Alibijaban, a DIY island, Philippines

It was one of the best and indeed different experience for us visiting this island. It would be tough for anyone to find Alibihaban island unless someone points it on map.  It is almost 7-8 hours journey from Makati to this island. We need to take a boat from San andres to reach this island.

The white sand island beach, we can say that is raw and untouched island, will give you immense closeness with nature. There is no tourism info about this island,  no entrance fees, no lodging, no restaurants etc.. you will really need local people to visit this island and plan every bit of things yourself.

Altogether, it is a DIY island. Information can only found on blogs and internet. You need to carry your own cooking setup and tents if you are planning to stay overnight.

I was lucky to find a local group planning to visit this island and they seemed to be pro in organizing trips. Fully equipped with all camping tools, tents etc.. I just had to stick to their plan. Well planned and very nice group with an jaw dropping beautiful island destination made our trip memorable.

We started in night around 11PM on Friday 12th-Jun and reached early morning on Saturday. After doing some shopping on main land for our food requirements, we took a boat ride to this stranded island. 20 minutes waving on sea and we landed our feet on white sand beach. Island is a home for almost 300 families and we got a warm welcome from village kids.

we encroached a part of shaded land by the beach and landed our feet there. While one group starting setting up the open air kitchen, another group started working on tent and command center. Yes, our one tent was quite big to accommodate 10-12 person and we named it command center.

Tent and command center by the beach. Open air kitchen is on the back side.

We took a quick walk around to see the island, followed by lunch session. While others went for snorkeling in sea and searching sea creatures.

I was quite astonished with the friendly and honest nature of villagers, specially kids. when everyone went for a walk, no one was around to look after our luggage or things. When we returned, even many kids were sitting near our tent, our luggage remained untouched and so was our food or snacks which was there in open air kitchen. Local kids guided us for a long walk in Mangrove forest which was on the other side of island. there was one river flowing in the middle of forest and which added beauty of this forest. After taking lot of pictures and analyzing few creatures of mangrove we decided to return. we took the way through sea. Yes, a part of land was coming out on sea, which will get submerged once we get high tide in night.

After an exhausting yet interesting walk, we reached our base camp. Sun was already fading away and sky was displaying different color on big canvas. We sat down on beach with our cup of coffee staring at sun, mesmerized in nature's beauty.

Enjoying Sunset 

After a nice dinner everyone got busy in casual chit chat. It was nice experience for us to sleep in tent for first time. Sooner dreams engulfed my tired body and mind. Day started quite early then usual. As per plan, we got in boat to go around island. Mangrove forest was half submerged in water due to high tide last night, creating a nice place for swimming. We couldn't resist jumping in clean water.

After an adventurous trip on boat around the island, we headed back to our base camp. Had a nice feast over fresh fishes caught from sea. Journey came to an end with unforgettable memories recorded in our brain cells and moments captured in camera :) . Paid our sincere thanks to the enthusiastic group before saying bye to everyone.

Enjoy the photo slideshow below :)
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