Mindoro – White Beach
Back onto the jeepney to leave Sabang, I wasn’t too upset about leaving the place behind. We had squeezed every good drop out of the place and were exposed to the odd nasty one aswell. White beach isn’t too far away, with a combination of the fantastic jeepney and a spin on a trike the three of us found ourselves stood in the middle of the whitebeach strand on a sunday afternoon – the locals version of mothers day. It was swamped, this isn’t what we wanted. We wanted quiet, seclusion – the only noise we wanted to hear was waves lapping or wind blowing through coconut trees, creaking hammock strings (You get the picture)…. Alice had a plan though, she’s crafty. Before she left manila she got talking to some people in the guesthouse who explored this side of the world before. In her journal they had drawn her a pretty crude looking map that would take us to a beach not too far away but far enough to repell the lazy day tripper. Sounded like just the plan. Plus I am always up for a bit of an adventure. Bags on the back, under a blistering philippino sun we took on down the beach in the general direction of this hidden gem.
Christ it was one hell of a walk, it took over an hour walking on sand with the biggest bloody bulk of a backpack cutting inches into my already sunburnt shoulders. Bad enough as the sand was we had to scale two headlands, there was a third but sweating the way I was I just threw the bag on my head and walked through the water to reach the other side. Once around this final obstacle we were there. A beautiful beach with all the trappings I described before and the added bonus of dirt cheap accomodation. We got ourselves some food and a hammock.
Bobby is an incredibly talented boy, he has a cult following at home through his music and comedy pastimes. Its readily available on the internet but because his act is incognito he regularly finds himself or at least friends of his do walking along the street so limerick when a car or a stereo nearby starts blasting out a bit of his work. That is his pastime though, for a living he works as a model maker for films and tv. He is just one of those people who can make anything out of very little. While sitting in the hammocks, peering out to the bay he was fascinated by the design of the catamaran. Within 10 minutes he had a perfect model built with coconut leaves and bits of wood that lay about the place. He gave the boat to some kids playing by the shore who adored it, they were still playing with it when we left a couple of days later…
There are about 4 bars on this beach, all with accommodation and food making facilities. ll except one are owned by the one family, the straw one is owned by them aswell but leased out to an australian man who liked the look of the place 16 years ago and never left. They got to know us pretty well pretty fast. There was a big party on for whatever reason I am not sure, it was the night before my birthday so we were having a few drinks. A few too many as it happened as my memories are a little sketchy of what went on. I remember having a great time and talking to loads of people though.
The next day as I fell out of bed I took a walk down to the shore for a dip before going for some breakfast. ‘Happy Birthday Phil!!’ Shouts this young lad – didn’t recognise him though thanked him profusely. ‘Happy Bday Phil!!’ another guy. I sat down for breakfast – ‘ Theres the Birthday boy!’ I even got a kiss of the mammy of the house. Everyone of them must have been at the party the previous night, not one of them forgot. It really endeared me to them. It was something that turned out to be a very common philippino trait, the people here are so sweet. They are so so so nice. They treat you like one of their own without wanting anything in exchange. It takes alot of effort to get off the beaten track, its assumed that you want to go to certain places where you will be exploited for the maximum amount of dollars but staying away from such places is a worthwhile venture, its something we learnt the hardway but we’re certainly glad because it gives us a much better perspective on the country. If I had only have visited manila and sabang I would’ve hated the country purely for the way that it makes you feel.
The rest of my birthday was pretty tame, didn’t drink much more than a couple of beers before hitting the sack. Did all the damage the previous night. Behind tamaraw beach is a pretty impressive mountain, we were told there was a waterfall halfway up to the summit so when we summoned the energy to go explore we took to the hills. The weather had turned pretty bad at this stage, it rained all day every day. Taking to the jungle might not have been the wisest choice in the world but luckily enough the path up was reasonably clearly marked, every now and again it was necessary to jump into the stream and walk up through it. We past through some tribal villages which was cool, each villager eager to point us on the right path. The jungle was cool, the sheer greeness off it all was almost blinding, my sandals were really slippy though so the going for me was quite slow. I had to revert to moving on my bum as a fall in that neck of the woods (excuse the pun) would’ve been pretty nasty and getting out would’ve been a whole lot worse. We made it in one piece. the water was cold. Like swimming in sheelin, but with the added bonus of a pretty awesome powershower at one end.
Back to the village for one more night before hitting the mainland again. Our time now is tight, there are two major major must do things to do on the mainland. We had only enough room for one. We either travel to the extreme south east of the country to a place called Donsol with the hope of swimming with the largest fish in the world, the whale shark! Or we head up north to see what the locals refer to as the 8th wonder of the world – the rice terraces (I think that title gets bandied around waay too much, people down deise way would have you believe Dan Shanahan was the 8th wonder, Ken Mcgrath the 9th….).
Tune in later to see which one we went for,
Later,
Phil
Tags: mindoro, philippines, puerto galera, tamaraw
Phil Gill
Bobby is my hero! :0) Off to Cardiff for weekend. Mail ya monday!! x
Delighted you had a nice birthday and I had a sub mammy to give you a hug. All well here. talk soon l
xxx Mam.