A Place to be for beach lovers and sun worshippers!

Our agenda for the day was more like hopping different paradise-looking beaches and one of it is Banana Island Resort.

 Do you just love everything that you see in this picture? 3S. Perfect sea! Perfect sand! Perfect sky!

 This resort surely greeted us with a sight to see! Since they have cottages, tourists can actually stay overnight here but it has different prices during peak season and off-peak season.

 What you can do here: During the day you can play volleyball and basketball but if you want an exercise, better ride a kayak while exploring around the island;

 or if you want to relax, you could just read a book while lying on a hammock! That’s what you call pure relaxing!

If you are a view lover, you could just stay at their huts to just feel the wonderful sea breeze and consume the beautiful scenery..

…but as for me and my family? we decided to play with the fishes! 😀

Banol Beach

There are many places to see and visit in Coron island for you and your family to explore but in our case, our tour guide shortlisted the areas for us because we were only allotted 1 whole day to visit these places: Kayangan Lake (Click to see review), Barracuda lake, Banol or Atuwayan Beach, and secret places, like lagoons and coral gardens. Too bad we weren’t able to visit the Skeleton Wreck and Twin Lagoon due to some tribe conflict. I don’t know. That’s what I’ve heard. Hahaha!

So, after our Kayangan Lake visit, our tour guide dropped us to Banol Beach, a small stretch of sandy white beach, where lunch is usually served for Coron Island Hopping Tours.

 

Banol beach is said to be a public beach, and similar to the beaches in Coron island which is surrounded by limestone cliffs. They say that El Nido, part of palawan, also looks like this beach but better and more beautiful than this beach. But as for me and myself, Puerto Princessa and Coron which is both part of Palawan is still one of the beautiful places I have ever been in the Philippines! Srsly, I ain’t joking. Palawan is now declared as one of the beautiful places in Philippines. Better than Boracay. Hahaha!

P.S. Don’t mind my unpleasant look. :))

Posing with cousins. I totally love the rock formation at the back!

A photo before we ate lunch. I really wasn’t able to take photos of our food since I was really famished that moment in time. Sorry. I have physiologic needs you know. Hahaha! But the food they served was really delicious. We had grilled fish, grilled chops, eggplant salad and vegetable curry for lunch, all freshly cooked right in our boat over a simple makeshift grill. Two thumbs up!

Always remember to put sunblock cream to protect your skin from harmful UVA/UVB rays and sunburn before you soak up in the water! You don’t want to damage nor burn your skin, don’t you? This is the famous Coppertone sunblock but different from the other one because it is foamy and not in liquid. In all fairness, I do love it this way. It’s easy and fun to apply. Hahaha!

 Games: Who held their breath the longest? Too bad it wasn’t me. Haha!

Kayangan Lake (Hall of fame of one of Asia’s cleanest lake)

We got up early in the morning to pack up and prepare our stuff for the island hopping. No. 1 tip for you: Don’t forget to eat breakfast! It is always important to bring with you a full stomach that would never miss out the fun! It is advisable to start your boat trip to Coron Island a few hours early to make sure you have ample time. Apart from sunscreen protection, be sure to bring mosquito repellent. Our mode of transportation on our way to the pier was a tricycle. We arrived in our destination for only 3-5 minutes and hopped into our boat in no time.

 

If you have problems about what food to eat the whole day, you need not to worry because the people in the boat has a cook and they are the ones who will cook food for you. You just have to settle with the boatman before the trip. But just in case you feel the need to eat snacks in between islands then you could bring foods to eat! 🙂

Meet my relatives from my father’s side! So sad my other cousins and sisters weren’t able to witness the beautiful view of Coron Palawan!

First stop: Kayangan Lake

Took a photo of the sea while we where on our way to our first destination. Love this photo! Not only because of its beautiful view but because it reminds of me of the movie, Life of Pi. Hahaha!

Smiling for the camera before we start climbing to the top to get the best view of the bay.

From the dock area, there’s a short 10-minute uphill hike to a small cave and an ideal viewing point of the Kayangan Bay.

The trail to the top was not that safe because the stairs weren’t concreted. However, if you are up to a real adventure, you would really find this adventurous because you would be climbing to the top with wooden handrails and stepping huge rocks. Watch your footing here as I found the stone steps to be a bit tricky and dangerous in spots and be prepared to sweat a bit on the way up as well.

Not to worry with climbing all the way to the top though, because once you arrive, the panoramic view will sweep you off your feet! Nice view, right? Wait ‘til you see the Kayangan Lake! 😀

Another few more minutes descending to the open lake. This time you have to be double cautious and careful because the footing might be slippery.

Here’s a peak of the lake while I was climbing down. No joke but upon seeing that very clean water, I was so excited that I was climbing down so swiftly and forgetting how dangerous it was. Please, Please, do not do this. You don’t want to spend your vacation at a hospital, don’t you?

TADAAAAAA! Isn’t it a paradise? I bet seeing this picture at the back of your monitors right now made you say “WOW! I wanna go there!”

Very very very nice place. It’s all I expected to be. A Paradise. I could just stay here and do nothing but stare at the scenery.

Moreover, Kayangan Lake which is often times declared to be one of the cleanest lake in the Asia. And I can tell by the look of its lake. Like really.

If you want to spend several hours here exploring all corners of the lake, you may utilize the two available Bamboo Raft in the lake. On the other hand, what we did to explore all the corner of the lake was swimming while our tour guide was leading us. We even went to the back of the mountains, snorkeling and witnessing beautiful rock formations underwater. It sure was a long swim!

Oh, I almost forgot! If you don’t know how to swim then you would be needing a life jacket. In my case, I know how to swim but I brought with me a life jacket because it lessens me from getting too tired swimming for long hours. So, I’d ride or hold on to the jacket when I catch up for breath to make me float.

Forgive me for the struggling underwater pose. Hahaha

Please don’t do this if you do not know how to swim. I tell you, it is really really deep. I barely see the ground.

So yeah, the guy in black is our tour guide. As you can see, he was dragging all of them together with the use of a long rope. Hahaha! Poor tour guide but don’t worry, he was trained to do this. 🙂

Surrounded by rocky mountains covered by green trees and plants, it certainly evokes an image of a lagoon seen from postcards and movies. So, if you are expecting paradise, it can’t be any more head on, as the way towards Kayangan lake itself as it serves as a prelude of sights to see! 😀

Take note: You should come during the dry season! Make sure you come early and plan for a lengthy swim.