Gumasa Beach: Where Nothingness is Everything
Gumasa Beach. Most folks call it "home to the biggest and craziest beach party in all of Mindanao". I believe it can and should be "the biggest and craziest in this whole country". Do you know about that?
If you are lost as to what it is, try googling "sarbay party" or "sarbay fest".
But, I did not come to this place for that. In fact, I timed my arrival to "just after the big party" to avoid the crowds. It happened while I was in Bantayan! Not that I don't like it. I just don't like partying alone!
Maybe some other time when I have company, kahit isa lang sa inyo mga bwiset kayo! Ano, tara?
Let me briefly describe that "crazy party" anyway. It happens only once a year, towards the end of May. Visitors from all over Mindanao, some from the Visayas, and some even from Metro Manila, appear at this place for that big party. Of course, some foreigners who may be at nearby islands and hear about the party, also come to experience it. Since its start in 2006, the crowds have been growing every year.
The last I heard, this shindig attracted 200,000++, AS IN two hundred thousand plus plus! That many! To imagine that crowd, remember this: full house of MOA Arena is only 20,000 and Araneta is 16,000!
I asked "where do these people sleep? A fellow blogger replied: "why, who said anything about sleep"? Gosh! This party is apparently an all night thing, then folks go home or back to their hotels at GenSan during the day. The blogger-friend clarified: "then come back in the evening, since it's a 3-night party"!
That, is what I can call a really totally insanely crazy six-kilometer three-day party!
Now now children... this is Gumasa Beach to me, and I would like to remember it always this way...
And if, you were looking for a true hideaway far from city urbanities, this is one such idyllic paradise.
The only tricky question would probably be... "kaya mo ba"?
There are only a few stores in this entire stretch of a beach - gosh, I had to walk far, to find a bottle of Coca Cola (puro pepsi sila dito eh). Also just a few family-owned resorts (as of now anyway), and only one that may level up with modern resort comforts. And, no fine-dining restaurants nor fancy shops.
If you're looking for nature-surrounded rustic romance, where you can still see the millions of stars at night, this is THE place. Like many Metro Manilans would say, this place is still fantastically barriotic!
This place (the beach area, I mean) is still a little like Boracay of early 1980s (when the main mode of transportation were just horses, and I remember, there was only one motorcycle on the whole island).
Well, Gumasa Beach is beside a highway, so all kinds of land transport vehicles are (can be) available. But on the water's edge, it can still be eerily silent - like now, where I'm the only visitor walking around!
But you'll have to hurry though. I can see a number of constructions happening here and there.
For those in the know, a proof that this beach is not yet that urbanized is, look at those 'debris' strewn on the beach. Those are natural (organic) trash materials, brought ashore by the waves and the tides.
If this place were already another Boracay, El Nido, Puerto Galera or Pagudpud, ah, surely those things would have been swept away by the resort owners, since those are considered eyesore. That is proof that Gumasa is still a natural beach, still devoid of kung anu-anong structures or modernist standards.
By the way, after taking that picture above, I turned around to capture the rest of this beach...
What did I do in this 'desolate' beach anyway? Well, literally "nothing"! I just sat under one of the many Talisay trees (for about 4 hours) doing nothing, looking out to nothing, just chillin' in my own little way!
By previous arrangement, my habal-habal service just came to pick me up when it was meal time. But, I was not literally sitting down. Tumayo at humiga din naman ako hahaha! I actually went out to talk to some of the fishermen, busy tending to their nets, and, I got served a very special refreshment - where one of them climbed a very tall coconut tree, to fetch for me just one piece of buko. Refreshing! O ha?!
This is one of those places that I wish would not be 'improved' anymore! Because, the touristic kind of improving a place is more on building structures and whatever conveniences or facilities, all around it.
Just look at those pictures above. Wouldn't it be better if it looks like so, forever? I mean sige na, okay na that they do the "SarBay Fest" once each year (that entire length becomes a party place, mind you)! But after that mind-bogglingly great party.., ganyan na sana ulit.., pawang 'barriotic' katahimikan ulit..!
I know.., puro ako "wishful thinking"! Because I could see, many things are coming up!
Thus, if you want to experience the great 6kms of "nothingness" that is Gumasa Beach, visit now!
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