White Sand Bar of Manjuyod: Prime Tourist Destination at Dumaguete

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"The Manjuyod Sand Bar is an estimated 600 hectare total strip area, including the submerged portions. Also known as the Sumapao Shoal, it is a certified tourist attraction because of its unique characteristic. It has been said that among the tourist spots in the vicinity, this one has the most potential.

Though technically belonging to the jurisdiction of the neighboring Manjuyod town, the sand bar is closely associated to Bais City because of its proximity and popularity in the Bais area. It is also a major stopover during dolphin and whale watching group tours organized by the Bais City Tourism Council. The boat is temporarily anchored so that the guests can picnic, swim, sunbathe, and laze around, snorkel or scuba dive in the waters surrounding the sand bar."

A destination that seems to be the highlight so far of our Dumaguete trip. White sand beaches has always been a favorite, and changing tides (low tide to high tide) seems to add excitement to the fun beach bumming.

When planning to visit the Manjuyod White Sand Bar, it is advisable to book in advance for a boat to take you there. The organized tour package includes dolphin and whale watching at Tañon Strait, stopover at Manjuyod Sand Bar for lunch and other activities and finally, a visit to the Bird Sanctuary and Mangrove Park before heading back to the wharf. You can opt to bring your own lunch or have the Manjuyod City Tourism group cater the meal for you for around 100 – 200 pesos per head.

In our case, the management of Sta. Monica Beach Club resort was the one who took care of all the reservations for all our site visits including our trip here at the White Sand Bar of Manjuyod. It approximately took us a couple of hours (or less) to get to the shore where we were picked up and taken to the actual site.

At first I thought it would be the boat below that will be taking us....hehehe

Again we will be crossing a bridge made out of bamboo. I guess bamboo is the best and most affordable material to be used in building bridges. Bamboos can weather the times, and the sun and rain making it ideal for a longer-lasting material for building structures like connecting bridges.

There was this sugar-cane factory nearby....I don't know if its still functioning but there are people there that we can see from our location so I am assuming its a working factory or sugar cane mill.

So the boat below would be the one to take us to the White Sand Bar....there were just a couple of men that assisted us in getting to the boat. We had to wear shorts that can be wet because we had to walk towards the boat since the it couldn't go all the way to the hut that served as a "port area" because it was still low-tide.

Cute hut at the end of the connecting bridge.

 

 

 

Looking back from where we came from. You can see that green lump of an island from afar.

Then we see images of the huts at the White Sand Bar. There were just four huts and we get to use the hut numbered 1.

 

We're number 1! Yes, really....we are number 1! We get to use the number 1 hut ...since we are the only ones there....aside from another foreign tourist with a few kids with him that personally rented a boat and stayed on a part of the White Sand Bar...while his kids built sand castles and played with a sea snake they caught a while ago.

We can see that the posts are replaced occasionally because of wear-and-tear or erosion....but they just leave them there to erode further...or be used by mollusks? I really don't know...its quite an ugly sight though.

At the hut there were two banners that offered packaged tours which included other tourist attractions like the Candabong Tree Park in Brgy Candabong, the Himampagon Heights and Bacong Cave in Brgy Bala-as

After a few dips in the water, amazement watching the sand disappear as the tides go higher, collecting some cadaver of dead sea urchins (or something similar to it - which later broke into several pieces) that's shaped as a small cucumber, a hearty packed lunch and some bottled water, and of course several jump shots,  our boat finally came back for us.

Too bad I can't show you because I already put my camera away (its not water-proof).

Hey, that boat seems to be a better choice to ride....but I think it won't work for low-tide areas.

This is when we saw the Manjuyod White Sand Bar Guest Advisory.

 

 

 

We're off again to another destination! See you soon!