Corregidor Island, Cavite (2013)

Another one of those Philippine postcard inspired travel, the heroic Corregidor Island.  

I always thought that this is part of Bataan, but no - geographically part of the Cavite province.  Maybe the confusion was due to the historic significance of Corregidor with Bataan's Death March which happened during WWII.

Dealgrocer sells discounted vouchers, for this tour which includes lunch costed if I recall it correctly, Php 1,500.00.  Sun cruises managed the entire trip, departure time from Manila CCP Complex 9am and reached the island approximately 11-ish in the morning.  It was a quick sail across Manila Bay.

Our School Bus

Lunch first before the educational tour starts. Everything in this place had significance in the second world war.  Below are some of the photos taken -

It's expected to get bored since this was an educational tour so a little imagination on what happened in the 40s will help to appreciate the stories more.

One thing that you should not miss, Malinta Tunnel visit.  With the help of voice recordings and clips, it will bring you back to the time of Japanese occupation.  This gave me goosebumps.

Malinta Tunnel

At the end of the Malinta tour, the Philippine National Anthem was played.  I cried.

It took almost 5 hours to explore the entire island and how I look at Araw ng Kagitingan will never be the same.

It's good to notice also that a lot of Filipinos are being nostalgic and tried Corregidor. What's surprising is that there were Japanese visitors (some of them may have witnessed/experienced war) as well.  Surely, it would be a treat to look into their emotions and minds during this excursion.

I am just glad that most of us have moved on and while there's a lot of work to be done to achieve peace - I think we are on the right track.

Our fabu tour guide

Special mention to our comedienne tour guide who made the travel exciting and humorous to balance the "tragic" atmosphere of the place.