After visiting Panampangan Island and Simunul Island where we visiting Sheik Makhdum Mosque, the first ever mosque in the Philippines built in 1380, I could say that I've had enough of the day's island hopping adventure. I felt scorched after hours of exposure to direct sunlight. But when I learned that we had one more island to visit before we headed back to mainland Tawi-tawi, my energy was revived; I was getting the value for what I paid for the trip. Seriously if you're traveling solo and wondering whether you'll get an ROI from the cost of this trip, I'm telling you, you should just go for it!
Simunul Island was the southernmost destination that day. Sangay Siapo Island is not too far away from Simunul but with the hotter weather as the sun moved throughout the day, I was already looking like a burnt pancake by the time we arrived at the last destination. When we reached Sangay Siapo it was, as expected, crowd-free just like Panampangan Island. Sangay Siapo might be way smaller than Panampangan Island in terms of total land area covered by the entire island including sandbar, but it's never short of a beauty that resembles a lot of the tropical islands in mainstream destinations in the Philippines. Too bad people are still afraid to visit this part of the country despite the improvement in safety and security.
The reason why we visited Sangay Siapo last is that it's already very near Bongao. As you can see from one of the photos I included in this post, you can already spot the mighty Bud Bongao, Tawi'tawi's sacred mountain, from Sangay Siapo. It was the perfect exit path going home that day.
I came home to a warm bed (literally! haha) and a heart full of stories to tell everyone that it's okay to travel here; in fact, backpacking has never been this peaceful and fulfilling.