Aside from Central Visayas (meaning Cebu, Dumaguete and Siquijor lol), I feel that I haven't really explored this part of the country as much. During my last trip to Cebu, we took a bus from Cebu City to Badian then a ferry to Dumaguete then another Ferry to Siquijor. That's about all I have with my bout with Central Visayas; but having seen the wonderful falls and sceneries the place had to offer, I knew I wanted to see more. I don't know why plane tickets are more expensive when travelling to a local destination when you're here in the Philippines but I've seen cheaper tickets bound for Taipei when I was looking to come back to Visayas.
As luck would have it, a bunch of my co-workers were waiting on Cebu Pacific's sale and chanced on a couple of sale tickets to Samar. We didn't know what we wanted to do there but we knew it would be wonderful. We booked the tickets and found ourselves creating an itinerary for Eastern Visayas, and that's how our story starts.
SAMAR
Our adventure starts in Samar. The boss's wife hails from Samar and her family apparently owns an entire island in Catbalogan. We were thrilled with the idea of staying in our own private island discounting the fact that of course an island wouldn't have the usual necessities we're used to having just like electricity and ample amount of water to go around. I was unbothered because I was too busy devouring the fresh seafood that was prepared for us. How fresh you might ask? As fresh as they were just taken out of the water, cooked right in front of us then served for everyone to devour.
There wasn't a lot of things to don on the island but prance around, swim, eat, sleep a little then drink. You can repeat that process and no one would care. Living in the island for a day despite the humongous mosquitoes was quite pleasant. It was amazing having to reconnect with myself since electricity was scarce so I didn't use my phone for the most part. I was just swimming, taking photos and videos around the island and enjoying every bit of the moment. We ended the day drinking and eating fresh seafood with a serene view of the sunset in front of us.
LEYTE
The next Day we woke up early to pack up. But not before having a sumptuous breakfast. At around we went back to the pier over at Catbalogan to finally jumpstart our journey to Leyte. On the way to Leyte of course we passed by the monumental San Juanico Bridge. It took us over 4hours from Catbalogan to Leyte. I was just asleep pretty much the entire ride but I woke up when we were about to arrive and can I just say the mountainous road en route to Leyte was amazing. I wanted to take a photo of the sunset but the van was too fast, meh.
We didn't do much when we arrived in Leyte because we were too tired from all the land travel we had to do. Woke up early in the morning so we can make our 530AM boat ride but we ended up going at 630AM because, well, Filipino time lol. We were advised that taking the boat early to Kalanggaman would give us more chances of seeing dolphins along the way. We did see a couple of dolphins but they were quite far from our boat. We stayed in Kalanggaman Island for about 3hrs. It is also recommended that you bring your own food and drinks. Although there's food and drinks available in the island, it's can be a little on the pricey side. Goggles and other swim gear are also available at the island.
TACLOBAN
After Kalanggaman we immediately packed our things so we can get back to Tacloban and explore some more. We stayed at the lovely Ambassador Hotel, price-wise it is mid-range but the service is top tier. We also went around Tacloban city at night and chimed in on the town's festivities. I was told Tacloban is know for it's seafood so we tried some of the famous restaurants but that will be reserved for another post since we tried quite a lot and I want to be able to discuss the food in depth.
I'm super excited to also share the sequel to this article since I'll mostly be dabbling on our food adventures in Tacloban. If you're a seafood lover, you'll definitely want to get in on the next post but anyway, that's all for today. Also sharing the itinerary that we followed. Let me know if I can help you with anything. Happy exploring!
Ochi is a twenty-something Corporate Trainer who loves to cook, take photos and videos of her food, eat and travel. On weekends, she's either drunk or snuggling in bed watching her favorite crime drama. 
