What’s your style when it comes to travelling? Alone? With friends? Hihi. I like doing both.
The thing about travel is that it comes in various forms. You can go solo or you can be a joiner. You can also be a posh traveler, budget tourist or a backpacker. There’s also what they call a camper, glamper and DIYer. Frankly, I say, we do away with the labels and just go! Each place and situation calls for a different approach. You save money by joining groups. Being solo works for some (specially for the broken hearted). And sometimes, you just want a carefree travel where you don’t have to do the arrangements and accommodation bookings yourself. Or maybe you just want to meet some new friends with same level of passion in travel as yours. Sometimes, you don’t want to plan your travel yourself, you just want to pack up your bags and leave and see the beach.
If you want such things, I recommend Go PH Travel and Tours.
I recently joined a group tour by Go PH Travel and Tours to Marinduque, dubbed as the Heart of The Philippines (Another good read:Â 4 Ways To Satisfy Your Wanderlust at Marinduque)
The organizers setup a meet up point in Pioneer where we met with the group. Some where picked up* at Alabang and then we made our way to Lucena Pier. We boarded the RORO for a 3hr ride to Marinduque and then we went to the Boac, our first town destination.
*The van they provided is very comfortable by the way, It was a suuuuuuper long ride to and fro and around Marinduque and Go PH Travel and Tours made sure that the passengers are cozy for the rest of the trip.*
Boy, did we feel welcome. We were asked to seat on the stage at the plaza and was crowned and given flowers by the local women as they sing and dance for us. They call it putong, the custom of Marinduqueños when welcoming visitors and friends. They also threw flower petals and coins (they cheered, “Get it!! It’s your first time. It’s for good luck!”) .
While tourists opt to skip the town and go directly to Maniwaya Island or Palad Sandbar, we get to experience THIS. It’s a signature tour of Go PH Travel and Tours, and no other tours are like this. 🙂
More so, we had our Morion Encounter. They only appear during Holy Week, but the owners of Go PH are Marinduqueños and have contact with the association of Morions. I even got to try the Morion mask! Awesomesauce.
We also get to visit the churches of Boac..
and Gasan.
And right after we checked in, we headed straight to Poctoy Beach. We frolicked at the beach for a few hours before we went to the next destination. At a far distance we can see a silhouette of Mt. Malindig, the largest mountain in the island of Marinduque.
And since Malindig is a potentially active volcano, Marinduque also got its warm springs abundant in sulfur which is believed to have the ability to cure skin disease.  You just have to stomach the smell of sulfur though. It smells like farts and rotten eggs, I kid you not. Maybe next time I’ll try to swim in it. 🙂
The next morning, we woke up early to go to the famous Palad Sandbar. It’s low tide during mornings so its a race against time. The water was rising quickly when we got there but we got a good 30 minutes before the strip of sand was engulfed over by the waves and water.
The part is that Go PH Travel and Tours has a drone which they use occasionally shoot videos which they post to their Facebook page. The whole group wanted to buy a drone after that. You can see our whole trip in the video that I added at the top. They were also kind enough to grant my request to shoot a solo video (yes I know!!!). San ka pa? That’s another thing that unique with Go PH Travel and Tours. 🙂
We also visited Ungab Rock Formation, a natural rock arch formation with an opening underneath it. When its high tide, the rock is the best place to plunge and take a dive.
We later rested on Maniwaya Island where we ate our late lunch. By the time the group decided it’s time to go back to mainland, it was almost sunset and was able to get this shot:
Relaxing, eh? I had a memorable experience with the rest of the joiners, I made new friends, I was taken care of and I get to see Marinduque through the eyes of the locals (owners of Go PH Travel and Tours). Can’t wait to join their future tours to Calayan, Apo Reef and Balabac soon!
Go PH Travel and Tours
https://www.facebook.com/gophtours/
https://www.instagram.com/goph_tours
gophtravelandtours@gmail.com
For inquiries:
0906 413 8275 (Globe)
0906 529 8654 (Globe / Viber / Whatsapp)
0998 851 4730 (Smart / Viber)
0998 791 1112 (Smart / Viber)
0919 511 3105 (Smart / Viber)
0932 412 6016 (Sun / Viber)
02-553 7664 (Landline)
