On the Spot Puerto Galera, a Detailed Guide to White Beach PG

After a couple of changes in our plans, my high school friends and I finally decided to stick to our original plan which was to celebrate our High School reunion in White Beach, Puerto Galera. We were only six in the group (4 high school friends to celebrate our reunion, lol, plus two other “friends”), all first timers in Puerto Galera. The date was April 13-14, 2013, Saturday to Sunday. At the end of this blog, I will list down our expenses which totalled about 3,600 pesos per person.

White Beach Puerto Galera

PREPARATION:

We had no hotel and ferry ticket reservation so I can say that this was a sort of on the spot outing. The only preparation we had was the setting of the call time and making sandwiches and adobo to serve as our “tipid food.” We also packed our things enough for an overnight outing including my snorkelling gears and aqua shoes. We also read some blogs first to gather information on where to stay, activities etcetera. I made this blog and made it as detailed as possible for the benefit of readers/outing organizers like me, hope this looong blog helps. J

GOING TO BATANGAS PORT

We arrived at Jam Terminal, Cubao (aka Kamuning, Kamias Branch) at around 3:30 in the morning. Thanks to the late comer such as myself, we were not able to board the 3 AM trip. I was actually surprised that at that early, there was already a line of passengers waiting for the next trip, mostly Puerto Galera bound to spend the weekend. We left Cubao at 4:30 AM. Fare was 175 per person.

Batangas port on our way to White Beach Puerto Galera

BATANGAS PORT TO WHITE BEACH

We reached Batangas Port at around 6:10 AM, after reading a couple of blogs, we knew we only had two options: Father and Sons Shipping Lines (FSL) and Minolo Shipping Lines (MSL). We also had already anticipated fixers/barkers who would like to assist us in booking ticket for Puerto Galera. We politely refused Manong from FSL’s offer and told him that we do not have budget for his tip (we really intended to spend as little as possible for this outing). But he assured us that it’s okay and his job is just to bring passengers to FSL, maybe that’s where he's getting his commission, and so we agreed. He was the one who lined up to pay in the cashier, but one of us was beside him to be safe. We paid the same amount as the other’s who paid personally without fixer’s assistance (Php 500 round trip ticket), so we were sure that we were not charged by Manong. I momentarily became paranoid when he told us to wait and suddenly ran to the other side and disappeared, he still had our Php 480! I nervously looked for him and eventually found him, turned out that “the other side” was the terminal fee cashier. P30 for terminal and P50 for environmental, not sure which was 30 and which was 50 really :-D). After getting our tickets, we lined up for the entrance, we did not pay Manong any tip because of his assurance a while ago, we just told him “God bless po” for his kind assistance.

And so we boarded the boat. FSL boat is big and can accommodate many passengers. Aside from White Beach, FSL has also trip going to Muelle and Sabang.Time check: 6:30 AM.

We reached the shore of White Beach, Puerto Galera around pass 8 o’clock in the morning. The place was okay, a bit crowded because it was weekend. Since we bought round trip tickets, we were asked to approach the FSL booth by the shore to confirm/reserve our return tickets for next day and chose a schedule of departure; we chose the 4:30 PM trip.

Father and Sons Shipping Lines

Father and Sons Shipping Lines Crew

FINDING A PLACE TO STAY

Our next mission was to find a place to stay. We decided not to book a room online because of the rates ranging from Php 3,500 to 4,800 for a capacity of 6. There were fixers in the FSL booth offering us a place to stay. We told them that our budget was Php 2,000 – 3,000, to maintain our maximum budget allocation of 500 pesos per person for the accommodation. One of the fixers gave us two options: first was on beach front for 3,000 pesos and the other was located in small alley a little far from the shore for 2,500 pesos. We chose the first one, Mindoro Korea, beside Mindorinne Oriental Beach Resort.

We had to wait long because they are still preparing/cleaning our room. Luckily, they had their own restaurant so we decided to have an early lunch. We just bought rice and had our “tipid food” Adobo as our meal. Our room was ready by the time we were done eating.

Also read my blog: Where to Stay in White Beach, Puerto Galera  to know more about accomodations in Puerto Galera

Mindoro Korea Hotel

ACTIVITIES

For a detailed version of this part of our trip, check out: Activities in White Beach Puerto Galera

We booked Tammaraw Falls and Virgin Island trip with the same fixer who brought us to to Mindoro Korea. She charged us 1500 for the whole trip, I am not sure why we did not insist on haggling for a cheaper offer, but we later found out that 1500 pesos was really expensive. The package also included a trip to the market to buy some stuff and a stopover in an ATM for extra cash. The whole trip was from 3:30 PM to 6 PM, 1.5 hours spent on travelling alone.

Tammaraw Falls

We then spent the rest of the night watching fire dancers whom I thought were much more entertaining than the performers I saw in Boracay. Plus they also have more hot fire dancing chicks there than in Boracay. We also tried the famous Mindoro Sling and honestly I did not like it! It tasted more alcohol than juice. We even ordered from another bar thinking that it would differ in the mix, but the alcohol taste was still dominant.

Then came day 2. After having our breakfast, (our tipid food adobo of courseJ), we decided to do the Snorkelling / island hopping activity. We did not want Ate from yesterday after what happened to our Tammaraw Falls activity. The moment we reached the shore, we were done negotiating with the first fixer who approached us.  We paid 1500 for the trip, excluding the tricycle fare, tip and “others.” The entire activity was fun specially the fish feeding in the “real” Snorkelling area (aka Snorkeling Area #2). The entire activity lasted almost two hours including travel time.

Queen Reyna free advertisement for treating us well :)

More fishes in Snorkeling Area #2

At 10:30 in the morning, we did the UFO instead of the Banana boat because of two reasons. Banana boat required 10 persons and we have to wait for 4 more if we are going to ride in it, and second was that we felt that the Banana ride was kinda scripted and boring. It was our first time on the UFO and totally enjoyed it.

For a detailed version of this part of our trip, check out: Activities in White Beach Puerto Galera

GOING HOME

Our check out time was 11:30 in the morning and since our trip back to Batangas is at 4:30 in the afternoon, we decided to have  lunch first to kill some time. We left our bags in the reception area of Mindoro Korean to look for a place to eat with videoke. We ate, sang, and drank a mild version of Mindoro sling which we totally enjoyed this time, for more than 3 hours. We went back to Mindoro Korea to fetch our things, bought some pasalubong and finally head to the FSL ferry waiting for us.

Going Home

EXPENSES

Expenses for one person

Also Read:
Where to Stay in White Beach, Puerto Galera

Activities in White Beach Puerto Galera