Sabang Beach

The section of beach from Sonny's to where the walkway goes inland is definitely downmarket, and I would never put my family up here if I took them to Puerto Galera. However, if I went back by myself,I would have no problem with it, as it is reasonably priced and unpretentious, close enough to the action in Sabang to get home easily, yet far away enough that the thump, thump of the disco music would not be audible from the rooms.

OK, they call it "Sabang Beach," but don't look for any beach umbrellas. No one sunbathes or even swims there that I've ever seen. Sabang is "where the action is," i.e. where the discos, the bars, the girls, the partying, is. The singles stay here or at least come from the other beaches to party here on Saturday night.. My buddy who stayed on Small Lalaguna told me the adage was "to get home from Sabang, just keep your right foot in the water." With the concrete walkway they have now, that's no longer necessary.

I actually took these shots while walking from right to left, so it you want to do it the way I did, scroll all the way over to the right and then end up here.

Just click this page away when you're done with it.

The eastern end of Sabang beach ends like this right after Sonny's. I remember it being a little grocery store in 1994, but I see it says "Tina's Sunset Restaurant" now. The concrete walkway that runs in front of the businesses is about 2 meters above the beach at this point but there are steps. Down on the beach there are some pipes sticking up in the sand signaling that it's the end. You can see the trees of the head land up ahead.

The last place to stay on Sabang Beach is Sonny's. It is where I stayed in the summer of 1994 when I went to Puerto Galera alone for diving. I never stayed in this room, but I took a picture of it because it has the sign and also because it was the scene of a party that the friends I made had on the porch with some bar girls that they had rented.

I'm down on the beach here to get this shot of Villa Sabang - Octopus Divers. You can see that the walkway is up a bit from the beach.

Set way back from the beach is the Red Coast. Although it's not completely obvious in this shot, in front of it is a very nice garden.

The Riseros Dive Resort - Sabang Resort has a new coat of paint new umbrellas. It looks like they're going out for business.

This is the Sabang Beach Resort. There is a pool here and it looks quite affordable. There's a little shop here where I bought a bottle of water in the noonday sun.

Interestingly, this is a doctor's clinic. I say two clinics in Sabang: this one and one on the road that comes out in front of the Tropicana, one "block" inland from here.

The sign here says "Seashore."

Not absolutely sure what this is, but it looks like a continuation of Julene's place

The sign out in front of this establishment says "Julene's Place."

Next we have some frontage that is in the process of becoming rooms or shops or something. I'll find out next time I'm there.

Whoever built Le Bistrot here built it sticking out towards the beach. I'm not really sure what goes on here - I've always just walked through.

This wooden building that is home to Prince Diving and the Bulgogi House may not last as long as the concrete ones next to it, it's definitely easier on the eyes. If you don't know what "Bulgogi" is, "Bul" means "fire" and "gogi" means "meat" in Korean. I think it's usually translated as "Korean Barbecue" in English and it is a treat.

These have no sign and may also belong to the At-Can Inn. This man is walking past the Sari Sari store there on the beach.

The walkway is concrete and elevated here at the At-Can Inn. All of these buildings look pretty recent to me.

Just across the sand is the laid-back Garden of Eden. There are always a lot of vendors hanging out in front of it. The Garden of Eden is a Korean restaurant.

This is the end (or beginning, depending on where you're staying) of the where the walkway goes inland from the beach. I can't remember the name of the place, but there are some nice tables under those umbrellas and there are pool tables inside through that arch you can see.

Just visible to the right of Blue Water Diving are steps leading up to the street. This is where the road from the town of Puerto Galera comes down the peninsula and into "downtown" Sabang. The intersection of the road and the walkway that parallels the beach forms the heart of Sabang.

Next is the Won Dive Resort. I could be wrong, but I took the "Won" to be the favored currency of most of their clientele.

The entrance to Centrum is clearly in the inland side of the building. This is the (in)famous umbrella bar where the only ones dancing are girls and what they're doing is more accurately called advertising than dancing.

Cap'n Gregg's takes up a lot of Sabang Beach frontage and needs two pictures to get it all in.

Since most people go inland here, most never see this view of Cap'n Gregg's. Too bad. I remember seeing this view of the place mainly from boats out on the water.

After the Red Coral, you will hit that yellow wall. You will either have to go right down a narrow walkway or left onto the beach. 99.9% of the people go right down through the "business district," but we're walking down the beach now, so we'll be going left. The sign on the palm tree says "Sabang Gym." It's good to see that there are ways to exercise in Sabang other than diving, doing 12-ounce curls, or engaging in the kind you do in the prone.

