Sabang is very well known among the scuba diving community as one of the most beautiful diving spots in the world. We didn’t know how serious this is until we got there. There are more dive shops than restaurants… And while I’m talking about proportions of things, we noticed there are way more older white men in this town than women… and we couldn’t not notice all the prostitutes standing on the streets. We assume they are there for the older white gentleman to thouroughly enjoy their time in Sabang, both in water and on land. This was unexpected for us and a bit shocking to see so many young Filipino women with older white dudes. When I say older, I mean something like 20, and sometimes what looked like 40, years older than the woman. Anyway, not judging. People do what they have to do… And this is besides the point.
Snorkeling day!
Sabang has some super beautiful reefs almost everywhere you plunge. The water is tinted a deep turquoise all around. We took a snorkeling trip one day to go check out some huge clams and the reefs.
We had a boat and a driver to ourselves and he was really relaxed and let us spend as much time in the water as we wanted. He even left us at one reef/beach in the middle of the day for “lunch” and when he came back for us more than an hour later, there was a huge dead fish in the boat by our feet!
We snorkeled for a very long time at one set of reefs called Coral Garden. So long that our entire bodies were soggy and we couldn’t feel our fingers because of the wrinkles. During the trip, our boat man took us to two different beaches to chill and dry out a bit. At every beach, it looks like a bone yard of coral bits.
Coral grave yard 
Our snorkel excursion ended perfectly. Just as our feet hit the sand at our beach in Sabang, it started raining a bit. And we both ended the day with sunburnt backsides.
Talipanan Falls
Not very far from White beach, where we happily spent 2 out of 6 days in Sabang, is another beach called Talipanan beach. And not far from that, we noticed on the map, is Talipanan Falls. There was very little information to be found on this, but we decided to go and check it out.
So, first we discussed for a while with the woman at the front, if we MUST take a guide to get to the falls, or if we CAN. She was very insistent that we pay her the 300 pesos (6 EUR) for her guidance, because “there are many trails and we could get lost.” Finally, after the 3rd time asking if we have to pay that or if we can just go walk and look ourselves, she gave in and let us pass.
Past this woman and the main entrance off the road, we started realizing we were kind of intruding on these people’s village. There were school children in uniforms playing baketball, running around, snacking and just hanging out. To our right was a kind of hut where the women inside seemed to be making some pottery or jewelry out of straw or bamboo and to the left was the showroom for their goods. (They were actually super beautiful, and if we were going straight home after this, we would have bought some stuff!) We saw a sign for the Talipanan Falls and started in that direction.
At first, it was a trail, then it was more of a dirt path, then it turned a bit more tricky. We had to climb up piles of rocks, wade across a slowly trickeling brook, and try not to scare these little piglets!
We made it to the falls by just following the water flow, but we had no idea if we were actually on the path we would have taken with the “guide”.
We made it to the top as far as we could go without proper shoes. There is a calm pool at the foot of the falls that looks like a fantasy. You can definitely understand why the people want to keep this as a bit of a hidden secret, and charge a fee to keep the tourist traffic low. It’s like a perfect little bathing pool hidden in the trees. Very relaxing. And on our way out, I bought a pair of beautifully woven straw earrings! 🙂
That’s the end of the Philipines! Next up is Cambodia, where we are now as I write this. 😉
Stories of Exploration and Travel 