Malasimbol Musicfestival and Cagbalete Island

KTA Thailand was getting closer and why not leave a couple of days earlier from Boracay. So many things to discover in the Philippines and so decided Francois and I to check out the Malasimbol Music and Arts Festival in Puerto Galera and I would travel from there to Cagbalete- to check the island out for its fine sand beaches and shallow area for kiting. As always short in time, we wanted to leave Caticlan with the first ferry at 6am, but funny Philippines- they set the clock ahead in the harbor to avoid delays. Never mind- we had a very relaxing breakfast on the new spot UNION BEACH in Deivis place- heaps of space and wider beach, a kiters paradise and so close to Boracay.

We finally made our way their- painful 9 hours of travelling (ferry, tricycle, bus, van), but we have to say – its worth it!!!!!!!!!! Puerto Galera it’s a super inviting small town with cute resorts and restaurants on the beach. We dropped our things in a guesthouse at the ferry port and went straight with the tricycle to the festival- flanked by coconut trees and verdant hills, in the background climbs Mount Malasimbo itself. The grass-terraced amphitheater, 250m above sea level, overlooks Puerto Galera Bay, a member of "The Most Beautiful Bays in the World". The festival is seen as one of the most important in the country, helping to spearhed the country's continued advance in music, arts & culture. Sculptures and arts and a mix of DJs, dance performances and life bands gave us a great night even though the rain was pouring down.

Next morning we headed of with the 7am boat to Batangas, where our ways split- Francois went to Manila and my goal was to discover Cagbalete island. An island on the east coast of Luzon. Its quite easy to get to – just a bus from Lucena to Mauban (40 minutes) and from Mauban an hour by ferry to Cagbalete. I knew it must be a kitespot, as its shown in windguru and google earth and google pictures gave a huge shallow area- so it was worth to check it out. I travelled with all my gear for the Thailand competition means carrying a raceboard, which didn’t make moving around easier. Once reached the island I asked for a tricycle and people were just laughing, as they have not even roads.

One fisherman brought me by boat to the windy side of the island. Villa Cleofas is a small resort on the windy side of the island, before me there was only one kiter from Hongong so far on this island.

If you don’t want to stay in a bungalow, the put you up a tent for 200 Peso a night and supply you with a horse to go to the village, because of no roads. That was the funniest thing for me- I went with my horse to the village to buy smart load for my phone. Electricity is on from 6-8pm, so there is not much to do at night and my days looked like this. Kiting before low tide, because then gets the water too shallow for kiting. A perfect spot, sideshore wind, shallow water, no seaurchins and sandy bottom. Then horsebackriding for shopping , lunch and midday nap in the hammock, kiting again, 6-8pm computer and 9pm- battery of laptop finished – so nothing else to do than sleeping.

A great place and once the island gets electricity it will develop very fast for sure- a place to come back.