Olango Island | Christopher Bennetts

Expat Living In The Philippines

Welcome to my Living in the Philippines blog. I have been visiting the Philippines for more than twenty years and have spent almost five years living in different locations around the Philippines. I meet a lot of fellow expats and tourist many of whom seem to have a much distorted view on the Philippines and Filipinos as do many Filipinos have a distorted view of foreigners.

The one thing I have come to know is that people are fundamentally the same everywhere in the world. The problem is too many people focus on the small superficial differences blinding them to how much more we all have in common. I hope this blog of mine can help build bridges of understanding between Filipinos and non-Filipinos as well as providing an insight into what it’s really like to live here as an expat.

Christopher Bennetts

Posts Tagged ‘Olango Island’

Visit to Olango Island

A visit to Olango Island is just 5 km east of Mactan Island and a short ferry ride away. I took the family there a couple of years back for a day trip taking the car on the Trans-Olango Shipping Corporation which is only Ferry service.

The cost of taking the car was a bit of a rude shock considering the short distance involved. It was comparable to taking the car on other much longer Ferry rides around the Philippines. I suppose you get to dictate the price when you have a monopoly.

When we got to the island we did notice there were very few cars there. I thought to myself I know why with what they charge to bring a car across. It may however be a good thing for the island holding off the over development than many other islands have been subjected to.

Olango Island did have a peaceful untouched feel about it. Despite the fact that most of the roads were unmade they were flat and sandy.

We were actually there visiting the island on the recommendation of one of our housemaids that came from that island and went to the place where her family lived. Fresh fish are always one of the major attractions for me when I visit provincial islands in the Philippines.

There is nothing more delicious than fresh fish cooked over a native charcoal fire. The charcoal is usually made from coconut shells.

My other favorite is fresh coconut juice which is called Buko. One of the house maids relatives climbed up a tree to get some for the family.

After feasting on fresh fish and buko juice the family took a leisurely stroll along the beach before checking out the famous Olango Island Bird Sanctuary.

We did not visit any of Beach Resorts on the island so I cannot comment on them or beaches. The beach we visited was not what you would call a resort class beach but it was still a beautiful spot.