Hundred Islands Adventure

June 12 is Independence Day and my long weekend was spent with very close friends as we headed up north to Alaminos, Pangasinan on an early Friday morning. The main objective of the trip is to test drive Nonoy's new car but bonding and activity was, of course, not to be taken for granted.

We were supposed to be 7 in the group, Nonoy, Marlow, Vincent, Chill, Aileen, Lem and I. Lem and I were supposed to take a public bus bound to Alaminos, Pangasinan, a 5-6 hrs land trip from Manila. However, Aileen backed out so the six of us just tried to squeeze ourselves in Nonoy's car. It was good that Honda Civic is so spacious. And so we fit in the car--- 2 in front and 4 stayed at the back seat.

We left Manila at around 7 am and reached Alaminos, Pangasinan before 2pm. That is of course including the long stop-overs and the adventures in finding the correct route. Once we reached the Alaminos town proper, we headed to the Lucap Wharf first to check out reservations for our accommodation in the Islands. Rates of the package we took for the activity are as follows:

• Park Entrance Fee: P40 per pax
• Boat ride to island: P1,800 (medium-size boat good for 6-10 pax, overnight), including 20-minute stop-over to 3 islands) + P1000 additional fee to stop over any island of your choice
• Accommodation at Quezon Island: P1,800 overnight, inclusive of electricity from 6pm to 6am, with beddings and a wall fan
• Extra utility water: P100 per container
• phone charging fee: P50
  
• Others: extra mat @ P400; service for cooking 1 kg rice @ P50, but costs P150 if you don't bring your own rice; service for cooking 1kg of fish @ P400; 1 can of softdrinks @ P40, etc.
• Utensils: P1,000 (inclusive of gas stove, plates, spoon and fork, drinking glasses, 1 knife, 1 pot, 1 pan + free container of utility water
• Big cooler for storing fresh goods: P50 (we negotiated from P250 to P50)
• Snorkling gear: P1000 (standard rate is P350 per set but we bargained at P1000 for 6 sets excluding the beach shoes)

Total cost for our overnight trip reached around P1,300 per pax, excluding transportation and toll fees. Total transportation cost for 1 car (Los Banos-Pangasinan-Los Banos) costs around P2500 and P700 for the fuel and toll fees (using SCTEX but not Skyway), respectively. If you will take the public bus via Victory Liner, fare is P381, one way from Cubao to Alaminos, Pangasinan. These were the approximate expenses we had.

We really were not prepared for the trip for it was only finalized 2 days before June 12. Considering that all of us were busy, details on the activities of the trip were not prepared. We were not able to research how to go about the islands, what activities could be done there, if food is available in the islands, if there is electricity, if we could stay overnight, etc... and so everything became a survival adventure.

Right after inquiring about the rates, we drove back to the town proper to take our late lunch at the "carinderia" in front of the municipal hall. It's good that everybody can speak Tagalog :).

After a quick lunch, we headed towards the mall nearby to buy something from the supermarket. It was suprising to know that this mall has no supermarket inside the building. However, there is a door at the basement heading towards the wet market. Having no other choice, we just bought our food from the wet market at the basement of the building---fresh fish, salted eggs, hotdogs, fruits, raw rice, bread, cooking oil, etc. and other utilities such as drinking water, charcoal, ice and a lighter with a flashlight (P10 only!) After that, we headed back to the Lucap Wharf and loaded our things, including the utensils and snorkling gear, to the boat. Finally, we're on our way to the Islands!

Quezon Island

After a 20-25 minutes calm boatride with lots of nice sceneries of the Hundred Islands, we finally reached Quezon Island, the island where we will spend our night at. We waited for around 3o minutes for check-in for somebody is still occupying the nipa hut. After checking in, we started to prepare our dinner---roasted fresh fish, "ensaladang talong" with green mangoes, tomatoes and salted egg, freshly cooked rice, fresh bananas and soft drinks. Take note... very limited utility water is available and so Chill and I, the housemaids, used sea water to wash our kitchen and eating utensils, and to clean the fresh fish and just rinsing them with the utility water. And imagine, no rinsing water is available for taking a bath! Chill and I used up around 3 liters of water to rinse ourselves after soaking at the beach. It was really a survival adventure in the island!

