin loved the place and now plotting how to get back there soon. Flight from Manila is about US$100 (there’s a boat going there as well which is way cheaper and has cabins that you can sleep and party in). Great guest house accommodation for about US$15 (rooms good enough for a small family). I think many of the travel guides refer to the place as Coron, which is the name of one of the main towns on the island.

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^ Arrival at Busuanga Airport :o

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^ A few shops and stuff outside the airport :D

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^ Airport transport – no bloody taxis in this part of the world :)

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^ This guest house is the best deal on the island – well at least that is where the Filipino crew I was traveling with reckons

Highlight of the trip was a visit to one of the islands surrounding Busuanga itself. There are hundreds of islands in the area, many of which are surrounded by some of the best coral reefs in Southeast Asia. There are also loads of shipwrecks, Japanese navy vessels sunk during World War 2. If you are a diver this place is well worth checking out :cool:!

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^ This is the type of boat we rented - from memory it set us back about 800 baht for half a day :D

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^ On the way to one of the bigger islands – I think the island in the distance is called Coron Island

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^ Lovely secluded bay we found – a short walk from here we found a massive lake inside the island. The island is still inhabited by indigenous peoples who live off collecting the edible bird’s nests and fishing.

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^ The lake inside Coron Island :D

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^ Steaming back to the main island for a few afternoon drinks :D

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^ Found this hot salt water spring on the island – bloody beautiful set in amongst the mangroves :D

The couple of days was caught up with other shit, and the only decent pic I have is of the plane on the way home. The views out of this sucker were friggin awesome. Anyway, one of the main objectives of the trip was to fill my suitcase up with cheap Tanduay Rum. At a couple of dollars a bottle it is a great drink and I’ve just about polished off half a bottle getting these pics in here.

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^ Pissy little plane that one flys into the place on – runway is mostly sand and dirt so anything bigger would be a bit of a handful I’d imagine

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^ The good old Tanduay Rum – this is a bloody awesome drop and I can’t wait to get back to flipper land to get some more

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^ Caught Wayne Jnr downing a spot before – had to explain that this is a little stronger than his favourite Beer Chang

If some of Wayne Kerr's threads don't make sense that is because of me, just trying to seperate them into countries as he travels way too much :)

How do you get these good jobs Wayne? :sheep2:

your sons a real chip off the old block you might have a problem getting him back on the orange juice
Great pics:D

Wayne Kerr's Busuanga Expedition, Philippines – Take 2

My bloody Tanduay rum and filipino cigar stash ran out recently so I jumped at the chance for a week in Palawan in the Philippines. It’d been a year since I’d been to Busuanga so I ducked down there to cop the serenity. Got some good underwater pics out on the reef but will have to wait until I get back to the office to process them. In the meanwhile, here are a few others.

Place seems to be taking off. The next few pics is a comparison of the runway a year ago versus these days. The cement has brought bigger planes and more tourists, but not enough to change the place for the worse in anyway.

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^ Busuanga Island Airport Runway 2007

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^ Busuanga Island Airport Runway 2008

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^ Baggage area is the same as I remember it though :)

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^ Stayed in the same guesthouse up in the hills as I did last year. With a few more tourists around little spa and massage places like the one in this pic are popping up.

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^ This new little restaurant has opened in the past year

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^ Gotta be careful that you don’t fall in the piss on the way back after a few too many San Migs

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^ It’s alongside the public market and looks over Coron Island

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^ Also a great place to watch the sunset :)

My prized booty from the Philippines … I hope this is all I brought back ;)

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^ A couple of boxes of Tabacalera cigars, a spot of Tanduay rum, and a few kgs of half dried fish. The fish is the delish lightly fried and washed down with Tanduay/coke and a few cigars.

A vid driving through Busuanga town. Just like any small coastal town in southeast Asia, but the Filipino taxis are like mobile discos ... less the girls :).

good thread, like the pics, have a green

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I friggin loved the place and now plotting how to get back there soon.

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It looks lovely, but why in particular do you love it, and where are you wanting to leave to get back there soon?

Nice stuff Wayno !! - make sure you hold onto some of those cigars for my next stop in at Chateau Kerr !! :)

*** Would you believe I went to a customs auction not long ago in Perth, and people were bidding up to AU$55 for a 1L bottle of Tanduay !???? - mental !

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Originally Posted by Smeg

t looks lovely, but why in particular do you love it, and where are you wanting to leave to get back there soon?

