Mindoro – Sabang
And so we made our way down to mindoro. It is the island immediately south of luzon which is the main philippino island. The best way to get there is to take a direct bus all the way down to batangas pier 3 hours south of manila before getting the 1-2 hour ferry across from there to Puerto Galera. But of course things didn’t work out that simple. The public buses in philippines are all privately owned, so instead of one central bus aras type effort where all buses go to and from, every bus company has their own station serving a different destination. That leaves a couple of dozen bus stations. Finding the right one would probably have been a total pain in the backside but we wouldn’t know anything about that as the one we found was the wrong one. The only thing we got right was that we got a bus heading south.
To solve the problem we ended up having to jump on two more buses and a tricycle to get us to the port. It was pushing on 6 o’clock and the chances of there being a boat for us was getting slim. Upon getting off the bike we were met with a barage of local touts proclaiming their utter disappointment that we had missed the last boat to the island, we decided to have a look inside the port just to be sure, always better to see stuff with your own eyes as the last boat to mindoro was sitting plump at the pier primed for two pink skinned paddies. We caught the sunset over the south china sea on the way over and it was stunning. When we arrived in the harbour we sat down for our first meal of the day, twas after 7. Ridiculously famished, we devoured a pizza before deciding where to go next.
So out with the lonely planet – where to stay, what to do? The first thing I read ‘Mindoro has 1 atm which is 3 hours away from puerto galera, buses only run during the day’… We had less than 8 euro between us, rooms were running at 10 euro a night. Should really have read the book on the bus down, there were plenty of atms at the port we had just left. We took a spin on the back of a bike to the small village of Sabang which is now a major diving destination and also a favourite haunt of dirty old men coming to find young female companionship. It took a serious amount of irish charm and persuasion to get the girl behind to the counter to waive a deposit until the next day at least, it worked thank god. We settled into the Big Apple resort which had a pool, had enough money for 1 beer before going to bed.
The trip to the atm was something special, more than special it was one of the highlights of the trip so far. The atm is in a town called calapan 60 km south of Puerto Galera. Local transport is in the form of a jeepney, I love the jeepney, I adore the jeepney!! Basically they are like little mini vans that do the smaller runs around the philippines and are the closest thing the country has to a coherent public transport system. They are mad looking yokes, the original ones are old us army jeeps abandoned after the second world war by the us adapted so they can hold about 20 people out the back. They look like something that the a-team would put together. On this particular morning we had to take 2 spins, the first was just a short hop up to Puerto Galera, the second was the whopper trip.
As we walked up to the jeepney terminus in PG we noticed that there was just one jeepney left going to calapan and that it was packed. We had to get to the atm, we were flat broke. The driver said, ye can ride on top if you want…. we didn’t need to be asked twice. Up we got and off we went, holding on for dear life. What a way to see the island, countless numbers of beautiful bays with golden sand and the bluest of blue waters surrounded by the thickest jungle you could imagine. The road quickly deteriorated and became little more than a dirt track which made life pretty hard on the posterior but was an assault on all other senses. You had to be careful to avoid stray branches, though looking at the tropical bays I got slapped more than once. Halfways to calapan we came across a waterfall. It had pools on two levels, it looked savage – the jeepney simply drove right down thru the middle of the two of them, no roads, just a flat bit enough to get the vehicle across. Class stuff. We arrived into calapan eventually, to took the guts of 3 hours but what a trip it was. Sensory overload, it felt as if I had just played a massive football match, the adrenaline was pumping, couldn’t stop giggling about how feckin cool that just was, Dangerous yes, probably but its a common way for people to travel here and you know when in rome etc etc.
On the trip back we rode inside, the light was fading and the mosquitos were out in force. Back at base camp we were able to pay for our accomodation, get some grub and book ourselves a snorkling trip for the next day. Alice arrived soon afterwards so there were 3 of us for the next week or so till she had to go and catch her flight back to Thailand. After some fierce bargaining we arranged a 3 hour snorkling trip for the next day from 2 to 5, leave us enough room for a bit of a sleep in – which as you should all know is never far from the top of my considerations.
I spent the rest of my morning sitting around the pool and diving off the ridiculous diving board into the ridiculously deep swimming pool, the owner of the resort came over to me and said that he was taking a few mates over to puerto galera on his speedboat for a game of poker and asked if we wanted to go with them and use his boat for our snorkling trip, it would mean leaving an hour earlier. I said, feck it shure never have been on a speed boat, twould be a pity to pass it up. I rounded up the troops and off we went. The sea was choppy enough so alot of our time in dropping the people off was spent trying to keep stuff dry rather than take in any scenery.
After we dropped them off it was just myself, alice, bobby and the driver – a young lad called carlos on the boat. As we gently headed off into the bay, I said to carlos, half joking ‘Can I have a go driving the boat?’, Haven’t driven a car in my life let alone a speedboat on the south china sea.’ Yes Sir, of course Sir’ and he showed me the way to the steering wheel and the trottle. Pedal to the metal, screw snorkling we have a speed boat!!!! Savage stuff, tearing around the bays, the same ones we saw the day before from the elevated confines of the jeepney roof. We took turns doing our best miami vice impressions, stopping occasionally to go for a quick snorkle (which in itself was beautiful, if anyone asks I have found nemo!!!).
We could’ve ridden that speedboat all day and into the night but the petrol ran out and we had to take it back into port, in the middle of the bay in puerto galera though are two rather unique bars. Floating bars, they are about 200 yards out in the bay and the only way to get to them is either swim out or just jump on the free ferry out. These bars had waterslides and diving platforms, we spent hours jumping or sliding off each of them. Typhoon season has kicked in a little earlier than expected, as we sat at the bar we saw a whirlwind form off the neighbouring island and move swiftly over to the next one. It was a scary sight, we sat there and ordered another beer thanking the heavens that it was the heavens way over there in a swirl and not the ones over our own heads. The sun went down and the bar closed. We took the party back to more solid grounds.
And that was pretty much sabang, we stayed another day were we ate loads and drank none, read an entire book and plotted an escape away from what is a perverts paradise. Our best times there as you have read were away from the main drag, we had to get away from it. On the other side of the peninsula lies the allegedly quieter white beach, figured it was the best place to pass my birthday….
Thanks for all the bday greetings by the way…
Ciao,
Phil
Tags: mindoro, philippines, Sabang
Phil Gill
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