Apologies for not being able to write about this sooner than I should tell my fellow travelers as I was busy with work and I had no time to write the past weeks.
So here it goes and I’m sorry that I would be a devil’s advocate this time.
I went to Padre Burgos in Quezon with friends last March to enjoy summer and soak up in the sun. This was my second time in Dampalitan so we decided to stay and camp there for a night. Though there were already groups when we arrived, they were courteous enough for all of us to enjoy a peaceful and quiet beach. Some has changed after a year of not visiting the place; the small store is now selling halo-halo, ice and cooked rice which I don’t have anything against as that’s a little something where they could get their money from. These locals are able to maintain the cleanliness of the beach and I see that they take care of their place. At night, the moon shines peacefully with gazillion of stars entertain us. Lying on the beach we watched the constellations and lights of the fishermen boats far in the horizon, the next thing we know, we were waking up for the sunrise and early dip on the beach.
The second day was a good sunny day to visit some other islands around. Our boat fetched us after breakfast. I haven’t been to Puting Buhangin and Kwebang Lampas yet, so I asked the boatman to bring us there first. I have read a lot of blogs about this place and all talked about the beauty and solemnity of the place.
When I saw the red and white tower, I thought this is it. This is what I saw on the photos. We’re near and I was more than excited to see the place. About 200m from the shore, I couldn’t notice how white the sand was because it’s…..peopled!!! Tents pitched along the shore, groups of people hanging out and kids and adults enjoying the water. I consider myself friendly and not that I didn’t want to socialize but the beach couldn’t contain the number of people there that day. I was a bit disappointed but I still decided to check out the beach and see the cave at the end of the island. As soon as I set my left foot on the sand, a lady approached us and said we need to pay 50 pesos as an entrance fee. 50 pesos for just walking along the beach??? Do you have golden sand for you to charge that expensive?? I thought. We wouldn’t want to argue so we paid. The beach isn’t safe for swimming as the boatman told us there are a lot of jellyfish that season. The cave is even peopled and filled with vandalism in all fonts and sizes.
The bloggers I read probably had some nice time here but I left the island disappointed. We took off and headed to Borawan.
They said Kwebang Lampas is a private beach. Charging that much is okay as long as we see the efforts in maintaining the cleanliness of the place. That effort I didn’t see in whoever owns that beach. And to those irresponsible travelers who go there, do you think writing your name on the rocks inside the cave is one heroic act?? Oh so you might be thinking, you and your friends name written on the rocks could be a tourist attraction which would invite more people to go there?? The answer is a big NO! It would brush them off. And when you realize vandalism is wrong and you regret writing I Love You ____ because you don’t love the person anymore, can you go back and erase it or better yet replace the huge rocks that were there for millions of years? Well, I wish you know the answer.
To positively end this post, let me share one of our sunset shots in Dampalitan, good vibes!
















