Philippine Travel Notes

After the Sohoton Cave and Natural Bridge Park experience in a jungle, would it not be a good itinerary to hie off next to a nice seaside resort for dinner and overnight stay? And early the next morning go on an island hopping tour with a dog? That is what we did.., at Caluwayan Palm Island Resort in Marabut! I've been to this resort many times, usually just for meals (with a fantastic view) as this is located just along the highway where we pass when traveling from Tacloban to Guiuan, Borongan and those other towns in the southern part of Eastern Samar. I brought the friends here as I was sure they'd like it. Yey! Call it good timing! We arrived at the resort on a fine breezy afternoon with the sun about to set., Everything that sunlight could still reach was already turning gold. "A tantalizing view" - as one friend I too brought here said sometime ago. " Kon harapit na an adlaw matunod ", as they say in a Waray Song! Tip: where I stood taking th

As mentioned in my previous story (also on my cruise to Mabini ), tourists 'usually' paddle kayaks from the cave to the natural bridge. And this here, was even the last photo in that previous blog story, right? On sunny days (like during this visit hehe), the river is placid, so the paddling is easy-going as the river current is not that strong. Importantly, no rush during this tour as we were the only group. No one else was waiting for their turn on our kayaks! They have a lot of these colorful kayaks anyway - by the way! Oops wait, did I go to Sohoton Natural Bridge or the Sohoton Natural Bridge Park ? Let's clarify that! Confusing but yes and yes! A silly and oh well, a really interesting merry mix of terminologies that I am learning and getting familiar with, while enjoying my travels around Basey, Samar! Okay okay, Western Samar -- itself another confusing jumble of words - parang Cotabato , remember? Makabuang. Gayud! Let us extensively dissect "Samar, Ea

After more than two weeks (19 days to be exact), I was back in the area, this time not just passing by the cave system on my way to anywhere, but really visiting to tour the cave/s with balikbayan friends! Let me do some qualifiers first. In this story, I prefer to call it as "Sohoton Cave" (singular), contrary to how it is referred to by the authorities (as Sohoton Caves). Why and how is that? I know this is a wide "cave system" with many openings located at various locations, but as visitors/tourists, you may only enter via one and only one designated entrance/exit place. To avoid confusion let me call it "a cave" in reference to the single "cave system" that it is. Even if this is usually called "Sohoton Caves" by many! Let's go! After registration , briefing and wearing of life vests, we walked down to the boat boarding area.., I thought the life vests were "cumbersome" hehe. On my trip to Mabini , I was not ask