We headed down south to the municipality of Badian to where Lambug Beach is. I didn't research much on this. Only two things I knew: stop at the Badian public market and take a motorcycle ride to Lambug Beach. No tents, no cooksets with burners, and no expectations. That's it.
We headed to the South Bus Terminal to ride a bus (preferably Ceres) that will drop us in Badian. Stopped at the Badian public market at noon. We had two choices for lunch, the barbecue stands lining up on the side of the market or the carenderias inside the market. We ended up choosing the latter.
Choose from about 10 carenderias
Local eat: rice, monggos, uyap, bolabola, chicharon, Sparkle
After lunch we asked around for a habalhabal (motorcycle for hire) to take us to the beach. It is best practice to ask other locals for the exact fare. Some drivers give an unfair price especially when they feel that you're a tourist. Also, don't go with the first offer, ask another driver and try to respectfully haggle.
After some haggling, we found a habalhabal driver who gave us a fair price. After 15 minutes on the road, we reached Lambug. Welcome to the beach, baby!
Nice shoreline huh?
Since we had no reservations and no exact budget, it was inevitable for us to look for a place that gave us the best offer. It's always better to choose first before you give the big "OK". Let me give you a timeline of what happened before we settled at last for the better one:
1:00 PM Asked a few local oldies drinking and singing inside a hut if they knew of an affordable room to stay. They were glad to help and pointed us to a red Lolo Ponso (sorry forgot his name, but it sounded like Ponso). Lolo offered his hut. Two rooms, one was occupied by him. No washroom, had holes, and was separated only by a thin plywood from the other room. Price? Php 2000! Gulp. Alcohol is just bad for business.
Sari-sari stores in Lambug Beach have two essentials: Alcohol and Karaoke.
1:30 PM Walked a few meters to Stuckli. Price? AC Room - Php 2500. Fan room - Php 1000. The rooms are big and well furnished. We haggled and slashed the fan room to 900. You can also tent out for Php 200 only. It's quite safe.
2:00 PM The landlady suggested we take a look at her mini hut in case we wanted a cheaper deal. Price? Php 500. Not bad if you aren't claustrophobic.
Anything mini is worth taking a picture.
2:15 PM Beside Stuckli is Grandeur. Suitable for families and large groups. Price range: Php 1500 - Php 3000.
Looks nice.
Logo with the numbers.
Lambug is a long stretch of beach but with all the walking, we ended up at the last sari-sari store, which is just beside Escarpe. There were people who had placed there tents here. We would have easily camped in a tent if we had brought one. We ended up going back to Grandeur and finally settled on this one (but with a lot of haggling, of course).
The two-storey hut at the back.
Inside the hut. Spic and span!
Bad thing is the toilet outside. It's ok if you want to share.
The other rooms. Notice the stairs. That's going to..
Another floor that can accommodate 5 beds. Nice.
This freezer is free to use.
The bigger rooms were out of our budget so we asked if we could just occupy the first floor of the front house and cut the price. The owner, Mr. Guiller, was kind enough to agree but the cheapest he could give is Php 1000. We couldn't agree more. Deal.
We occupied the first floor.
It was even good for more than two.
In front of us is the sea. Cool breeze.
Rested at last.
There are no carenderias or food places in Lambug. The best we did was ask the resort's helper to cook for us. Lucky for us, her husband was off to the market to buy something so we just hitched our orders of water, rice, chicken for dinner, and eggs for breakfast. It was still early to sleep so we explored the beach more.
In front of Escarpe.
Beyond the resorts.
Getting farther.
It's getting dark. Better go back now.
Sun is setting.
Good thing in Grandeur is the availability of utensils. Dinner is served...
Best chicken adobo I've tasted. Or was I just hungry?
Care of Mr. Guiller. They shared some of their spaghetti dinner.
Good morning!
The corned beef was bought at the nearest sari-sari store.
More photos of the beach and sea:
We packed up before lunch, thanked Mr. Guiller for his hospitality, and went our way to our next destination. We rode the habalhabal again to the nearest market in Bahigan. In case you want a cheaper habalhabal ride, instead of stopping at the Badian market, you can stop here. If we only knew of Bahigan market, we could have saved half of the fare in the first place. At the end Bahigan market, near the basketball court, is the only carenderia.
Bahigan Market
Local eat: mais (corn), pansit, tinolang manok, squid
Looks delicious but the taste is fear factor worthy.
It's time to hop on the bus again but home isn't the destination. After all that salt water, how about a dose of fresh water? It's just twenty minutes away.
How Lambug's saltwater created a hole in Mustachio's pocket:
Bus Cebu to Badian Php 117
Chicharon (somewhere in Carcar) Php 35
Water (stopover at Shamrock Barili) Php 20
Lunch (Badian market) Php 57
Habalhabal (motorcycle) to Lambug Beach Php 40
Room at Grandeur Php 1000
Food for dinner and breakfast Php 145
Tip for cooking Php 50
Toilet paper Php 15
Habalhabal (motorcycle) from Lambug beach to Bahigan market Php 20
Lunch Php 65
Snacks Php 38
Bus Bahigan to Matutinao Php 9