Tacloban and Kalanggaman Island - DIY Itinerary and Budget (Part 2)

To continue with our Leyte adventure, we woke up at 2 am that day to head to Kalanggaman Island which was the highlight of our trip. The car that we rented would pick us up at 2:30 am, good thing I already prepared my OOTD the night before. (jk lang sa ootd) 

Since it was still dark and there would be no view, we all slept through the car ride and woke up as the sun rises. We drove through zigzag roads to get to our destination and had witness Leyte sunrise at the highest point of the hi-way going to Palompon. It was beautiful. 

Maubay na aga, Leyte! Our view enroute to Palompon, Leyte

It was a three-hour ride going to the town of Palompon, Leyte. Kalanggaman Island is located in Palompon and is an hour-boat ride from Palompon town proper. Before going to Kalanggaman, Jel, had kept in touch with the local tourism office in order to reserve a slot for our tour. The tourism office of Palompon has been regulating the number of tourist to protect the island from too much crown. That's why it would be more wise to secure a reservation first before heading to Palompon.

Upon arrival, we head to the tourist registration paid a total of Php 225 for both the environmental fee and entrance fee. Jel and Mark went to the wet market to buy goods for our lunch. After all the registration process and buying food for lunch, we found ourselves inside the boat going to Kalanggaman. We were the last passenger aboard the boat. Fare to rent a boat is Php 3,000 roundtrip.

(Backstory: Dahil practical kami at masyado mahal ang Php 3,000, we asked the tourism officer if we could share boat with other tourists. Pwede naman 'yun basta may makakasabay. We had a shared boat ride and we only paid Php 300 each roundtrip.) 

Boat to Kalanggaman Island

It was an hour boat ride from the port to Kalanggaman Island. The water was calm and we saw flying fishes along the way. I remember taking so many photos of the island because it was picturesque as we approach and wala ako magawa haha. 

We safely arrived and my first thought was - Ang liit lang pala ng island and you can stroll the entire island for less than 30 mins lang siguro. They have clean restrooms, cottages for rent and grilling stations. We did not rent a cottage because we were only staying for few hours and would leave after lunch. Good thing, there were tables and chairs available for use and they were FREE. We just placed our tables under a tree and there goes the island life. The Kalanggaman is perfect for photoshoot talaga especially the sandbar. 

Welcome to the Island.
Kalanggaman Island marker at the back but I was being brilliant I covered it.

Island life - there were many life guard huts

                             

The sand bar when we arrived (the low tide was just starting).
 Look at those cute clouds. 

Jel and Mark preparing our food

                               

Habang kami ni Yna ay uma-aura lang hahaha! Landscape selfie

Portait selfie

Pak! Very Marimar

Photo of our food. It was good. Thanks to Mark and Jel

We went swimming. The water was so clear.
Just for your information, swimming at the sides of the sand bar
 is PROHIBITED because of rip tides.

Photo of the sandbar

Group photo and you can see the long stretch of sandbar at the back. Worth it!

We met fellow travelers at the sandbar.
Meeting new people is one of the reasons why I travel

After all the photo ops, we ride the boat back to Palompon and drove back towards Tacloban. We also stopped by beautiful churches along the way. It took us more than three hours on our way back because we had several stops. We arrived at McArthur Monument just before sunset. There's no entrance and there were many locals strolling and chilling as aside from the monument, it is also a park with view of the sea.

Stay curious. Pink skies.

A trip at Eastern Visayas won't be complete without experiencing San Juanico Bridge. We decided to have our dinner at a restaurant in Samar so that we would be able to pass by the bridge. We didn't have a chance to take a photo at the bridge because it was already dark when we drove to the restaurant. But still, we were able to experience passing by the longest bridge in the Philippines. 

We had our dinner at Pasqualino’s Ristorante which is popular for their Italian Cuisine. The ambiance was good at the restaurant. It is overlooking the bridge and the strait. I just wished we went earlier because it was too dark to enjoy the view. 

This would have been our view. :(
 (credits to: Google - Travel Trilogy -
http://www.traveltrilogy.com/2013/10/pasqualinos-ristoranti-italiano.html )

Groufie <3

Pizza and other food that I don't remember na basta Italian

After dinner, we head to our inn and prepared for our flight back to Manila the next morning. Bye weekend!

Read the first part of our trip, itinerary and budget here: http://herwanderjournal.blogspot.com/2017/05/tacloban-and-kalanggaman-island-diy.html

Thanks for reading.

