TAO EXPEDITION Day 2: Patcy Breakfast, Maltayok Beach, & Buluang Karaoke! (A Photo Essay) @TaoPhilippines

01/04/2017 Updated Blog Post: TAO Philippines: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at What Makes @TAOPhilippines Successful?

On Day 2 of the Tao Expedition, we continued to explore the islands between Coron and Culion Island. We decided to stay at the Buluang Base Camp and end the day with a Karaoke night to remember.

Here’s a photo essay of our Day 2 TAO EXPEDITION experience from Patcy to Buluang, Culion Island…

The sunrise woke me up and this is the scene that greeted me “Good Morning!”

I’ve always wanted to sleep on the beach where you hear the soothing sound of the waves, and being caressed by the onshore winds.

The water is calm. You can easily kayak around the Patcy island for your morning exercise.

You can snorkel to see the manta rays and swim to the other island.

Fresh fruits are prepared and served every morning during the expedition. 

Breakfast was banana blossom burger with egg, cucumber, and tomato, plus ginger tea. 

Nothing beats breakfast on the beach. 🙂

Love the Banana heart with carrots, egg, and seasoning. 

We played Frisbee for a while before heading out to our next destination.

I love the Patcy Tao base camp because it is on a small island, the boat can dock directly on the beach, and you can see both sunset and sunrise.

Our Team leader Romy sharing with us our tour route for the day and location of our next base camp.

First stop of the day: Snorkeling Japanese barge wreck at Malkatop island.

The Tao Kitchen on the boat, busy preparing our awesome home cooked lunch.

Was excited to see squid as part of the menu.

We passed by Huma Island, which was the site of our next adventure. 🙂

We had camote-cue for our morning merienda.

Next awesome stop: Maltayok beach! Swim or Kayak?

Some decided to kayak because of the considerable distance and if you want to bring a dry bag for your camera.

I decided to snorkel and swim to the beach.

The uninhabited beach has fine, beige colored sand that looks white from a distance.

We felt like survivors on the island and hung around the beach for a while.

When was the last time you lay down on the beach and just relaxed without looking at your watch?

We found beautiful shells on the island.

We stayed for as long as we liked, then headed back to the boat.

Home-cooked lunch served on the boat.

Kalabasa (Pumpkin/Squash) in coconut milk.

Adobong Pusit–the most raved about dish.

Fresh mangoes.

Eggplant with chili.

Fried squid.

Filipino meals are never complete without the sawsawan of vinegar or soy sauce.

We said “hi” to the Tao Boat we encountered on an expedition to Coron from El Nido.

Everyone was curious about how the coconut milk was produced. Jeric was kind enough to do an on-the-spot demo.

The best spot on the boat is the upper deck where you can take a nap along the way.

There’s a strong signal near Huma Island and this is the only spot throughout the expedition where you can get good 3G/LTE signal so that you can work if needed.

Finally, we caught something from the trawl fishing line. 

Romy caught a mackarel for our sashimi afternoon merienda.

We also had turon for merienda… 

…together with the sashimi, as we headed for the base camp.

The sashimi was so good because it was fresh. Best with some soy sauce and wasabi. 🙂

Welcome to the Buluang base camp!

The base camp is more developed and has a good source of fresh, natural water.

Walking through the base camp.

There is where I slept for the night.

This is also the site of one of Tao’s projects–a kindergarten school for Culion island.

It has proper shower facilities.

The restroom is better, but you need to squat because the toilet bowl is too low.

The Tao guests played volleyball with the home team.

But I prefer playing street basketball with the Tao crew.

You can also play billiards with the locals.

There’s a sari-sari store on the island where you can buy some snacks, beer, and toiletries.

Dinner was also very good.

Fresh Fish Kinilaw (Ceviche). 

Pancit!

Grilled fresh fish of the day! 

After Dinner, we headed to the Buluang Karaoke to immerse in the National Filipino pastime on the remote islands.

You have to be prepared for your Karaoke Song. 

After a few sundowners and Red Horse, it’s time for Karaoke!

We had the Karaoke all to ourselves. 🙂

The crew and our party danced the night away, like there’s no tomorrow.

Indeed a Karaoke night to remember!

to be continued… 

P.S. The boat is equipped with an inverter where you can charge your phone and battery packs if needed.