Tambobong and Osmena beaches in Pangasinan

UPDATE Jan, 2013:

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sunset at Tambobong, Pangasinan Dec, 2007

The town of Tambobong lies in the western tip of Pangasinan. A quiet and sleepy town for the most part, it has beautiful powdery white sand and very clear waters. As is expected from fishing communities, overfishing has destroyed most of the corals. One can still see a few fishes and marine life here and there. In fact one of the kids, Christian, was able to catch a "pugita" (octopus).
(photo:rough road from Dasol, convoy, more rough roads ahead)











This town, small as it is, was divided further into two towns, namely, the town of Tambobong and Osmena. There is not much trade in this town and we even found it hard to get a couple of beers, if possible, bring enough supplies to last your stay.
(photo: Ui town, stop over, horsing around)












The current kapitana, Mrs. Arroyo, was really gracious and kind. She dispatched some barangay tanods to watch over our camp and keep us from probable harm. I suspect it was also partly to keep us from getting rowdy.
(photo: Tambobong at last, beach with powdery sand, local kids during dinner)












We setup camp on the beach and one of the locals was kind enough to lend us their poso(hand pump) and toilet. The locals are very friendly and their children often come to our camp to listen to our stories and tell us stories of their own.
(photo:breakfast the next day, camp wakes up, tranquil beach shore)











We hired a boat to take us to a nearby island called "Collabra Island" or otherwise called snake island. This island supposedly has lots of snakes which mostly come out at night. We made sure to visit early in the day so we did not see a single snake on the island or around in its waters. It was a beautiful island and we ate lunch and swam in its shores. I noticed that the waters in tambobong had better visibility than in this island though.
(photo: collabra island, snake island beach)












From the shores of snake island, one can see another bigger island. It was only later that I found out this was the famous Hermana Mayor Island.
I think we'll visit her next.
(photo: tambobong town, local kids playing)












Our route to tambobong took us up Subic base, then traversing the Zambales National Road, we slowly crept up to Pangasinan. When we reached Dasol, we took a left turn towards Tambobong by way of UI town(strange name for a town)

By public: Ride a bus from Manila to Sta.Cruz. You must arrive in the morning so take the 11pm bus in any of the Victory liner stations. The Caloocan Victory liner has the best schedule. Their last bus leaves at 12midnight (Php 384.00 one way)

CLICK HERE for VictoryLinerSchedules

From Sta.Cruz, ride a jeep or minibus going to Dasol (Php 35pesos approx.)

Then from Dasol market, ride a jeep going to Tambobong (Php 30pesos approx.)
The jeeps leave when they fill up with passengers so there is no particular schedule. However, you will get more chances of riding it in the morning rather than in the afternoon. Evening departures are rare.

A two way trip for 1 person will cost approximately Php 900 pesos.








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