The Great Visayan Adventure Part 3: Day 2 - Palompon and Kalanggman Island

By kyela - 9/03/2016 12:39:00 PM

Sept 3, 2016, 5am

It was an early wake-up call for us because we were targeting 7am as our check-out time from Go Hotels to reach the Tacloban City Land Transport Terminal by 7:30. We prepped all our things and by 6am we were at Zilog (across Robinson's Tacloban) for breakfast.

Off to breakfast


Zilog is open 24 hours

Kapeng matapang. Yung kaya ka ipaglaban.


Tapsilog.

We went back to the hotel to check out and rode a jeep going to the van terminal downtown. Fare is 8.00 pesos. When we got there an empty van with thw signboard: Palompon/Villaba was already on stanby. Since were only 8, we had to wait a while for the van to be filled. Van fare is 150.00 pesos and travel time is 3 hours.

Photos from @pmjbernardo

It was already around noon when we reached the Palompon Eco Tourism Office and we had to look for Ms. Jane, who was our contact from Carpe Diem Tours. We were asked to register and then we were shown the way to the boat which will take us to Kalanggaman Island. Travel time to Kalanggaman island: 1 hour 30 minutes.

Photo by @pmjbernardo

Briefing by a tourism officer


All smiles as we got a closer view of Kalanggaman Island

Crystal clear waters. Photo by @url_eleven

Kalanggaman Island is famous for its stretch of white sand and crystal clear blue waters. During low tide, 2 beautiful sandbars can be seen on both sides of the island. It is a virgin island, therefore accommodations come in the form of cottages and tents (if you want to stay overnight). We got an overnight package from Carpe Diem Tours which included the roundtrip boat transfers, 3 meals (lunch, dinner and breakfast the next day), drinking water, entrance fess, tents and bath water.The experience was unsatisfactory, especially the food. But I will not get into that anymore. Here are some tips instead:

There is no electricity on the island, make sure to bring powerbanks to charge your gadgets
Mobile network signal is intermittent but is strong at sea (I could even facebook on the way to the island. lol)
There are 2 public comfort rooms; one for dressing only, the other one to shower. No running water. There is a well but the water coming out is also from the ocean. Not ideal if you want to rinse salt water.
Cottage rental is 500.00 pesos. We decided to rent one because it was scorching hot when we arrived and staying in the tents will just fry us and our things.
The tents provided did not have pegs, flys and ground sheets. Libre star-gazing pag gabi kasi butas yung ibabaw nung tent. Horror lang kapag umulan. Buti nalang girl scout ako and I brought garbage bags. We used them as tent flys secured by TLC's band aids. :) Rainproof!
The drinking water we were given was in a 5 gallon container meant for a water dispenser, not even the squarish type that had a faucet. Were they expecting us to stick a straw on it and drink from it directly? The horror. We had to improvise a funnel by cutting a 1 liter distilled water bottle in half in order to refill our smaller water bottles. It pays to travel with girl scouts.
Bring a flashlight. Although, light posts are turned on at night, it helps to have a flashlight to find your way to the bathroom when you need to go. Also helpful inside the tent.
The tourism officer provided us with 2 garbage bags, one for biodegrable wastes and one for non-biodegrables. I like how their wastes are segregated and how tourists are encouraged to do the same.
You have a better view of the sunset by going to the back of the island. Sunrise, of course, happens on the opposite side.

I remember asking the boat men if they can help set up the tents for us and one of them nodded. But the next thing I know, they were already walking back towards the boat, ready to leave. No goodbye, no nothing. But being the girl scouts that we were, we put up the tents ourselves, sans pegs and flys. We were determined to make the most out of this trip despite the setbacks.

We spent the afternoon swimming in the super clear waters and taking mandatory photos on the sandbar. Everywhere is just instagram-able on this island!

And then it was time to catch the sunset..

The path to the back of the island

After supper, (again, I do not wish to talk about the food) we washed up using our allotted bath water (5-gallon container per person) and got changed. You have no idea how refreshing it was to finally take a half bath after soaking up on salt water and sun and wind the whole day.

But the highlight of the day was seeing the Milkyway that evening. I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE STARS SO BEAUTIFULLY STREWN ACROSS THE SKY. My cousin took the photo below but you have to believe me when I say that it's 10x more amazing in person!