I almost don't want to blog this but one day when I want to look back from all of my travels I want to read my account on my mishaps and misfortunes and how I finally step foot on the places I never thought I’ll set foot one day.
As I’ve mentioned before, whenever I go to places there are a list I wanted to see: a piece of nature, a museum, a church, interact with the locals, climb a mountain, and visit their seas. But of course not all provinces I’ve went to I was able to fulfill all of these.
Biliran on the other hand has a lot to share to everyone who loves nature. It is one of those provinces in Visayas who’s likely less exposure and visitor. All the qualities that’s always been my kind of road to travel. Less people, less pollution, means more time alone and more peaceful.
Many would ask once the place Biliran is mentioned, “where is that located exactly?” “what’s in there?” “is it worth to go there?”. Most of the time, I don’t want to share my favorite places to anyone. Some places just hold so much dear to me that I don’t want people to flock in there just for the gram or social media. I want to share them to people who, like me, search for it and long to see it not just because they saw it on their newsfeed on facebook or Instagram, or just because some influencers been there. But how can we truly know who’s one?
Biliran is definitely one off the beaten path. During my planning stage for our Eastern Visayas backpacking trip, Biliran got the first stop first. (But after learning that we can visit Kalanggaman Island too, we put it second.) Got excited over our schedule I forgot that there are no public boat transportation during Sundays going to the Sambawan Island. Which leaves us to either ditch the whole idea of going there or be over-budget. If its just me, I would rather ditch it. But since I’m with Margel, we do it still.
Night before we met this old man at the port that was heading to Maripipi as well and approached us to split habal-habal expenses with him and agreed to meet first light the following day.
Good thing we were able to find cheap inn around the area and were able to stay in for a night. The following day we head to the port and saw the old man waiting for us in there. I’m sorry, at this day I really forgot the name of the good man.
Anyway, we make our way all the way up and down the pave road of Biliran to head to another port going to Maripipi Island. The plan is to still head to Maripipi and then from there rent a boat going to Sambawan Island. Upon arriving at the port, there was this chartered boat waiting for their two passenger that rent them going to Sambawan Island.
We thought it’ll save the day, but it still somehow, because we manage to have less hassle on searching and transferring from one transportation to another, but really the cost of the boat is much and tripled than the supposedly public trip/boat. But we are already there and we did say yes to push through. I thought we are going to split the cost with the other two passenger but the boatman gave us same rate as them.
Moreover, we sail off and in less than an hour we arrive at one of the magnificent island I set my foot unto.
Since it was on a Sunday, the island is all to ourselves. We climb the highest spot and take a lot of photos. Everything up above is glorious and one of a kind view! After that, we head back down to dip in the waters and just enjoy the waves, the sea, the sand, everything under the sun. Before we knew it, we’re exhausted and decided to head back to the boat.
Definitely worth every dime we spent and the efforts and strength given to this trip to this beautiful island of Sambawan.
Travel Guide and Tips:
1. If you're on a budget, make sure to visit the place from Monday-Saturday and take the Maripipi Route
2. You can also hire whole boat for yourselves, at the port people will surely flock themselves towards tourist, just beware of false one.
3. Asks, local tourism, or police assitance, or any local eateries at the area, they sure knows more the legits one
4. Food at the island can be very costly, you can always bring foods along with you
5. At the highest spot at Sambawan, the nipa hut or the viewing deck can't accommodate many people at a time, we manage to have all to ourselves since we went there on a Sunday
6. Hiring the whole boat from Biliran town proper may cost up to 3000php.
