Culion was a lovely little place we did an overnight stay at, the night of our 31st wedding anniversary. We had our anniversary dinner in a restaurant where we ordered a vegetable/egg fried rice at a cost of 15 pesos (40c) each. We were the only patrons and were probably at the flashest place in town.
We were first drawn to a beautiful church up on the hill overlooking the bay. The original site had been a Spanish fort (1500's) surrounding a small catholic church and as the population grew they needed a new church so they built it incorporating the fort walls.
Now for the island’s history - Culion was a leper colony and in fact any new cases of leprosy are still treated at the hospital there. In the late afternoon we wandered the town and found tin signs outside various buildings giving a brief history of what purpose that building had held during the time the town functioned as a leper colony.
Looking across towards Coron...............................Children gathering at low tide
Church built from the walls of a 15th century Spanish fort.......Church with water village below
Culion port.................................................................Delightful children
The next morning we hopped on a tricycle and asked the driver to take us to the museum, as we hadn’t spotted it in during our wanderings the evening before. He nodded and proceeded to drive and drop us off at the hospital. But....we began...... but no, we were in the right place. We had to buy our entry ticket from within the hospital, amidst appointments and examinations in the hallways (and we think our hospitals lack privacy!!). Then back out the door we are escorted and through another gate, up the hill and we are finally at an old building that houses the museum. It gave a fantastic insight into the history of the island from the time the first community was set up for the lepers in the early 1900’s through to when they had successfully cured all the patients in the 1990’s. What dedication there was from professionals and volunteers from all parts of the world in the fight to give the people with leprosy a better life. The patients came from all over Asia. There must have been a staff member or patient with an interest in photography as there was a great collection of photographs displayed that followed the history.
During our visit Daryl managed to get offered two islands that are available to purchase!! The smaller one is NZ$45,000 and the larger one NZ $1.5 million - I think we’ll be giving that opportunity a miss for the moment. So if you’re interested, get hold of Daryl, as he has all the details, including GPS co ordinates and maps!!
On the way back to the boat Daryl joked with the driver about letting him drive the tricycle. The driver stopped the bike and seemed pleased to let Daryl have a go. The looks we got from the locals were priceless. Daryl said the driving was harder than it looks given the unusual weight distribution. When we arrived at our destination Daryl turned to the owner and said “That will be 20 pesos please” to which he got a hearty laugh. We had to talk him into taking an extra tip – such lovely people.
Daryl's new potential career
The day was topped off with a drift snorkel at Dynamite Point which was refreshing but could have been improved if we hadn't had the chop of the wind over tide.
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