Exploring Palambak Islands

Palambak Islands

The Banyak Islands really seem a tropical paradise. The island we are staying is Palambak Island. It is long and narrow and if we find the energy to walk round will take 5 hours. The island has two resorts one on either side but no other inhabitants as far as we can tell.

Everything is quite basic but still incredible. When we arrived there were 4 other people and by our second full day the resort was full with 16 people. There are 3 lads who look after everything. The food has been amazing, all freshly cooked chicken, fish, veg and tempeh. Usually with a saucer of some style of hot chilli sauce. The fish have been ones caught by our guide.

Our rooms are cabins on the beach with a veranda to gaze at the sea. The toilets and showers are shared, with the showers being big buckets of water with a scoop to pour it over yourself! This is fine although slighty cold. The generator for electric is on from 6pm to 10pm each evening and there should be solar at other times but think that all goes to the kitchen. This has been fine as we can charge anything we need to.

Our first day was quite lazy, swimming, sunbathing and walking round the island. The sea is clear and very calm so good for swimming or floating. The day was hot and still but around 6pm it became a bit cooler and the wind really picked, during the night it felt like the cabin could blow away.

Corals and Sore Feet

The guides had arranged a boat trip for the second day. This started with some snorkelling around some coral, both me and James managed to cut our feet on this or rocks. The snorkelling was great with plenty to see amongst the coral. Getting back into the boat was a struggle and at the next stop only El and James went in!

We then stopped at a completely empty island and chilled for a bit. By this time we hadn't seen any other tourists.

We then went to another island for lunch, as we ate the guides mentioned some coral off the shore but didn't really promote it. Me and El took a look and there was loads of fish in the coral a few yards off shore. We spent about an hour snorkelling round this. It was the first time I had snorkelled from a shore. It was much easier and felt safer than at sea as not very deep and no big waves.

Here we did see one other group of 2 tourists. It seemed so strange, there are similar areas in the Philippines equally good for snorkelling which were really busy so it was nice to have a lot to ourselves today.