3/28/08

Our bonfire was a an abundant supply of fallen palm leaves and dried up, beached seaweeds.

Kuya Kolet: “Baliwala naman yang mga ahas. Hindi naman nila kayang gumalaw sa buhangin.”

Leia: “Eh bakit sa Discovery Channel o kaya sa National Geographic kaya nila.”

Rex: “Sa desyerto pa nga eh!”

Kuya Kolet: “Ah, ganun ba?”

Ced: “Hayaan niyo na, mas malaki naman tayo sa kanila eh.”

Rex: “Diba takot sila apoy?”

Ced: “Ewan. Diba na-a-attract nga sila sa init?”

Time for socials a.k.a. drinks. Being the cheapskates that we were, we burned our throats with none other than 2 bottles of GSM 4×4! It was a good thing that Kuya Kolet didn’t drink, but I think it he had a hard time sleeping because we were too noisy.

And because we noticed we lacked group pics, we shot some. I mean we shot alot.

Four Drunks and An Abused Inflatable Red Horse.

It was a long and fun night to say the least. We were more presentable / web-worthy the following morning. Here we are basking in the morning glow.

Here are some photos of our campsite and us breaking camp.

And a final shot of Snake Island.

I know I’ll be back.

Snake Island or BUST!

3/28/08

Another white sand beach discovery! In one of our YM conferences before this trip, I suggested that we visit Brgy. Tambobong which is a distant coastal community in the town of Dasol. After seeing some of the pics on the net, we agreed that this would be our campsite for our second night.

From the national highway, we turned into a small street with a marker that said “Tambobong Beach 22 Km.”

Well that wasn’t too far. We’ve been driving around for around 2 days already, how hard would an additional 22 kilometers be? I thought.

A bit hard because almost all of the 22 kilometers were made of rocks and dirt. And we were getting real hungry!

Pulling into Brgy. Tambobong, we immediately noticed the abundance of pumpboats which was very distracting and somewhat disappointing since the shore was really good and the waters were clean, clear and sandy.

Out in the distance, we sighted a small island with a clean stretch of white sand hugging its chores and about 6 or 7 palms standing tall. This was Snake Island, we were told. Back in the day, the wizened Brgy. Captain told us that a thriving community of snakes lived on the island and were notorious in coming out in the night, most probably to feed. The Kapitan even went on recalling how he served as Noli De Castro’s (currently the Vice President of the R.P.) guide when he was still hosting Magandang Gabi Bayan (MGB) a weekly magazine show on ABS-CBN.

We asked if travelers regularly camped on Snake Island. They said NO.

With this, we loaded our stuff into a well-sized pumpboat and sailed on to Snake Island. We resisted camping in a residential area. Para kaming naghahanap ng pasakit sa buhay.

Again, I missed out on the sunset but the memory of this huge ball of light dipping into the South China Sea, of our boat see-sawing to the pouncing waves, of the salty wind in our face, will not be forgotten.

After setting-up camp, the moon emerged from the clouds and threw this blue-purple cast all around.

We practically had the whole island to ourselves. Which was eerie and at the same time exciting.

Again. I am overwhelmed.

F*ck the snakes. We would deal with that thought later on.

Oh. And don’t you just love the word “Tambobong” ? How soft the sound escapes your lips. How bouncy. Say it with me. “Tambobong, Tambobong, Tambobong.”

You’re saying it aren’t you?