Love, 

C

Tacloban and Kalanggaman Island - DIY Itinerary and Budget (Part 1)

The hardest part of writing about your travels is remembering the little details. If you meet me in person, you'd notice how talkative I am. One of the few things I hate is when I tell a story and I forget the little details that would have made the story better. Hassle if makalimutan yung detalye!!!!

Haha. Daming sinabi. Let's get straight to the point na nga. Yes, I forgot the details of our Tacloban - Kalanggaman trip but I'll still try to blog it. 

Booking a Ticket

The regular two-way airfare to Tacloban is around Php 4,000 to 5,000. It was Air Asia's  Red Hot Php .01 Sale during that time and since I am an Air Asia Big Loyalty Programme Member, I get to book flights 24 hours ahead of the non-members. The round trip ticket that I got for Tacloban was a steal at Php 485.62. I hurriedly booked for myself. Imagine - parang bumili lang ako ng tatlong Jollibee Super Meal - the one with chicken, spaghetti and shanghai haha. Yung 500 pesos ko may change pa! 

My trip was supposed to be a solo travel but luckily, my friend Jel and her boyfriend, Mark, also booked the same flight as mine. Then, my friend, Yna booked a flight one month before our trip at a price a little below Php 3,000. 

Manila-Tacloban-Manila at just Php 485.62

I live for the weekends and on this trip, our flight was Saturday afternoon. We just spent one full Sunday exploring as much as we could then we had our flight back to Manila the morning after to be able to go to work. To cut it short, we only had ONE FULL day to see Leyte.

About to touchdown Tacloban - how I love sunset flights 

Upon arrival at Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, you will be greeted by a number of tour guides/drivers offering transfers to hotels or Tacloban City tour. You can choose between car tour or tricycle tour. Since our group was in a tight budget, we chose the tricycle tour. For Php 250 pesos each, we toured around Tacloban's so-called tourist spots while the tricycle driver did the story telling about the places. To be honest, I did not look up on the tourist spots of Tacloban. Apparently, the places that we would be seeing were the remnants of the killer Typhoon Yolanda or Haiyan. 

The remains from the Typhoon Haiyan that killed thousands of my countrymen had become tourist spots. It felt like  my heart was being crushed while hearing the tricycle driver's story. I remember almost crying because I know the pain of losing someone I love. In Tacloban, every person you talk to has a story to share on the tragedy of Yolanda. Each person has somehow known someone who had perished on the onset of that 2013 tragedy.

In the tour, we visited two of the 10 vessels that were washed inland by the 7-meter storm surge that Yolanda brought. The first ship that we visited was still stuck in the middle of a baranggay. Our group silently looked at it. From what I remembered, we were all hesitant to take photos of it. A huge ship in a middle of a community where people live - I wondered how many houses it ran over or if anyone's life was taken away by it. Then, Kuya tricycle driver asked us to strike a pose in front of the ship - I'm sure I didn't smile on that photo. 

I took time to take in everything and I thought, these shipwrecks have become tourist spots creating livelihood to people. I decided to look at it as memory of the many lives that have been taken away by Yolanda. The typhoon that the Philippines will never forget.

The second shipwreck which was the M/V Eva Jocelyn has been turned into a marker as it is one of the visible evidence of how strong the typhoon was. At this site, we already managed to strike a pose. 

Group photo at M/V Eva Jocelyn Memorial

M/V Eva Jocelyn in 2013 (Photo taken from: Abs-Cbn News website)

Part of the city tour was driving around downtown and Kuya driver talked about the places as we passed by. We arrived at our inn which was just a few minutes from downtown, dropped our bags and headed to downtown for dinner. 

We ate at Ocho Seafoods and Grill. It was a paluto style restaurant. The food was good. We had several kinds of sea shells (maka-several kinds - two kinds lang yata lol I can't remember. I was not being millenial that night - di ako nagtake ng photo the food before eating it haha), grilled tuna and shrimp - I think, okay.. I already forgot but I remember spending 250 pesos on my dinner. One thing I know is that Ocho's is one of the go-to places in Tacloban for your seafood cravings. Before going back to our inn, we first went to SaveMore which was just walking distance from Ocho's and bought some food for our beach trip to Kalanggaman Island the next day.

 See http://herwanderjournal.blogspot.com/2017/05/tacloban-and-kalanggaman-island-diy_20.html for our day 2 story. Madaming pictures dun, sorry sobrang emotional ako while writing this kasi.

