Coron - Stop! It's Hammock Time

Sat 3rd & Sun 4th Jan

This whole area was over-run by the Japanese during WW2 and as a consequence of American bombings, there are several shipwrecks in the sea now covered in coral & other marine life, therefore a big draw for divers. Mat came back from one such dive having ticked off a diving wish & was raving about having seen a huge tanker/frigate/HMS Belfast size ship thingy under the sea.

While this was going on, I was busy making friends with the hammock & with the staff specifically the cleaners. I tried helping them 'walis' (sweep) our deck area but they told me off for doing 'their job' and through broken English/Tagalog we somehow communicated. For some reason, they think I'm Japanese! I think there IS Japanese in my heritage, possibly even Chinese but in the end it was just easier to agree rather than going through my family history via Essex. We stuck to conversations about hair as this was far simpler in terms of words.

In the afternoon, we went kayaking. The last time Mat & I did this was about 5yrs ago in Thailand and the bloody thing capsized because there was a crack in it! Persuaded by a much newer kayak and the fact it matched my life vest (it's the little tjings) off we paddled.

We didn't capsize and we did reach our destination but I did get scared! It was all very well paddling further out to get a better view of the sunset (beautiful) but there was the small matter of the open ocean and its strong currents which I had a problem with so we didn't stay out for as long as Mat would have preferred.

It's bloody hard work controlling a kayak and the whole left/right opposite rowing action to steer, gave us a full arms and abs workout.  I would post pics but wifi signal is very rubbish so I'm likely to break it for other guests if I did this so will post when we return.

It's very easy to forget reality here. The hardest thing that's happened is sunburn after snorkelling in an area where the sun doesn't usually shine. I'm genuinely now in search of a 'burkini' to prevent my arse area from future burnings.  We get to see the most amazing sunsets and play as little or as hard as we want here.

The beautiful surroundings encourage you to forget all your troubles or how hard your struggles may be. If only real life were that easy.