Gibitngil Island

Gibitngil Island

It’s More Fun in the Philippines, goes the Philippines' tourism campaign. And with this in mind, my wacky office mates and team mates from Convergys decided to check out the Funtastic Island of Gibitngil, Cebu Philippines, famous for its 30-40 ft. cliff diving for our first team outing last May 2012.

Gibitngil Island is located in Sitio Pasil, in the 2nd class Municipality of Medellin. Located in the northern part of Cebu Island, travel time is around 3 hours from Cebu city proper. To get there, one can go to the North Bus Terminal. In our case, we hired a private van for the 14 of us.

Medellin

We arrived late afternoon already at Medellin. Since most of us just came from our night shift work,we rested and settled ourselves first at the place we’ve reserved for around php 1500. The place is located on a beachfront where most “bankas” (motorized boats) that will take tourists to Gibitngil Island, are docked.

The place had a big nipa hut made entirely of bamboo, big enough to accommodate our group. Place was perfect for team and family outings as it had a refrigerator, where we stored the food that we brought, and a separate kitchen and grilling area.  Some went ahead with cooking our food which was mostly grilled pork and fish, the rest just having their picture taking activity. The entire day/night was spent just chilling out, posing for our never ending photography sessions and gathering around for the not to be missed drinking sessions, the one activity that’s always present in any team outing.

Team Kim

Crazy, fun people

Grilling time

Jump shot on our beach front

Next day, after breakfast, we headed to Gibitngil Island on board a motorized boat for the highlight of our team outing, jumping off from the 30-40 feet cliff! We commissioned the boat for more or less php 1500 (to and from the island). We had to be taken in two batches to avoid overloading.

Breakfast before doing the dare devil stunt

Gibitngil Island

The boat passed by semi-rough seas. A certified “byahilo”, I didn’t of course forget to take my Bonamine pill, my strongest and best defense against sea and or motion sickness. Though the trip was only 15-20 minutes, I still had a great time looking at the high cliffs we passed by and just simply having my feet touch the blue green waters of the sea with complete abandon (Thank God, there weren’t any sharks).

Gibitngil Island is surrounded by clear and pristine waters. From afar, one can already see the colourful structure built around its cliffs.

We settled for a cottage that had a nice view of the diving area. And from where we were, the 30-40 ft. diving cliff just looks scary. Totally out of my league, considering how scared I was when I jump off from the 6 ft. rock formation for the white water rafting graduation jump. 

Outside our over looking cottage

30-40 ft diving cliff

Although one can rent a life jacket, only 5 of my team mates dared to jump off. I totally salute them for such a daredevil feat considering that there were strong winds, waves pounding on the rocks plus a giant jelly fish lurking in the sea. Hands down to them.

First blood: TL Kim

There were lower diving cliffs but none of us dared to try and instead just took a swim in the island’s pristine and deep waters and chill out in our cottage.

With me not on the mood for any adventure that day (no diving and swimming), I can still say it’s More Fun in the Philippines especially if you spend it with the craziest and funniest people. Our first team outing was a success and we’re an inch closer to each other! Thanks to Gibitngil! (oh how we just love to say the word with matching stress and high pitch tone on the last syllable!)

Photo credits to my team mate/budding photographer Paul Raymund Ang.