Tambaron Island

expect the unexpected. as cliche as it may seems, this place surprised us with so much beauty and hidden paradise. we hadn't thought about it until it was right in front of us. this is a last minute trip, we just wanted to be away from stressful urban lifestyle for awhile and bum around as always. 

my college batchmate, Jane, was our key to this one of a kind experienced. she invited us to come and we said yes, and the breathtaking wonderment has begun. 

brief intro on how to get here, there's no other way but the usual way, known by everybody, batangas-calapan it is! from calapan port ride a van going to roxas, then ride another one, roxas to bulalacao. then you need to ride tricycle going to port, then motor boat straight to the island. it'll take 10-11 hours of travel from manila. Ooopss, dont get discouraged.. it's all worth it. 

Tambaron Island is one of the scattered island in Oriental Mindoro, located along the off coast of Bulalacao, the southernmost part of the province. with the help of Mr. Fajardo, president of Bulalacao Tourism Council  and also the owner of tambaron green beach resort, we explored this virtually untouched island and beach. 

mr. fajardo gave us reasonable rate considering that we are one of their few guests that time. P350.00 each for lodging and P250.00 in every meal. we didn't pay for the resort/island - it's all inclusive in the above mentioned rate (i dont know why haha). any other expenses includes boat ride for island tour, try to reach Mang Armelito - 09487319123. 

He owns the boat and also tricycle. It only cost us P350.00 each for his entire services. We weren't able to squeeze in the island tour because we didn't have much time but we went to the other side of the island, to swim and photo ops. 

ramdom pictures.. it took so long to upload, so please bear with it :)

if you are into soul searching or want to be alone, this is a perfect place to be. peaceful ambiance, very serene and no access to the city life -at all. Upon searching i found out that Bulalacao is now starting to get famous for backpacker tourist. And they call it virgin Boracay of the Philippines, so before it became too popular... might as well, travel NOW :)

 we've met Dianne & Haritz, backpackers who enjoyed and explored our country for 3weeks. it always been nice to talk to someone who is genuinely amazed by the beauty of our own islands.

our country is truly beautiful. be proud. take advantage of it but never for granted.

Contact Details: 
Mr. Fajardo - 09298937871
Manila Number: 02 7812306

Other Contact in Bulalacao:
Care Taker - Enzo/ Indak and Kuya Benny : 09213289269

Cebu

again, this is a late post. been neglecting this for so long already, and i didn't realize that until a friend of mine told me that my blog is so outdated. haha. true! coz my last post here was last year. hopefully i can make atleast 2 today.

in all honesty, i am not that excited to go to this place. yes, it is one of the popular place and many local celebrities and businessmen are from here. hence, this is like manila, region's business center, very crowded and like any-other cities, it is expensive!

and you know my trip, i prefer a place with serenity. rich in culture and close to nature. so when my friend booked a flight and decided to go here, i let her do all the works, from researching to beach hunting. trip nya to so panindigan nya hehe :)

that's her, in-charged of everything. Jamie

we ended-up to Anika Beach Resort in Bantayan Island. yes, we were beach bummer, we had no plans to go on a side trip or a city tour. besides we stayed for 3days only. From mactan airport, it took us 4-5 more hours to be in bantayan. bus & roro in between. we chose anika simply because it is new and we saw laureen uy's post in instagram! haha. no really, it was the good reviews from diff. travel blogs that brought us here.

all rooms are made of improvised container vans, each has tv, refrigerator, shower room and 1 bed, it also has veranda with table and chairs. there's no wifi, you can access their wifi in restaurant area, only. apologies, i can't remember all the rates, but i think, the room cost us less than P2,000 per night. all rooms are near the beach so don't bother staying in sunrise or garden view room, kasi isang tumbling lang.. beach na, i swear!

it is not that spacious but it's cute and we had no complains for the accommodation. the room rate is good for 2, extra person will charge you P300.00.  (i don't think they have family room, but you may occupy rooms side-by-side if you're on a family trip) 

it was off-season when we were there, meaning, rainy dayss! gloomy all day but didn't experienced heavy rains with thunderstorm and everything. it was ok, we prepared ourselves for this, actually we prepared for worst but Anika gave us the opposite. the beach is alluring, clean and blue, the shore is perfect, white powdery sand checked. the sea port is visible from the beach yet it has no effect in the water, it gives more drama pa nga when you take a picture of it. 

we were too lazy to avail any activities but the resort has more to offer, visit their site. just like any bummer, eat-swim-eat-eat was our thing. here are some of the pictures of the shore line and all others.. 

one afternoon we decided to had our lunch out of the resort. we took a pedicab, P20.00 each. we didn't know where to go so we let the pedicab driver decides haha. well then, worth the risk, he brought us in HR Native Restaurant. the combination of delicious foods and cheap rates made our day!

this trip cost us P5,000 each (airfare not included). the resort, as you observed, did not fail us. staffs are accommodating and kind. in their restaurant, sometimes our order took so long, but not a big deal coz the foods are great and prices are conservative. overall, it deserves good review! 

travel no limit and have a happy feet :) 

Samal Island

they say, your trip to davao is not complete if you don't get to visit samal island. so we gave a shot. haha, ok seriously, that was the only concrete plan we had :)

we are all beach lovers. so this is impossible not to include in our itinerary. however, we didn't get any reservations. what we did was, when we were in davao city already, we searched for possible resort. our initial plan (in mind) was to stay in pearl farm, but since all of us were lazy enough to get an advance reservation, our only prospect resort wasn't able to accommodate us, fully booked indeed. luckily, we found on the spot alternative, another peaceful ambiance in the name of Chema's by the Sea Resort.