Next to the Big apple is a place to stay called Red Coral. If you could see yourself as one of those people still partying at 3:00am on what is actually Monday morning, this this could be a place for you. It certainly would be easy to stumble home to and you'd be right on the beach.

The Big Apple. This was the only place in town that still had people in it when we had just got in to Puerto Galera and walked around Sabang at 3:30 am on a Sunday night / Monday morning. There front area is all bar/restaurant with a pool table and cable TV and a nice beach view, but I never got around to stopping in for a beer.

There behind the palm fronds is South Sea Divers, owned by Sky, one of the or maybe the only American dive shop proprietor in Puerto. I understand Sky was there even before Allan from Asia Divers arrived, but Sky just never had intentions of building an empire. He seems like a genuinely caring person who you could trust to put you at ease if you're a little nervous on your first dives.

Water World dive shop, where the walking path goes along the beach again. I did a dive with these guys in the '90s, but the shop had a different name then.

While I'm at it, let's turn around and take a look out to sea that that floating bar, The Pavilion. Even if you eat at the Tamarind, which has pretty good musinc itself, you will be rocking to the music from the Pavilion. I've never been out there; I'm not sure my poor old ears could handle the decibel level anymore.

I don't know what this is. It mainly faces the inside and I think it's a store. However, you can see that this is where they will take you out to the famous floating bar in Sabang harbor.

Up one floor and inaccessible from the beach is the Bondi, a sea food restaurant. We wanted to eat here because we liked the sweet girl with the braids who always smiled and said "Good afternoon, sir" when we walked by. However, I can't eat fish and I couldn't find anything on the menu that appealed to me. Too bad.

I was very pleased to find the Tamarind just as I remembered it. 10 years ago when I was here with my wife and daughter we ate a lot of our meals here because we thought the food was better than at Gigi's, and the floor is sand, not concrete. Guess, what, it's still sand.

This is the beachfront entrance of Atlantis, a huge new complex that sprang up while I was away. Most people will enter from the other side, where the reception area and restaurant is. There isn't even a sign here, is there?

Next to Angelyn's is S.E.A. divers. It used to be Asia Divers' Sabang presence, but now it has no instructors and is just a retail outlet. On the other side of that wall is a pool in which I received some of my dive instruction. I guess it's not used for that anymore.

What used to be Gigi's is now Angelyn's. Kind of like that name, Angelyn. You may want to take those steps up, because from now on you'll be missing the businesses up off the beach. That's where the foot traffic is, not down here on the beach. However, I'll stay down on the sand since this is a beach hike.

Sea Queen divers is next. The hotel room I stayed in the first time I came to Puerto Galera was located right about where behind where this guy was walking. Actually, tearing it down was not a bad idea.

Rick Kirkham runs frontier divers. There is a craft shop to the right between it and the restaurant. Can't remember the name of the restaurant.

This is a Spanish/Hispanic restaurant that I learned is owned by Mr. Rick Kirkham, my instructor at Asia Divers when I got my license. Being a latin at heart my attention was caught by the Latin music being played and the menu looked pretty good. Some diners saw me looking at the menu and piped up and told me the food was great. We gave it a try and the food was indeed pretty good. Not exceptional, but I liked it.

This monstrosity was built since I was there in 1994. What it is, I'm not sure, but the sign says it's for sale

or rent. Somehow it just doesn't do much for me.

Don't know what this is - no sign for some reason. Still, it looks new.

Next comes the about 4 rooms that comprise the
Lopez Inn. My guess is that the next time I go the

Lopez will have been bought out by big money and they're be a Holiday Inn there or something.

The first (or last) place you come to is Raphaels's Rarechords Bar. You've got to go up those steps and it's up above the beach 3 meters or so. It seemed to have people in it day or night, so I gave it a try. The reason it's so popular, I discovered, is that it's always happy hour - they sell beers for 1/2 price all the time. A San Miguel will set you back 24 pisos here, less than 50 cents US at this writing.

If you're walking from Small Lalaguna to Sabang, you go either in front of or through The Point bar and then along the base of the head land that separates the two beaches. You used to have to pick your way through the rocks you see visible at lower left here, but now they 've built a concrete walkway a meter above the shore. Sooner or later, though, you'll have to jump or step down onto the sand.