Kalanggaman Island, Philippines

One rainy afternoon of daydreaming and scrolling through Instagram, I happened upon a Philippine store selling kaleidoscope-coloured circular beach towels. The account was really no different to the majority of store pages you find on Instagram today. It used customer photos shot in beautiful locations to curate their site of perfect little squares, for both followers and stumble-across-ers alike to dream of hopping into the photo to lie amongst the pearly white beaches and crystal-clear waters. I look at Instagram a lot and I dream of visiting photo locations all the time, often print-screening in the hope that one day I can visit. But upon scrolling through this account, there was one beach that looked different from the rest. The girl was resting on a white sand bar of perhaps 4 meters wide, with the current swirling the turquoise waters either side; it looked magical. Instantly, I sent the photo to Ben and said ‘we have to go’. And like that, the boy made it happen.

Our flight to the Philippines was already booked, but we really had no idea where we were going. After some research, we found that it was pretty difficult to get around the country. The transport links are fine, but with 7107 islands, each journey would involve numerous flights, ferries, and bus journeys, particularly if you wanted to visit a remote and inhabited island such as Kalanggaman. But it was decided and we would be going!

Kalanggaman is one short boat ride away from Palompon, Leyte. To get to Palompon, you must go via Cebu or Tacloban, both of which have routes that fly direct from Manila. From Cebu, there are two options, which both involve taking a ferry; one route is less regular but arrives directly in Palompon and the other arrives at Ormoc, a 2-hour van journey to Palompon. We chose to fly to Tacloban, the city that was devastingly destroyed during Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013. In fact, when we visited Kalanggaman we made a friend in Mark, a typhoon-survivor, who recounted the terrifying chain of events that shattered his community and his family. From Tacloban, we squished on board the small van to Palompon. During the journey we saw the damage that still remained and the temporary shelters that 2 years on residents were still calling ‘home’.

Once we arrived in Palompon, it was 5.30pm and the city was surrounded by darkness as night had already begun to fall. The early nightfall is always unexpected; I thought that sunsets in Asia would occur a lot later due to the levels of sunshine and experience of long summer days in England, where the sun does not set until late in the evening. We followed the light from the bustling night market until we found the large, canary yellow Eco Tourism office. It is only through this office that you can visit Kalanggaman; they organise all the trips to ensure the island remains pristine and they were well equipped to help us. This was largely surprising as the town was not at all touristy, clear by the way in which we were greeted, wide-eyed, by each and every local. Although our time in the Phillipines so far has shown us that the people are kind, friendly, and hospitable, here they were completely taken by our skin, height, and my blonde hair.

We booked onto a boat for the following morning and with no accommodation booked for that evening, and no Wi-Fi access, we wandered outside into the dimly lit streets to find somewhere to rest our sleepy heads. There were a grand total of 2 accommodation options for travellers in Palompon. The Pacci Hotel, which had one dormitory room left, and Traveller’s Inn, which had a spare and overpriced box-room, equipped with ‘small’ double bed and air conditioning. This was ‘small’ by Philippine standards and definitely not fit for a couple with a combined height of 12ft. But beggars can’t be choosers.

After a surprisingly comfortable night sleep (it appears we were really tired), we quickly packed our bags and headed back to the tourism office. We were amply warned that Kalanggaman, as an uninhabited island, had no shops to purchase food or drinking water. With very little effort in us to prepare and cook any sort of creation that would slightly resemble a meal, we stocked up on bananas from the market, fresh bread and chocolate spread: a nutritious combination.

In order to get to Kalanggaman, you must charter a boat for 3000php, which will wait for you until you want to return back to mainland. The boat fits 15 people, so naturally we decided to wait until the larger group who had also booked to visit the island arrived so that we could share the cost. The group arrived and decided that Ben and I should pay the most per person, as it was essentially their chartered boat we were joining. This meant contributing 250php (£3.50) each and with a train ride along Southend-on-Sea Pier costing £3.80, we thought it a worthy expenditure. But joining their boat also meant we were restricted by when they wanted to return, and as nobody fancied an overnight Island stay, we would have to leave at 4pm that afternoon. Acknowledging our keenness to stay overnight on the Island, the tourism office explained that they would provide anybody who turned up with the same intention throughout the day with a spare tent for us to stay the night, and thus we set sail secretly hoping that this would be the case.

The loaded wooden catamaran sailed the 1-hour journey, colliding with the restless waves, which produced quite a splash. Ben who ‘took one for the team’ and sat up front, ended up wearing goggles (he looked fantastic). Lucky travellers will tell you that dolphins can often be spotted during the ride, but perhaps for us the goggle-wearing boy scared them off. As the island came into sight, we were in awe of its small but perfectly formed beauty. It stretched across 300 meters with topaz waters wrapping the white sandy edges. Palm trees added life to the island’s center and a few open-air wooden huts dotted the shore, which would provide us with shelter for the duration of our stay.

We spent that afternoon swimming, reading, walking around the Island and along the sandbar, and for Ben, eating a lot of chocolate banana sandwiches. Frankly there really isn’t anything else to do; but it was bliss. The magic of the sandbar was not even lost at high tide, as it did not disappear in its entirety. Instead, you could walk across the immaculate white carpet with the crystal waves breaking perpendicularly across one another, layering up from the left and the right.

There is signal on the island for those with Philippine SIM cards, but for us the lack of any distractions meant that we could completely soak up the surroundings and just enjoy our time together. Fortunately for us, and our hopes to extend our stay, a few others joined us on the island bringing with them an extra tent. We got to stay and watch the salmon coloured sunset, gaze at the shooting stars, and wake up with sunrise. That evening, as we watched a family of 12 pitch up their tent for the night, with the 3 youngest boys playing on kayaks and with a football, we dreamt of how fun it would be to bring our families and friends here.

We were ready for bed as soon as the sun had set at 6, but we made some friends and therefore had to pretend we didn’t normally go to bed so early. We sat around laughing on an Island where the noise we were making was the only noise heard for miles. We finally decided to go to bed at what seemed like midnight, but really it was only 9pm. Our sleep was a tad restless; it was a little hot in the tent and incredibly windy outside, and the hours passed feeling like our tent would suddenly be blown off of the ground. But as 5am came, we woke up naturally and poked our heads out of the tent to watch the sun rise beyond the distant mountains. The air was still and the Island felt quiet and peaceful.

Our second day was much a repeat of the first. Swimming, reading, and again more chocolate banana sandwiches for Ben. Our friends were amply prepared and ate grilled fish with rice, a traditional Filipino breakfast, but in the heat we passed this offer and stuck to our bananas. We were blessed with perfect sunshine over our two-day stay. It was hot, but the ocean provided an idyllic means to cool us down. Just moments before we left, the heavens opened and we sat in our hut watching as the rain fell around us.

We climbed back onto the boat shortly after 2pm, as the sun returned and the waters began to calm. Our journey back was far less wet but still, to my disappointment, there were no dolphin sightings. As we sailed away from the island, we watched as the palm trees got smaller and smaller on the horizon, and the large yellow Eco Tourism office grew even larger, marking our return to civilisation. Back on mainland, the office was helpful as ever, allowing us to shower before we embarked on our next long journey. We decided that our next stop would be Bohol, a 2-hour van ride and 2 ferry trips away. So off we went, ready to spend the next 18 hours travelling, eagerly anticipating our next adventure.