After the dinner, Chill and I, decided to plunge to the cool sea water surrounding Quezon Island. Relaxing is the essential part of the activity. As Chill and I enjoyed the calm waves, the houseboys were chatting while looking after us. They already had their beach bath while Chill and I were preparing dinner and so they didn't want to join us anymore. Suddenly, they discovered luminous spots on the sand and sea water. Amazed and curious, Chill and I also took a look at these creatures. They seem to be luminous fish eggs (?) that glow in the dark after being exposed to some light. After discovering the luminous creatures, Chill and I just soaked ourselves in the water for less than an hour while chatting. After that, we did our limited-water rinse just inside our hut.

Since we planned to wake up early for the island hopping the following morning, we tried to get to sleep at around 9pm. By 9:30, 6 of us were already settled inside our small studio-type nipa hut. However, we struggled to go to sleep because of the noise happening outside. Our neighbors were enjoying playing the guitar, singing, chatting, laughing, while the other is screaming because she saw a cockroach somewhere in their table. However, all of us woke up early the following morning with individual funny stories of their experiences during that night.

Picture-taking was the priority on that early morning of June 13. The nice sunrise was there. Our boatmen came at 6 am, as agreed but we were set to leave by 7 am. Our sumptous breakfast of rice, bread, fried "daing na bangus", instant pancit canton, and coffee gave us energy the whole morning. This time, Marlow and Noy prepared the breakfast! :D They also fried hotdogs as packed lunch and decided to cook rice in another island for lunch. After eating, we checked out, packed our things into the the boat, took the last pictures around Quezon Island then headed up to the Marcos Island for the second destination.

By the way, we will never forget the customer service of Mang Jay, the housekeeper and mayordomo of the nipa hut where we stayed. He really was so hospitable and approachable. :)

Marcos Island

It's good that the boatmen were good tourguides as well. They know the history of each island and briefed us of the activities we could do at Marcos Island, where the batcave was. Hundreds of bats hang on the ceiling of the cave and below them is the deep blue-green water. This cave has an opening heading toward the beach.

It was very hard for us to jump to the water inside the cave. Vince went down and up 2 times, attempting to jump off the 10-feet high rock going towards the water (I dont know how deep it is). But still, he used the rope to get down to the water. Chill and I went to the water through the rope as well because our contact lenses might fall off. Noy and Mar jumped off! Lem, the one left above taking pictures and videos of us, just handed over our things to the boatman then also went down through the rope. We spent a few minutes swimming in the water the went out through the mouth of the cave, going towards our boat.

Cathedral Island

The other islands are just for sight seeing and boats are not allowed to dock to the islands, like the Cathedral Island. This island has a cave that resembles the front of a cathedral. (Sorry, we failed to take a picture of it as we were amazed with the islands but were disappointed at the same time that we cannot dock at Catherdral Island.)

Scout Island

The Scout Island had the finest white sand I saw among all the other islands nearby. It has only a very small shoreline for docking the boat but the beach area is very good for swimming. You can also find few corals reefs for snorkling.

Giant Clams

In one area surrounded by the islands lives a number of giant clams. In the deep blue sea, you can find giant clams of different colors... white, orange, blue, etc. And of cource the beautiful coral reefs and colorful salt-water fish makes snorkling in this area more fun. (No picture at these moment for all of us are plunged into the water for snorkling.)

Children's Island

Our next stop was the Children's Island, an island surrounded by very shallow water, but not so fine white sand. A number of nipa huts are also available there but staying overnight was not allowed. There is no power source in the island.

There is also a view deck at Children's island wherein we saw another island connected by a small shoreline, just like a bridge connecting two ends. After taking some pictures, Chill and I decided to cook rice then. We went down from the view deck and cooked our rice inside the boat so that we need not unload the LPG tank and stove anymore.

