If you’ve been following my story, you’ll know that an island called Sibale had caught my attention due to the lack of information I could find on the island. This is part of a longer series on getting from Boracay to Manila in 2015 without flying. In case you’re new to the journey, you can catch up on the links below:
- Boracay to Manila the stubborn way: introduction
- Part 1: Caticlan to Dangay Port, Roxas to Pinamalayan
- Part 2: Pinamalayan to Sibale
Sibale, finally
I was really excited to have made it to Sibale, having imagined it in my mind for some time. An even greater success, my new friend Sally had sorted accommodation with me above a restaurant called TDL Foodhouse.
Before I describe my stay in Sibale, I’ll give you the executive summary:
If you are looking for a beautiful, untouched, deserted island – this is it. However, you’ll have to give up the luxuries you might enjoy in more established places.
Sibale: My Accommodation
The rooms were perfect for me, but they’re not for everyone. The hours for electricity are 5am to 7:30am and 17:30 to 22:30. If you keep a light on in the room, bugs will find their way in. They may find their way in anyway. The fan only works when there is electricity, so the rooms do get hot. The bathroom is downstairs and shared, with no running water, meaning you shower using a bucket.
That said, none of this bothered me. To me, that’s the trade off of going somewhere more remote.
Still, it’s good to be prepared. I nearly choked every night at my own ridiculous use of bug spray in the small setting, but the room was clean and Enyet incredibly kind and caring. He charged me very little for the room and sorted all my meals.
Sibale: The Stay
I can’t lie – I was a little scared my first night in Sibale. I felt wired, probably due to fatigue and the horror movie that had played outside my room in Dangay Port the night before. None of my travels paralleled Sibale in terms of remoteness. And even when I’d come close, I was never alone.
One of the first things I did when I got to Sibale is go on a walk to the closest beach. Enyet insisted on accompanying me, and at first, I didn’t understand why. I felt bad that he was taking the time out of his schedule to show me around the island, and found it a little strange. We walked for around 10 minutes, and saw signs of people – buildings, row boats, an occasional bicycle… but few actual people.
At the beach, a woman was cutting some fruit with a machete. She observed me approaching the water, neither friendly or unfriendly. The three of us were the only ones on the wide beach and I remember the vulnerability hitting me at that moment. If something bad were to happen, we were quite a long way from anyone else.
Enyet said he wanted to give me privacy, and so sat near a palm tree in the shade as I swam in the crystal clear water.
It was amazing. And a little eerie. I’ll admit I wasn’t used to it.
When we got back, I showered using a bucket and ate some roasted fish for dinner from TDL Foodhouse. There were a few chairs strewn about, but no one else was there.
Enyet was worried about me – he asked if I would be OK in one of the rooms, or if I’d feel safer sleeping in one of the rooms at his family’s house, where he has solar power. I insisted that I’d be OK, and he left me with a flashlight, telling me he’d be back in the morning.
After he left, and the electricity shut off promptly at 22:30, my mind started to drift. What would happen if I had a medical emergency? Would anyone know? What if someone wanted to hurt me? And what was causing the shuffling in the bushes outside my window?
As night continued, my anxieties subdued. I appreciated the brightly-lit sky and the sound of the waves gently rolling nearby. My sleep was only interrupted by the occasional snoring of the man in the room next door, and it was oddly comforting.
I woke up around 5am to the sunrise and the sound of the fan turning on in my room. Knowing I only had around two hours of electricity in the morning, I started working on some freelance assignments straight away. Enyet came up with some breakfast – rice, tomatoes and eggs – around 7:30am, when the electricity went off. Thinking I’d just woken up, he joked and called me a late riser. I asked him if he had any coffee. He happily replied he’d brought it up already.
