It’s my second day in Caramoan, and I have to say that I am feeling a varied mix of emotions. The trip didn’t start off so well, thanks to my not getting any sleep the night before. It didn’t help that the plane we took was smaller than I am used to. The flight was uneventful, though, and I slept through it.

Getting to La Playa Resort is not an easy task, I am telling you now. From the airport, you have to get to the Filcab terminal in Naga City. Airport cabs will charge you 200-300 PHP. If you want them to take you directly to Sabang Port, you’d have to shell out 1000-1500PHP. Naturally, we took the Filcab alternative. That cost us 200PHP for the cab and then 90PHP for the public van to the port.

At the port, everything was chaotic. Porters immediately gathered in droves around us, got our bags, and herded us into the port. Mind you, there is no real port. The tide was such that the boats had to be quite far from the beach so the only way to get on the boat was to either wade through chest high water OR ride atop a guy’s shoulder. I AM SERIOUS.

I had no idea I had to do this – if I did, I probably would have backed out early on. But there I was, I had no choice. The guy squatted on the sand and I sat on his shoulder. It was one of the weirdest, most harrowing experiences of my life.