By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

HOW can you determine if a certain place has not been explored yet? You can Google it. I did that and found some travel websites and some online forums that had basic information about the place. But when I got to a Wikipedia entry, I was surprised that it only had a short description about Bantayan island. It included a short description of its location, the population, and the different towns on the island.

Perhaps one travel website was right. Bantayan island is one of the “best kept secrets” of Cebu province. One possible explanation is that it takes half a day to get there, if you’re coming from Cebu City.

To get there, you have to travel from the city to Hagnaya wharf in San Remigo, where roro boats are docked. We went there using hired vans (I was sent there to cover an event of the Government Service Insurance System). The roro (a boat that can carry vehicles and people) ride took another hour to get to the Santa Fe dock.

Here’s a video I took of the roro vessel.

And here’s a photo of some kids diving for coins.

Then using the same vans, it took us several minutes to get to Kota Beach, a resort with sugar white sand, and a beautiful sandbar just a few meters away from our cottages.

Bantayan island is located in the western portion of the northernmost tip of Cebu (got that one from Wikipedia).

I must admit that after hours of traveling, the sight of a wonderful, unspoiled beach made the trip worthwhile. I got this impression from other journalists who braved the long land trip and slow roro ride.

A journalist had one word for Bantayan Island: quaint. It was quaint in the sense that it remained unexplored and unspoiled. Why? The Santa Fe dock was perhaps the cleanest dock I have seen so far in the country. Most of beaches in Santa Fe were untouched by human hands. There were also few people walking around, unlike Boracay where it was easy to bump into people during these months. If you want a quiet and relaxing getaway, this island offers some respite.

The nightlife is also another story. There are several ways of exploring the island at night. The best ways is to rent the habal-habal or motorcycles that are for rent. One habal-habal can accommodate three riders. It can take you anywhere for less than a hundred pesos.

But you can also walk to nearby bars and a 24-hour burger stand within the Sante Fe town proper. Some of these bars and restaurants are owned by foreign settlers. They usually serve seafood and meat (chicken and beef). Of course, most of them feature karaoke systems armed with hundreds of foreign and local songs. But you can also find live bands in some bars if you want a taste of the local music scene.

During my brief stay, I can say that Bantayan island is a good place to go for people who want to escape the noisy and crowded city of Cebu. You can choose from a host of resorts. But if you want to go backpacking, the friendly local people can quickly point you to some affordable places.

And before I forget, most people speak Cebuano on Bantayan island, but you can easily go around using English and a bit of Filipino.

Here’s a video I took of INQUIRER.net reporter Lawrence Casiraya talking about the pristine beach.

Editor’s note: Photos and videos taken by INQUIRER.net reporter Erwin Oliva.