Our Itinerary

July 16 (Saturday) DAY 1
2:30pm - Airport 3:40pm - Off to Tacloban 5:10 - Arrival at Tacloban Airport

5:30 - City Tour,Tacloban with transfer to our inn

7:30 - Arrival at Ocho Seafoods and Grill, Dinner

8:30 pm - Buy food for Kalanggaman 9:000pm onwards - Accommodation, rest

July 17 (Sunday) DAY 2
2:15am - Wake up, prepare for Kalanggaman 2:30am - Off to Palompon via Car Rental 5:30am - Arrival at Palompon, Register at ecotour 6am - Boat to Kalanggaman 7am - Arrival at Kalanggaman 10am - Start preparing lunch 10:30am Lunch 12am - Off to Palompon 1 pm - Back to Palompon; Off to Tacloban

4:00pm - Church hopping along the way McArthur Landing Memorial Park

7pm - Dinner at Pasqualino’s Ristorante in Samar  9pm - Back in accommodation 10pm- Rest

July 18 (Monday) 7:00 am - Off to Airport

8:35am - Flight to Manila

9:55am - Arrival in Manila

Budget

Accommodation (2 nights - 400 per night)     800

Food                                                                 900

Car Rental (12 hours)                                  1500

Kalanggaman Boat Fee                                300

Kalanggaman Environmental
and Entrance Fee                                          225

Tricycle Tour Tacloban                                 250

Total                                                             3,975

So, that was the day one of our Leyte trip. Thanks for reading. 
Want to read more? Check our Day 2 story here: http://herwanderjournal.blogspot.com/2017/05/tacloban-and-kalanggaman-island-diy_20.html

Love, 
C

Exploring Lobo Batangas

Let us take a trip down the memory lane.

If you want a quick beach trip from Manila, you either go North, to Zambales or South, to Batangas. Both are roughly around 4 hours from Metro Manila.

In December last year, I went to Lobo, Batangas with my closest officemates.

Since my friend, Jay Anne, has an aunt who owns a resort in Lobo; we decided to take a visit there. I've never been to a beach in Batangas so this is something new to me. Just thinking of the sound of the waves made my heart jump in excitement. Also, it was December and it would be nice to take a breather from work.

It takes three to four hours to get to Lobo from Manila. If you want to commute, it will take you to three rides to reach the town proper. First, you need to ride the bus enroute to Batangas pier and get off at Grand Terminal. Then, take a jeepney (Batangas City - Balagtas route) and tell the driver to drop you off at Lobo Jeepney terminal. At Lobo Jeepney Terminal, ride a jeepney bound to Lobo town proper. The long commute is all worthy because Lobo is one of the gems of Batangas.

Our group opted to take a private van though, to avoid the stress of commuting. It also saved us some money since we were a big group.

Rainy December - Because rain and traffic go together

I always try to not fall asleep whenever it is my first time visiting a place, so I did that during our trip. The scenery going to Lobo was beautiful. We drove through zigzag roads. I saw a light house along the way, views of sea by the side, and several ports while my friends were sleeping like babies. Photos below. Haha. They woke up on the good parts though.

Sleep is for the weak but I forgave them because they were tired

Road side view

Gloomy day. This view is just a stone throw away from the highway.

It was drizzling when we arrived at Submarine Garden Beach resort. During that time, the resort was still under renovation but we already saw its beauty. It has a pool and the rooms were clean and spacious. We were the only guests during that time because it was December and they were just at around 80% of completion for their renovation.

My hard working friend, Renz, taken at one of the rooms in the resort. The three rooms that we occupied were all airconditioned, comfortable, clean and spacious. All had ocean view but I forgot to take photos.

How one of the buildings of the resort looked from the beach area. Imagine waking up and seeing through those glass doors the sea.

After settling our travel bags, we already hit the beach for some picture taking while we waited for our lunch to be served. We were famished but the sight of the beach took away that feeling.

We did several photo sessions. Read the captions of the photos to see what happened next on our first day.

The try-not-to-show-your-double-chin angle (unsuccessful)

Beautiful 💕

Unplanned matchy matchy with Sandy

After eating our lunch, we took some rest and prepared our swimming attire for some snorkeling. The resort had snorkeling gears and aqua shoes for rent. So, there is no excuse for missing this activity when you go to Lobo. Marine life is still rich there. Just a few meters from the shore, you'll start seeing colorful fishes and corals. Too bad, I forgot my underwater camera. Forgive me, I have no photos to show.

