Cagbalete is one of those places that only exists in the internet world. Ask a random person on the street if they know where it is and chances are, they’d look at you quizzically and say ‘no’. But online, Cagbalete island’s become one of the more popular weekend getaway destinations, even making it into Rappler’s Top 5 list for 2014.

Reading the instructions to the island, however, make it seem like an incredibly daunting feat to get there: ride a bus to Lucena, ride a non-air conditioned bus to Mauban, ride a tricycle to the port, jump onto a boat and then walk for over a kilometer to your resort. Most blogs would advise you to leave your house pretty early so you’d catch the ten o’clock (10AM) passenger boat ride to the island, otherwise you’d have to wait for the next trip at four in the afternoon (4PM).

In reality though, the journey was very easy – all rides are from end to end, so you only really ever get up and carry your things when you switch buses. As for the boat ride, well, our group miscalculated the travel time so we missed the first passenger boat trip. We had no choice but to hire a private boat but the round trip fare, split five (5) ways, wasn’t too bad. There was an added bonus as well because the private boat ferried us straight in front of our resort so we didn’t have to walk across the island to get there.

Since we were all girls who were not in the mood to cook or lug around cooking stuff, we availed the resort’s (Dona Choleng Camping Resort meal packages to save us the trouble. Because the resort was advertised as a camp site, I admit that my expectations were not that high, but I am super glad to report that my fears of small servings and so-so meals were unfounded. There was so much food and all of it tasted good that we actually had to schedule activities just so we’d be hungry again by the time the next round arrived on the table. The staff was incredibly nice and the service was superb that they even set up a table for us by the beach so we didn’t have to eat in the restaurant.

Electricity does not run for twenty-four hours on the island and only gets switched on from six in the evening to six in the morning. Fortunately Dona Choleng has its own generator so there was intermittent power throughout the day, a fact that we were not aware of. We came to the island armed with books and journals and movies because we thought we’d be starved of things to do for the three days we were there.

We were supposed to go on an island hopping trip on our second day but there was a miscommunication issue with the boatman so we just hogged most of the lounge chairs, parked underneath one of the huts and settled there, catching up with each others’ lives. Suffice it to say that we didn’t really get the chance to finish our books, journal entries or watch one movie. Our itinerary looked something like this:

1. Swim.
2. Eat.
3. Try to read (while waiting for the food to go down).
4. Fail at reading bit and give in to the temptation of napping – the ocean breeze was too good to resist.
5. Repeat.

Considering that there were only five people in our group, we were probably the noisiest guests at the resort that weekend (and that’s saying a lot, since on Saturday the whole place was fully booked). Every so often a burst of laughter would erupt from our spot, one that would last for at least a full three minutes. We were not graceful about it but the staff was nice enough to only comment, “Ma’am, masisiyahin po pala kayo no?”

The sight of the turquoise colored shallow water lined by the deep dark blue of the deeper water contrasted very nicely with the whiteness of the fine, compact sand. The view was very hypnotic. I tried to think during our quiet moments but nothing really ever stuck; there was just a chill vibe on that island that was too strong. When it became too dark and cold by the beach, we hauled ass to the restaurant and took over the karaoke machine (most of the guests left Sunday afternoon so there wasn’t much competition) where we made even more noise, laughing our heads off while singing the greatest hits from the nineties.

I’ve heard countless of times the term “beach bumming” but I’ve never actually experienced it in its truest definition until now, and I believe that Cagbalete is the perfect place for it.

The total damage financially was a little bit over 4,100PHP but that already included a one-hour massage and a whole lot of knick-knacks. For the basic of the basics, you can get away with just 3,300PHP, even less if you decide to bring and cook your own food but here’s our itinerary and detailed breakdown (we came from Alabang):

*Dona Choleng’s Facebook page and contact numbers – +639266549958, look for Maybel.