JAV Beach Resort & Restaurant, Pangangan

This was recommended by the manong trike driver as a good place for us to have lunch. For lack of any other information, we heeded as we didn’t have any option anyway. And he brought as right to the gate of this resort – which is nothing but a simple unassuming place by a real sandy beach. Yes, there is a “beach” hehe, unlike the previous places we have been to. The whole place in fact is devoid of the rocky areas that seem to dominate the southern part of Pangangan Island where we just came from.

The “resort” is a wide expanse of beachfront lot with day-use native cottages and umbrella type huts amidst coconuts and other trees. These cottages vary in size from good-for-four to good for a busload. They do have other amenities such as sound systems or videoke for those who might need them. And monobloc chairs are readily available for those who come by the platoon! And folks can play or hanker around the grounds as there is ample space in the middle of the property (cottages are lined on all sides except the waterfront area. Its nothing much of a luxury haven, but I think that’s what I liked in there. Simple.

There is another bigger house where the bar/counter is located together with restaurant-style arrangement of tables and chairs. Obviously the unexposed insides of said building must have been the kitchen and/or other “authorized-personnel-only” nooks of the resort. But there are outside grills too and the “public” wash area. Hmm, this restaurant has its own specific name “Marybeth’s Grill & Restaurant”. We mused that in all probability, “JAV” is a combination of the owners’ names or some family members that probably had Marybeth left out. So, to compensate for that topbilling issue, they named the restaurant in her honor hehe. See, this resort is not only comfy, it also allows our brains to grind and let our imaginations wander hahaha!

Lunch? I did not care about what was listed on the menu. Companion bothered all about those. All I asked was if they had “tinowa”. The reply was yes. Woman (waitress) asked me to point which fish I wanted over at their counter. I instead asked where they get their fish. She pointed to the beach and the sea, so I said just pick any fish the size of my palm! Why did I say that? Well, them getting their fish from the fishermen by the beach meant to me that they could not be keeping a lot of fish in their freezers which probably means everything should be fairly fresh. Nice logic eh? Besides, I am not good at telling which is good for tinola or which is fresh or not, unless I already taste them. So she took her best shot, and I think I did a nice gamble from a weird inference of my lowly brain hehe! Aw ack and argh! JAV did not have coke! Pepsi products only! At least they had San Miguel Beer Grande, so we opted for one.

The beach. Oh yes there was the beach hehe! We arrived at a high tide and the waters by the white sandy beach looked just fine. Some folks were swimming while some kids romp around the sand. We were busier just lazing around the breezy huts of JAV as we waited for and eventually had lunch. I noticed the water was darker green even at a short distance from the beach. Indication that the area has some corals or rocky bottom with abundant marine wildlife, good for snorkeling. Ha, I learned about them colors sometime ago from some fisherfolk at some other island. They’re indicators as to what one might expect to see under the waters, deep or shallow! Plus, to the left of the beach is a lush mangrove forest. Wonderful!

The hours of “doing nothing” seemed too fast. Next time the waters came to my consciousness, it was already low tide and we were about to go back to Tubigon. At first, somewhere inside my head said “its already ugly anyway since its already low tide”. But, after a second look… omg OMG! There was more life in the area at low tide than there were the little waves at noontime. A different kind of life I could not miss! So I requested we stay a bit longer. Which life? Ah, for starters, flocks of birds (am not sure if those are/were migratory) were scouring the shallows and most of the exposed seabed. There were brown birds, white birds, black birds, gray birds and some had combination plumes. Hard to spot though unless you look intently. Ah am not a birder, but my birder friends will surely have a grand time in this area.

Then there were the people. Yes the people! What the… many of them trooped to the shallows. They were not fishing (in the usual sense of the “act”) but they all seemed to be looking for something. From time to time, they would pick up a thing or two from the shallows. I had to know… and I was told… “kinhason”. While I was not too sure what it meant, and I oculdn’t go on bothering them people with my questions, I got it that the word “kinhason” means something not fish nor plant but alive and you can pick from the shallows to become food. I’m not sure really, but “kinhason” seem to be a collective name, not a specific organism. I saw them picking crab-like creatures, shellfish, sea-cucumber and other such things.

Some others were throwing into the shallows what looked like shiny silvery plastic, tied with long nylon lines but I don’t know what they put to make those heavy. From their stance I could gather that they were trying to catch something with the lines (I think there are no hooks). I couldn’t let the day pass unless I was told what the “weird” act was all about. Whoa! Tamala! No no, not Tamala Jones the actress hehe. “Tamala” in the Visayas is “octopus”. Am not sure though if it is another kind of octopus-like specie or the baby octopus that is called tamala. Am saying this because everything I saw were rather small or still young than the usual octopus we see at markets. Probably just the size of my palm or slightly wider. And from my bisdak tutorials, I know that octopus is supposed to be “kugita”. Hmm. Anyway, this act means they have to slowly pull the string towards themselves – just assuming that a tamala was thinking it was food therefore pursuing it… and at pouncing distance, they do pounce on the poor elusive thing to catch it. At first I said “owwws” unbelieving they’d catch such a stealthy creature that way. But proof was there hehe, I had fun poking at them tamala and they change colors depending which container you place them into! No pictures. Reason? Ah well, I too had to get wet even if that was just sheen-deep.

Sunset at JAV Resort became a bit cloudy, though I it was kinda differently bluish than the usual. I was still enjoying the views when the waitress told us it is usually already hard to catch a ride during the evenings. I even said “we can walk” but the companion half-protested that would be about 8 kilometers from where we were all the way to main highway on Calape town proper hehe. So I agreed, we had to start moving – that even meant walking to what they call Magtongtong junction to catch a ride. Hey, along the way, we passed by a new house (building) still having some finishing touches and I asked a man whose house was that. He shrugged a bit but offered an unsure info that it is/was soon going to be the “hotel” area of JAV Resort. Nice one, I think.

At the Magtongtong junction, nothing other than private motorbikes and kids in bicycles was passing by. And it was slowly getting dark hahaha! So I suggested we better walk along and see whatever was there to see until a trike or jeep comes along for us to hop on or until we arrive center of town – whichever would come first hehe. And we did! That’s why I had the chance to snap these last few pics. Hey, I was ogling at the spelling of that chapel’s name and debating in my head if anything was wrong. Before I could ask anyone, a multicab came along and we hurriedly hopped in.

Oh well, we traced our way back to Tubigon and were at The Monina’s just in time for dinner.


If you want to read the chronology of all stories on this tour, click the following:
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