Every day, Enyet asked me what I wanted for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He cooked delicious meals and brought them up to a desk in front of the room. He’d leave a jug of hot water on the table in the morning so I could make coffee. He accompanied me on hikes and walks around the island, as well as to the beach. I had mentioned I wanted to go snorkelling and kayaking, so on a walk he asked a family who had some boats if we could take one of them out for a little, and they agreed.
I can’t lie – at first I was a little taken aback by how Enyet insisted on accompanying me around the island. As a solo traveller I tend to have my guard up, and I’m used to spending a lot of time alone. I didn’t understand why he wanted to come with me when I went to the beach or on walks. It hit me in the morning, when he brought me a cup of coffee after my first night, and we started chatting.
He said the year before, a visitor had come from Pakistan. Hiking around the island, he’d slipped and gotten quite hurt. After no one had heard from him for several hours, they went looking for him, and thankfully found him – but injured. He was fine in the end, but the experience stuck. When you’re alone on the island, you’re alone alone.
Enyet insisted on accompanying me for the precise reason I struggled to get to sleep the night before: what if something happened?
If you swim too far out and no one knew, it might stay that way. Enyet was making sure that someone was always around me, so I’d be able to get help if I needed it. We struggled to communicate sometimes, but he was an extraordinarily kind person who did everything in his power to make me feel welcome and safe.
Snapshots of Sibale
I’m not sure my words can do justice to the beauty of the island. So below you’ll find a collection of pictures and videos to help me to the job. Excuse the poor photography and (if I ever manage to figure out GoPro studio) filming skills, to say I’m a novice would be an overstatement.
I also connected all the information I could find about Sibale at the time – I’ve linked this to the bottom of this page.
After Sibale, I spent a few days in Pinamalayan, and then headed to another island, Marinduque.
Ready for part 4? Click here to head back to Pinamalayan for a bit of rest.
Sibale Update: end of 2015
Originally, this trip was done in May of 2015, and the blog came up shortly after. I had originally shared Enyet’s contact information on the blog, and he was very happy to report that two people had contacted him as a result. He thanked me for promoting Sibale, which brought me tremendous joy.
Very sadly, that December Enyet sent me a message saying that a natural disaster had struck Sibale, resulting in 700 families losing their homes. Many of them were at an evacuation centre. His family was OK, but most residents were left without homes and were at an evacuation centre.
I have recently reached back out to see how he’s doing. If and when he responds, I’ll update this blog post accordingly.
Further information on Sibale / Maestro de Campo / Concepcion (all names for Sibale!)
Blogs:
- Certified Curacha travel blog describes a trip to Sibale in August 2011, where all six participants camped on the beach. [To note, they had a relative on the island]
- January 2012 travel blog (theTravelingMD), great photos
General information:
- Sibale website – a lot more information than it used to have! And a matching Facebook page which is occasionally updated
- – Wikipedia page which looks like it’s written by a Sibale local promoting tourism on the island. Locals on the Roro boat told me there was a government initiative to do this some time ago, the main issue being transportation and how to promote eco-tourism that wouldn’t harm the island
My original blog also had the following links which are now dead. I’ve saved the URLs in case someone (for some reason) wants to find them on WayBackMachine!
- Maestro de Campo Dive Resort has a Facebook page (last post in 2012) and an inactive website.
- http://www.travel-sibale.com/about-sibale.php
- http://romblonislandsph.weebly.com/sibale-island.html#Place%20to%20go
- http://www.purlp.com/2014/05/tv-patrol-sibale-island-concepcion-romblon-video.html
- Sibale Master Development Plan http://www.slideshare.net/sibale/master-plan2 (September, 2008)
- http://www.romblonislands.com/concepcion-romblon/
- http://business.inquirer.net/190843/island-hideaway-offers-investment-opportunities
- http://www.allsportsphilippines.com/sibale
Updates on Sibale
If you’ve been to Sibale and have a public account you’d like me to share, please leave me a comment and I’d be happy to link to it in the links above. Equally, if you have any recent information, I’d love to know! I’ll update the blog accordingly.
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