Philippine Travel Notes

Not wont to ruin our trip, we tried to find things to amuse us as we waited for the next boat to Abra De Ilog – scheduled at 3AM! Yes, 3:00 o’clock in the morning. And we were standing at this godforsaken pier about 3-hours too early because of... this ! After buying our tickets for the 3AM ride, we went out of the pier to grab something to eat. And we saw that many of the little eateries (carinderias) lined outside the pier were open. Some had their karaoke machines blaring voices from drivers, pier employees, hawkers and vendors in varying degrees of “acceptability” and/or “abhorability”! We picked a small carinderia fronting the main path that leads to the pier’s building which fortunately was at least some distance to the karaoke singers lest we puke at the din torturing our ears. We tried “dinner” with longsilog, sinigang and dasilog. We capped the meal with three each of bananas and I couldn’t make all the momentous events from the past 5 hours without grabbing a can of SanMigLig...

Together with the friend who introduced me to the idea of going to Pandan Island, and another of our common friends, we took an 8pm bus from that devil-infested bus company with a station in EDSA (between Timog and Kamuning) that is the JAM/Tritran bus liner. Now my blood is starting to boil upon writing that sentence! [New Edit: If you have not yet done so, check-out my other story here and you will know the reason why.] Anyway, we wanted to catch the 1AM midnight ferry from the noisy-hot Batangas Pier to Abra De Ilog (a port town in northern Occidental Mindoro). This would have allowed us a 4AM “less-dusty” dawn-time bus ride to Sablayan where we could have caught the fresh sea produce at the market by 7AM. No thanks to the JAM/Tritran bus, this did not happen. We arrived at the Batangas pier about 30 minutes before 1AM (almost a 5-hour ride from EDSA). We ran as fast as we could to the check-in counter for the midnight boat to Abra De Ilog wondering as we breezed through why the us...

The most interesting thing about setting out to Pandan Island is that there are too many discoveries that await the visitor on the way there and coming back! This is the truest “adventure” where all your senses and emotions will be put to work at one time or another! Where on earth is that? Pandan Island, Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro. That is the exact address! Well, not too many Filipinos, therefore even foreigners, are quite familiar with this paradise amongst this 7,107 islands. Not that it is yet to be discovered; in fact many a foreigner has had a great time in this place. Call it greedy, but I do wish it will remain the way it is today - unassuming, unnoticed, un-hyped-up, un-crazy heaven on earth! Of course it will fizzle out of the vacation/resort market if loads of foreigners don't get to visit the island! That's precisely why I said... I wish it will remain unnoticed… Anyway, to exist, Pandan Island has to be noticed. So, while not too many yet are noticing the charm ...

If you are looking for the best guided and annotated tour in the Philippines, you will only find it in Bohol. I will stand on that declaration with my chin high up! Howsoever you arranged for it, your tour will be the same - a grand look around the various natural and man-made wonders of the place, PLUS a barrage of historical information you will itch to write every detail down on a notebook. Best if you bring your palm or XDA! I have taken this tour three times (in three years) and each of those times I got so excited and too absorbed into the sceneries, the stories and the histories about the place. While the tour guides im part basically the same information, there is always something else new that I discover (or remember for good)! First time I went was with a big tour group – a whole bus load of about 40 tourists. Second time I went there, I was traveling with a special friend – only the two of us! And the third time, I was with seven of my adventurous friends! In all those tours...

Sabtang is southwest of the Batanes Island Group. It is a smaller island than Batan. Because of what folks in Basco were telling us, we decided to go to the island and check out what really is there to see. We were told the beaches are better and the stone-houses are in abundance. They assured us that the stone-houses there were still built just the way they were done years ago – unlike in the more “urban” towns of Basco, Mahatao and Ivana where houses already incorporate new styles, concrete balusters, jalousies and balconies plus even different hues of Boysen paint. That is what they all told us! So one early morning, we “stylishly” departed from the resort in a shining new Mitsubishi Adventure courtesy of our new-found friend, the bank manager. We were herded to the little strip of a beach across the street from the Ivana Church. This was the jump-off point to Sabtang, where everyone must take a boat-ride across the deep and dark sea waters of the Sabtang Channel. This is part...