A Virgin Journey to Managaha

Managaha Island as seen from Micro Beach


My friends and I at Managaha

The weather was far from perfect - windy and the sea was a little rough - but the trip to Managaha was pushed through. We took the ferry to Managaha. Like excited kids, we trooped to the upper deck to drink the fresh breeze. After about 15 minutes, we reached Managaha. That small dot of island in the middle of Pacific Ocean.

I was not impressed. That's the downside when you've seen better beaches. (I've been all over the Philippines and have been to El Nido in Palawan, Boracay, Pearl Farm in Davao and Panglao in Bohol). The sand was not as white as I thought and the water was a little blurry, like smoked-glass. The only magic Managaha struck me with was the fishes. You feed them bread crumbs and at 4-feet deep, they snatch the bread crumbs hungrily like those coin-divers back at home. Kids, turned brown (deep dark brown) by sun and salt-water, scramble for coins thrown in the water by tourists.

Lying on a beach mat perfectly laid under the kind shade of coconut and pine trees, I became curious about the crowd - Chinese, Japanese and Koreans all sporting colorful bathing suits and beach shoes, speaking in their own languages, I felt like I was in the middle of Babel. Kids, frolic around with snorkels and vests, already faded by too much exposure to salt-water. Neon greens and oranges turned pathetic versions of their once colorful selves.

Young women parade around in flowery-2-piece suits and in the islet called Managaha, there were more semi-naked bodies per square inch than I saw in Panglao in Bohol last year. Any warm-blooded man, would be happy and would drown in nature's beauty. On the other hand, the field for interesting-looking guy is inversely proportional. It took me an hour to spot a well-tanned male body donning a dark-blue Speedo board shorts, showing fat-free abs, obviously gained from hours spent at the gym.

My curious feet made me walk around the island a bit, and another interesting thing that caught my eye was the nail polish. A woman in her 40's was wearing a green, heck!, neon green flip-flops, and interestingly enough, her nails were painted in green. Two young girls in their 20's, had their nails painted in aqua blue, while a kid who's obviously in her teens, was more artistic. Her nails were painted in deep black and dotted with silver images of what I assumed were stars. The solar system on her toes. A mother together with her 5-year old, had their nails painted in violet. Perfect mother and daughter match. I wonder what would the mother say if in one unfortunate event, she loses her child in a crowded mall. This would be announced in the paging booth:
"Lost girl, wearing pink skirt and Barbie T-shirt, 5-years old, toe-nails painted in violet just like her mother's."

In an island where people of different cultures meet, it's quite interesting how we all behave alike. Young boys eye young girls. Moms, tell their kids to wear vests before running off in the water, rubbing sunblock lotions to eager faces and impatient bodies. Young girl friends adjust their swimsuits every 10-seconds or so, obviously showing off young bodies at its peak. Old ladies, lie on beach mats with their sun-shades guarding bags and what-nots like faithful sentinels.

The way people rub suntan lotions on each other's backs reveal so much about their relationships. I see two Japanese couples rub suntan. The strokes - slow, thorough, sweet. Honeymooners, perhaps. While another couple, the husband, just pour the suntan on his wife's back and with few haphazard and thoughtless back rubs, closes the lotion and rummages his bag for his googles. The wife's back is left with a blotch of white patches like an abstract painting whose meaning, nobody ever got. Hmmm, couples who are obviously bored with each other and are probably just tolerating each other's presence.

The sky was overcast. The sun was kind but the water fell short of my expectations. The wind was blowing on my face and I scan the endless ocean of grean and blue. Managaha's physical charms failed to entice me. No jaw dropping Wow! escaped from my lips. But, this little island has given me a glimpse of how interesting people are. The people who came to Managaha on that overcast Saturday morning was perhaps, Managaha's charm. It proved once more that the only zen we bring on top of the mountain (or on the bottom of the sea) is the zen we carry inside ourselves. The tourists, like actors in play made Managaha a wonderful stage and thats the magic I caught.