The Tunnel

After cooking rice, we transferred to another island with a natural tunnel traversing the opposite side of it. IWe failed to ask the boatman about the name of the that island but we stayed for sometime taking pictures and enjoying the sceneries on the other side of the tunnel.

While taking some pictures, a water snake suddenly scared us as it suddenly appeared on a paddle near the opening of th tunnel. Observing it, we realized that it does not hurt at all. And so we continued our photo sessions then headed towards another island.

The Foot Bridge

After the tunnel, we then tranferred to another island with a shore connected to another island just like a foot bridge---the one which we saw from the Children's Island view deck. It was just a very small area and it was not as nice as we saw it from afar. But still, it was amazing to see that such a natural land formation exists.

We were supposed to take lunch in that small area but it started to rain. And so we just took our lunch inside the boat.

Governor's Island

Our final destination is the Governor's Island. This is where the Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) house is located. Accommodation on this house costs P10,000 per night.

By this time, the rain became heavy and so we sheltered ourselves at the side of the PBB house. When the rain had stopped, we pushed ourselves up the view deck and had a look over the whole Hundred Islands. Of course a long photo-session was done there.

Back to the Mainland

It was the time to go back to the mainland. We had already seen almost all of the islands and the weather is starting to become unfriendly. There is no place and water for rinsing and so we rode back to the boat wet of both sea water, rain water and sweat from going up and down the view deck. Good for us that we did not rinse off and changed clothes before the boatride back to the mainland because the sea water kept on splashing at us. The water was not as calm and the day before.

After around 25-minute boatride, we were finally back to the mainland. The man whom we rented the utensils and snorkling gear came to see us, and checked out the things we borrowed from him. A bath house is available at P10 per head. It's considerable clean anyway.

After dressing up, we took a look around the souvenir shops nearby. Things are not too expensive there. Probably, they really have provincial rates! :D

Having that experience, I leave you with some things to keep in mind if you plan visit the Hundred Islands:

• Do not bring much toiletries for you won't be able to use it anyway. There is no utility water available in the islands. There may be some but it costs P100 per container. It's very expensive! The tendency is for you to use less toiletries because you don't have enough rinse water. If you have sud-free toiletries, then it would be better! :D If not, just bring enough for one finale bath, after you have gone back to the mainland. This will help lessen you luggage as well.


• Bring your own cooking and eating utensils! We rented the utensils for P1000, mainly for the gas stove. You can save this amount then if you could bring a portable stove with you. You can actually cook with charcoal if you want more adventure!


• Bring extra beddings if needed. You can use sarong and malong as beddings.


• Bring detergent soap or dishwashing soap for cleaning utensils. Use sea water for the initial rinse and use the utility water for final rinse. You can optimize the P100-worth of utility water then!


• Charge before you ride! There is very limited electricity in the islands so full charge your mobile phones, ipods and cameras before you proceed to the Islands!


• Use your swim wear as underwear on your way towards the island. This will help lessen your load as you travel.


• Use sarong instead of bath towel. This has same absorbing power as a bath towel but is less bulky and is easier to dry off! With the windy weather on the island, sarong completely dries off overnight.


• Bring plastic bags! This is for keeping your garbages and to put on your wet clothes as well.


• Bring your own utility water, if possible.
  
• Bring enough drinking water!


• Bring earplugs! Vincent is the most prepared one to have is earplugs with him. He was the only one among us who had a good deep sleep! Or maybe his medications also helped. He was not feeling well, took some Bioflu and helped him have a more comfortable sleep.


• Bring first-aid kits and medicines. You need this in any kind of trip. Insect repellents would also help especially during rainy season.

Though this trip was not completely planned, we were happy to discover that we finally survived the overnight island adventure. Though most of us were physically hurt after the activity---skin scratches, wounds, bruises, headaches, body aches, and even chicken pox (get well soon Noy!) all of us enjoyed the unforgetable experience. What is important here is that we had fun with each other, laughed at each other, teased each other, shared experiences with each other, considering that we have limited time to be together because of our schedules. We seldom see each other but we make sure that we have these kind of unplanned activites. These keep the friendship stronger despite the distance and time limitations we have.

-maron-

14june2009

23:26 hrs