Sandy, Kristen and me in our rashguards.

Jay Anne in her aqua shoes and life vest. All set for some snorkeling with payong haha.

SGV people in saltwater

A snail taking a stroll along the beach

The resort had kayaks also. FYI. I did great in kayaking. Seriously, I could paddle pretty well.

We saw many starfish while snorkeling and luckily, we found one along the shore. Look at that, soooo beautiful!!

I could still remember how happy I was. That was the first time I got to hold a starfish. Overjoyed!

We ended our long day with a good dinner. Dami ko nakain dyan, feel ko.

We also did Magic Sing: Pataasan ng Score. Siyempre, 'di nanalo ang ate mo. You know naman me, ganda lang! Hahahaha. 😜

On our second day, we took a quick dip at the beach and bid Submarine Garden resort our goodbyes.

Til next time, Submarine Garden Beach Resort

We visited Jay Anne's auntie to thank her for letting us use their resort- see how lucky we were - the first guests after the resort had its new look.

On our way to Auntie Linggit's resthouse, we dropped by Malabrigo Lighthouse. It was oh-so-beautiful. Painted all white with some hints of pink, it was really eye catching. You wouldn't think twice stopping by to take some photo when you stumble into it. Too bad you can't go inside. Just a bit of a background, Malabrigo Lighthouse was built in 1880s and is one of the few remaining lighthouses built during the Spanish-era.

Front view. It looked haunted but beautiful.

Groufie infront of the lighthouse.

After dropping by the lighthouse, we met our host and this was the low tide view infront of their place . Hi, greggy!

Coconut trees lined up!

Because I am maarte and confidently beautiful with a heart

Beyond grateful! Photo with our hosts. 👌👌

Missing this bunch

I'd definitely go back to Submarine Garden Beach Resort. I fell inlove with Lobo. Everything is just perfect.

1) It is just 3-4 hours drive with beautiful view along the way.

2) It still has rich marine life - you can go snorkeling and there are some diving spots nearby.

3) The scenery is picturesque - in fact, Lobo is where Dyesebel was filmed. The rock formations are beautiful and the sea is so calm that you would want to just rest at a hammock all day while reading a book and occassionally staring at the view.

So, if you want calmness and peace from the hustle and bustle of Metro, Lobo is very much worth visiting.

Ps. Thanks Ate Jay for hosting the trip. I miss you.

Love,

C

Opening Entry

This is my first blog post- still thinking what to write pero 'di na ako mag-inarte pa, so here it goes. 
It took me quite sometime, around four hours, to think of a domain name. Besh, ang hirap 'pag wala kang creative juices. Based on my research, if you want to have a personal blog - it is better if you put a part of you in it (something that you like, something that describes you etc.) Since, I am now working as an auditor, I thought of bringing some accounting spice into my site. Here are some names that I came up with:

• rainbowadventures - 'cause obviously I love rainbows but I think it's too girly so I scrapped it.
• theonewhereshewrites / theonewherecamillewrites - I like this one. Friends-inspired but the first one is already taken, while I find the next one too long.
• jounalentrybyC - Then, I started putting accounting touch into it. I find journalentrybyc too serious naman. 

I actually wanted to come up with something that would encompass my daily life (food, random thoughts and rantings, travel, new learnings).
Light-bulb moment. Why not use 'wander'. It then became herwanderjournal and to my surprise, the domain name is not yet taken. Feeling genius talaga ako during that time. Ako unang nakaisip nun. I'm such a brilliant human being. I decided to use the word journal because in accounting, a journal aka book of original  entry is a record of financial transactions in order by date. It is in line with the future entries in this blog, my thoughts (sad or happy),travels, dreams and aspiration - my life journey.
In fact, I have kept a written diary the past years. I would be nicer though if I could add pictures so writing a blog is more efficient.
Not expecting hundreds of people to read this. But if someone stumbles here, I hope he/she would like it. Can't wait to share my thoughts and read blogs of others too. I like talking to people and learning their stories. Most of the time, I ask a lot of questions and I get brilliant ideas - facts that I don't know yet; things I can relate to. Sometimes, I get answers I don't expect- those stupid/nonsense ones, those I don't agree with, those thoughts different from mine but are worth sharing. They aren't gold but they are something. Amazing feeling when people open up to me and share their thoughts with me, it's like seeing a rainbow or watching the sunset- always a good feeling.
I hope I also bring rainbows to other people's life.
Love,
C