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Hope the following pics answer your question mate :)

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Only 1 word needed to describe those pics.

Wow!

Happy Birthday by the way!

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Originally Posted by MeMock

Happy Birthday by the way!

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Thanks mate. Just had a few beers and a cigar down by the Chaopaya River for lunch. Doesn't look like its gunna be a very productive afternoon :).

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Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr

Hope the following pics answer your question

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Ok, that looks pretty impressive :) Happy birthday by the way :)

no wonder you like it there is that Mrs Kerr :rolleyes: great pics

Holly shit! how can you not get greens with photography like that. :)

oh and just got a clip behind the ear for showing these pics to my wife (we live 600km from the beach and I think it's starting to get to her ;))

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Originally Posted by cimboc

Holly shit! how can you not get greens with photography like that.

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Thanks mate, they were taken mostly by the sheila in the pic getting out of the drink. Bloody spectacular place and hard to not take some speccy pics. Glad we don't have any photo nazis on here or they'd likely be complaining about all manner of things.

Herr Kerr,

Ich bin das FotoMeister und ich sehen littlen nudischvty. Pleasen trtst bestern on subsekwent venchurens.

Khap Khunten Kharappen

Nearlia pissed mee a pantsa :)

... ummm maybe that is Italian :confused:

^^ I nearly deleted that post for being in a foreign language, until I read it properly. I think a green instead. :)

some damn fine photos there mate. as always.

Wayne Kerr’s Busuanga Expedition, Philippines – Take 3

A bit of an update on my Busuanga Island stuff. Last trip I found a great little bungalow for rent in a fishing village so thought I’d better spend some time there before the typhoon season hits. Philippines this time of the year is hot as with what must be 100% humidity, but the sea breeze and cold San Migs took the edge off that. Here are a few pics from the trip.

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^ The bungalow … highly recommend it. They initially wanted 4,000 pesos a night, we got it for 1,500.

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^ View from the balcony, has a great little swimming platform in front for the kids

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^ One of the kids learning to swim

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^ View of the fishing village off the other side of the balcony

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^ Neighbours were mostly fisherfolk … here’s a shot looking back down the pier from the bungalow :)

Here’s Coron Town on Busuanga Island. Just like most other fishing towns in Southeast Asia. Plenty of karaoke bars and other entertainment at night. By day it is bloody hot so most lay around sleeping off hangovers.

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^ Downtown Coron ... rather uninspiring but lots of pretty girls

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^ The big blue joint is a big restaurant turn karaoke bar at night … fan rooms up stairs are 300 peso a night

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^ Apparently a small earth quake a few years back left things on a bit of a slope

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^ The local building supplies joint … good place to get crabs too :)

I was lucky enough to get back over to Coron Island. The natives living out there have recently been given responsibility for managing the joint. First thing they did was double the visitor fee from 100 to 200 pesos. They are getting quite rich and have managed to build a load of new huts since I was last there in March.

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^ New huts on Coron Island

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^ Everything is very green there now due to the high humidity

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^ Even found time for a bit of a swim :)

Filipino food is quite good once you get away from the junk food capital of Manila. A girlfriend there promised that she’d cook up a spit roast pig for me this trip, so first trick was a trip down to the local Muslim market. First time I’d seen pigs at a Muslim market (must be Halal), but the big sucker looked as good as any for a feast. He cost 2,000 pesos.

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^ Morning :(

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^ Afternoon :)

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Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr

The big blue joint is a big restaurant turn karaoke bar at night … fan rooms up stairs are 300 peso a night

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What was the hourly rate?

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Absolutly Stunning. WOW!

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Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

What was the hourly rate?

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Same, same ... apparently :)

Its interesting to see how Busuanga has changed in three years.....I was there last week and its as beautiful as ever, but loads of tourists.

Cheers

^ interesting, how is the new Korean funded airport?

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Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr

^ interesting, how is the new Korean funded airport?

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Very good! I have flown from there twice and have never had to wait more than a few minutes for my bag, which comes out on a conveyer. The check-in has 5 or 6 desks and there is only one departure area so it gets a bit busy when there are 3 flights leaving close to each other.

The concrete runway is smooth and clean and the road to Coron is now about 90% concrete. Shame they are aren't upgrading the road leading north.

Cheers

what a paradise!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful island scenery very picturesque. Especially the beach scene.

thanks for sharing, lovely place..been to the PI .. have to check out this place next trip out. where does the ferry go out of?