Aerial View Of Kalanggaman Island

My title for this story should have been: I Saw Kalanggaman Island On A Flight From Tacloban To Cebu!
But that's too long, so I instead wrote the title above: "Aerial View of Kalanggaman Island". Pwede na!

Now as you already know, I always try my best to do a "blow-by-blow" account of my travels, so here I go... starting from the time I left Tacloban, until arrival in Cebu via PAL's 9:35AM morning flight, PR2237.

I was actually just transiting in Cebu going somewhere else. But let's do that in my next story!

At 8:35AM, I was already inside Tacloban Airport's pre-departure lounge, ready and waiting to board.

While that wasn't happening yet, I tinkered with the "panoramic setting" of my phone's camera. I have to somehow: 1] make use of what I already have; and 2] keep up with today's gadgets or technologies!

Pwede na di ba? Masabi man lang we know how to fully use our phones hehehe. Do you?

Travel is learning, as we always say, right? Yes, going around is education by itself - and, that includes learning how to use what we have all along been carrying inside our pockets heheh! Ah, if the tourism department keeps saying 'wag maging dayuhan sa sariling bayan", we should also say huwag maging mangmang sa sariling kagamitan! Especially if those gadgets can/will create better lasting memories!

While I was tinkering with my camera, someone I know (also a passenger) passed-by and commented that the comfort rooms in this airport, now look better. In a flash I went to check. Sugod mga kapatid!

Well, all I could say was "aba oo nga"! Except there is a "Temporarily Out of Order" cubicle. So, not too impressive. I am open to debate on that 'cubicle' topic, but para wala nang maraming satsat, ask this: nasaan ang plumber or whatever utility worker ng airport? Why didn't I see any human working on it?

Naka-on call na parang doctor, naka-retainer na parang lawyer at dadating lang kung kelan gusto?

If things like those can be easily solved in the 'corporate world', dapat ganun din sa 'gobyerno world' - di naman late magbayad ng terminal fee ang pasahero eh. Nag-print pa ng announcement, CR lang!

Sus, baka isang dekada yan bago magawa. In private institutions, we call that "no sense of urgency"!

But good enough, not just too impressive. Kesa naman this airport's toilets in the past. Hiyay nala!

Anyway, this was a wet everything day, but the rain cooperatively stopped while we were boarding!

And we took off via DZR Airport's Runway 36 on a still gloomy cloudy day! No more showers, at least!

Hey, I saw the wall they are building around the runway. I'm not sure if this is part of the 'megadike'.

It does not look like it is part of that 'megadike' they are building around Tacloban, Palo, Tanauan and beyond as reaction to Yolanda. But megadike or not, it sure is to keep the sea from eating the runway.

Wait... not tsismis, but this was a hot topic after Yolanda! This is the airport which Noynoy said will be relocated to Palo or Sta. Fe per study and support of JICA, for which JICA denied! Historical fact heheh!

Kung nag-isip lang sana sya..! Eh look, totoo namang kinakain talaga ng dagat ang runway ah. Kasama nga ng marami pang isla sa mundo! But apparently the way he said it was: dahil storm-surge prone at ayon sa pag-aaral ng JICA. Wow sana, kaso pinabulaanan ng JICA. Da! Buking! Kon an bulok magbuwa!

Parang gusto ko sabihin "o di ba aling koring"? But that's water under the bridge over troubled water!

For now, that runway is continuously being protected by DPWH -not even against storm surge- normal na alon lang abnoy oy! Sinabi nalang sana, as president of this country, I hereby bla blah blah. Tapos!

Haruy, kay kon an bolok nagmurumaaram... asya na nga gi-asyahi!

Then our plane crossed Leyte mainland amid an abundance of clouds. They're also good to look at oi!

But towards the western side of Leyte, and into the Camotes Sea, clouds were a bit more dispersed...

Eto na, while looking at Cebu island's outline in the distance, I looked down and saw Kalanggaman!

How sure was I that it was Kalanggaman Island? 1000% sure! It's the only such tiny paradise located in between Leyte and Cebu. Plus, the pilot even announced it - that is another thing I like with PAL crew.

I also compared (just in my head) what I was looking at, versus what I remember as the shape of that island, including its shifting sandbars (both ends) that I have noted, when I was there sometime ago.

I even made a #shorts video of that pic above. Trip lang. Watch it here!

That was such a rare opportunity. I don't need a drone, after all. Just ride PAL hehe! Well, I have been flying along this path quite often, but the usual 'sightings' are the Camotes Islands, not Kalanggaman.

Okay, while we're on the topic, let me just remind the Tagalogs and those from non-visayan provinces that, the name Kalanggaman does not relate to ants (because in Tagalog langgam is ant). Langgam in the Visayan context is "bird". So Kalanggaman Island means "an island where there are a lot of birds".

Ah, maybe we should say "where there were a lot of birds", because there are not so many anymore.

Okay, that's it pusit about Kalanggaman, but let's continue my travel story, andito na rin lang tayo e! As the flight went along, and we were about to approach Mactan, clouds were everywhere again. Wow!

As if the skies just gave me those few seconds of opportunity to see Kalanggaman Island from above the clouds, then it went cloudy again. Luck! On this one, I think down there are the beaches of Sogod.

After about 35 minutes in the air (due to clouds?) we landed at Mactan's Runway 22. Yey!

Hey I discovered on this bus, that I came on this same flight with some friends (like Mana Rochelle)!

Good that we arrived ahead of schedule, since I had a connecting flight leaving at 11:50AM. Kaya pa!

More than an hour to transfer from a domestic flight to another, kayang-kaya. Carry lang!

But let's talk about that onward flight, in my next story!

Previous

Next