One Hot Summer Day in Leyte's Kalanggaman Island

Hi there, wholesome reader!

It's been raining frequently from where I am and remembering my trip in Kalanggaman Island somehow warms my heart. Let me share to you my one-day adventure in the island 😉 

Coming from Tacloban City, my boyfriend and I woke up at 4AM to start our adventure to Kalanggaman Island. From Tacloban City, we needed to travel about four hours to reach the town of Palompon. Since there's no direct trip from Tacloban to Palompon, we had to ride a van twice. One is from Tacloban City to Libongao Intersection, which took more or less two hours. Another ride was from that point on to Palompon terminal, which also took two hours.

Before coming to this trip, we registered as local guests on Kalanggaman's official website and paid on the day at Palompon Tourism Office.

We arrived in Palompon at around 8AM and our scheduled boat trip was still at 9AM. We bought enough food for the two of us since we were informed that there were no restaurants or stores selling food on the island. And since we were still waiting for other guests to arrive, we had enough time to buy food and water.
 

We departed from the mainland at 9AM. Thankfully, they strictly followed the trip schedule. Kalanggaman Island is an hour away so we made use of that time to take a short nap – the waves never bothered us anyway! 😅

As we neared the island, we could already see how clear the waters were. At that moment, we were reminded of how much beauty our archipelagic country holds. The crystal-clear waters and the summer heat made us want to jump off the boat right then and there, but of course, we couldn't. So we held our urges a little longer until we can finally touch the shore.

Ta-da! We finally made it to the island and wow, it was as beautiful as what the other tourists had described in vlogs and online articles.

Right after we arrived on the island, we looked for a shaded place and put our things there. Note: Please don't leave your valuables anywhere. Bring it with you at all times.

We walked around the small island and took some photos for memory's sake. In no more than an hour, one can already explore the entire island.
 

Fun fact! Kalanggaman, with its root word 'langgam', is a Cebuano word that translates to 'small bird. ' Kalanggaman Island got its name from its bird-like shape.

We decided not to rent a cottage since it was just the two of us. We also brought a picnic blanket, spread it on the sand, sat together, and watched the vast ocean in front of us. Isn't it romantic? I find it so! 😍
 

We enjoyed swimming while constantly keeping an eye on our things, lol. Then, we decided to take turns swimming and safeguarding our belongings so one of us could truly enjoy the sea without having to worry about anything else. We ate our packed lunch came noontime along with the other food we bought from the mainland.

It was so relaxing to stare blankly at the ocean. Sometimes we talked about random things, other times we just sat there together on our little picnic blanket, doing nothing else. Truly, a rare moment of peace.
 

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Thank you for reading my post up to this point. I hope you have a great time ahead!

I'll take delight in writing for you again soon.

Love,
Sam ♡