Sunrise at Kalanggaman Island

The sand and the waves, and you and me.

I never thought that I'd set foot on this famed island again. This trip, however, was totally different from the first one. Aside from the fact that it was my first time to spend a night with people whom I barely knew (but nonetheless, they're the coolest group I've met so far), the vibe of the entire island was also different.

There were only a few people on the island when I first visited Kalanggaman Island last January. With the help of social media, the island drew a huge crowd from the mainland. As early as March, the whole month of April is already fully booked and the local government of Palompon, Leyte will no longer accept guests who wish to visit the island without reserved bookings. They told us that they're only accepting 90 guests.

When we arrived at around noon time, we were greeted by a sea of people aside from the cerulean waters of the Visayas Sea. Expectation vs. reality memes got real, bro! Half of them came all the way from Malapascua Island in the nearby province of Cebu. Despite the huge crowd, we managed to enjoy our stay. We talked almost everything under the sun, played card games like Exploding Kitten and Avalon, and slept for an hour. Time was very slow in the island. Mobile internet signal is either sporadic or nonexistent, depending on your network.

The only thing that I looked forward on this particular trip was the sunrise. Witnessing how the landscape slowly unfolded and how the sky changed hues dramatically was truly spectacular.

Social media is indeed a very powerful tool of communication. Kalanggaman Island became famous long before it was featured by Jessica Soho. It is the responsibility of the local government on how they'll preserve and control the influx of tourist. I won't be surprised if the island had totally lost its ecological balance because of negligence and greed (see also: mass tourism). I hope we won't come up with that in the near future.

Here are the photos that I took during my overnight stay at Kalanggaman Island. Weapon of choice: Canon EOS 1100D, 50mm f/1.8.

Deep blue sea.

Summer time!

Waiting for the sunrise

Random model.

The other end of the island. This used to be a sandbar but was destroyed after the onslaught of Supertyphoon Yolanda