Now a cruise ship destination!

CEBU, Philippines - Palompon, Leyte town officials here are ecstatic. They are happy that Kalanggaman Island, around 25 minutes away from the mainland here by speedboat, is now gaining international recognition.

This, after some 300 international tourists and 80 crewmen aboard MV Europa, hailed many times as the world’s best luxury cruise ship, stopped over recently for “barbecue” and decided to maximize their time there, foregoing a stopover at the more famous Malapascua Island in Cebu.

The first cruise ship to anchor off Kalanggaman, a crew member planted a marker on the island’s welcome sign to stake the claim of its historic stopover. 

The cruise ship was in the country recently for an Asian cruise. From Hongkong, they stopped by six well-known tourist havens in the Philippines and another six stops in Malaysia, before docking at Singapore.

Town officials were more than happy to welcome them. Engr. Cleo Rivera, tourism officer, who already at Kalanggaman early in the morning with  her staff of March 20. They guided the crew as they made preparations and welcomed the tourists who were ferried in through rubber boats.

While the tourists were having their barbecues, LGU employees entertained them with a rendition of the Lawig Festival dance celebrating their town’s bounty and history and how their patron saint, St. Francis Xavier, have interceded in their behalf many times.

The island already has the basic facilities to make visitors and tourists comfortable, with tourist policemen stationed there to secure them.

Kalanggaman is considered as the “crown jewel” of the tourism corridor at the western part of Leyte Island. It boasts of white sand beach onone side and a dive spot on the other, which has a steep wall that experienced divers love and find challenging.

Vice-mayor Georgina Arevalo, in an e-mail to this reporter, said they were happy to note that the MV Europa tourists apparently fell in love with the island and instead of just staying there up to 2:00 PM, decided to stay there until 7:00 in the evening, foregoing their scheduled stopover at Malapascua.

She said that from the tourists’s entrance and regulatory fees for that day alone, the LGU earned P 162,000.00.

She is also thankful for the efforts of Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez and Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla for their support to “market” the island to the world. She said that another Asian Cruise Ship has made arrangements with them to stop by the island sometime this April, after the successful stopover of MV Europa.

She said that apparently, word of the beautiful island immediately spread over the worldwide tourism circles who are eager to find “virgin destinations”.

The MV Europa’s stopovers in the Philippines included the Hundred Islands in Pangasinan, Busuanga, Boracay, the City of Cebu and Puerto Princesa in Palawan. The Malapascua stopover was supplanted with the Kalanggaman stopover.

In Malaysia, it hopped from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu, then Muara and Bintulu, all famed beach spots there, finally docking at Singapore where the passengers disembarked.

The MV Europa was built on 1999 and is operated by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises of Germany. It can accommodate only 408 passengers and caters to an upscale market. The said Asian Cruise, their brochure states, was around 6,990-euros upwards or almost P 300,000 each per passenger, exluding airfare to Hongkong and from Singapore to where the tourists hail from. Internet reviews state that it has a ratio of one-is-to-one personal valet for each passenger, aside from opulent accommodations. (FREEMAN)