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