Gamay Hotel – Gamaynon’s – Gamay – Northern Samar
Gamay is a small town on a river in north eastern Samar with an immaculate hotel that is completely out of place. The pickle rates this place with 5 stars because of it’s quality, cost, fantastic service, back-up generator, and the feeling you get after a hard day and suddenly this oasis appears.
When Joni and I were passing through it had been steady rain for 3 weeks and we were covered with mud. There was a pump outside where we washed down before entering the hotel.
From readers Comments:
Thank you guys…. for the free ads.
FYI Gamaynon’s – that house is located at the end of Da-o St (riverside), Orriental. It is just beside our ancestral house (or you may ask the pedicab drivers the house of Dr. Engo and you’ll find it side by side) and whenever I am in Gamay i sleep there in that hotel as you call it. It is the house of my brother-in-law and my sister. The owner is a simplest person i know and accomodatingand both shy. You will enjoy the place. You’ll love to stay at the rooftop and have a snack of banana cue. You’ll feel so relaxed and so out of stress. Try it and i promise you’ll like the fresh air and the nature. Oh.. Gamay… Near is the Fiesta and my family will be there… maybe in that hotel…he..he..he…
Nancy Engo-Lim
We were the only customers but the staff fired up the generator with out any qualms.
This is a new hotel and doesn’t even have a name yet so we just call it Gamay Hotel. Gamay means “small” in the Philippines but this place is spacious.
It was probably operating at a loss when we stayed there because the generator was running all night. Oh well, at least they are getting some free advertising. I have no contact info yet but keep this place in mind if you are passing through this part of the country.
There is a homestay in town as well, where you could stay if you arrived in Gamay and the place was full, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Gamay.
In the back country I usually carry a tent – just in case.I am not that concerned with rain, but if you break down in a place where there are a lot of mosquitoes it can make your night more bearable.
Gamay Hotel
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i like your story about gamay,im richie a native of gamay im here in cebu. i like what ur doing,specially when you go to gamay.hope you return to gamay i give you a free tour of gamay …
Hello drezzel,
Thanks for the offer! I really enjoy traveling in Samar, especially the northeast.
It’s such beautiful country – but you sure do get a lot of rain!
dp
thanks a lot to everyone who will organized by this gamay’s hotel i’m native of bry. dao gamay n. samar
i was really wondering when i try to search and i never expect about it! anyway, i’m here in afghanistan
my contract is every 6 months vacation. but i got a banned. so once a year of my RNR i had to go different
country not my own country phil. anyway i love my own country and my own place
AA
Hello absalon,
Thanks for your input! Samar really is a beautiful place. I have only been to Gamay one time but hope to make another trip back there. That “Gamay” Hotel really is first class, and was a big surprise to find when Joni and I got there.
When we go there it had been raining every day for 3 weeks and we were covered with mud so we washed by the pump near the river before going into the sparkling hotel.
dp
Just came across these pics, thought we stayed there some years ago but not, guess we just passed through on our bikes. For sure will stay in a couple of months as plan a fairly extensive trip in samar again. Still working out the details.
We did stay in a small pub, english style some where in the north east. Had a few rooms up stairs, will ask my brother whom was with me if he can remember the name of the town. We had just came of the small pump boat with the bikes and were amazed to find this place. Was great with good food and friendly people, will never forget it.(just the name of the town)
great work DP
Hi bruce,
Thanks for the info! If you can come up with the name, it would be appreciated!
cheers
dp
Hi DP…..small world, received an e mail from Rhoody (friend of Mike)yesterday, I had mentioned your wonderful informative site to him. Apparently he knows you as met you in Dumaguete.
Will talk to my brother tonight and go over the samar map which he printed out in detail from the net.
Hope to track down this cute little English style pub in the south east. Really we were totally blowen away as had just finished unloading the bikes from the pump boats and came across it a short time later. Remember clearly the old style pull handles to get a beer…..In such an area was a huge surprise. The owner was a Brit and works somewhere in Luzon, from memory.
Look forward to another samar visit soon
Hi DP.
Just been talking to my brother and studying the map….Name of town where we found that cute little English style pub was Palapag Great place for a couple of days….
Guess you have passed through there and maybe missed it. We really enjoyed the time there.
Hope to return….
Bruce
hi dutchpickle and bruce,first! thanks a lot to anyone of you! specially to dp hi!!! may i know ur nationality if you dont mind. anyway in my own place i just want yo make small business but not hundred percent just only thinking what im really doing best.
AA
Hi Bruce,
Thanks for all the helpful information that you have about obscure places in the back country. We both seem to have an interest in out of the way places.
That Mike sure has a lot of energy! I really enjoy his place “Adventure Dive” there in Dumaguete, on the island of Negros.
Keep us informed about your new discoveries!
cheers
dp
Hi DH, tnx for the info and promoting my beloved home town! hope you can visit GAMAY again and i hope its good weather.
Hi irmie,
I really love northeastern Samar!
Thanks for your comment, maybe I will make another run during the dry season. I found the locals to be very kind and friendly.
cheers
dp
hello dp
thank you for the free ads you are posting for the municipality of gamay especially that “Gamay Hotel”. honestly, i am a gamaynon but i never knew that there’s such a hotel which you described a “5 star hotel”. What you have done is a big boost for the tourism potenial of Gamay.
Keep it up and more power
doc silver
Hi doc silver arcamo,
Thanks for your comment!
The “dutchpickle” website is just a travelers guide to the Philippines. I lived a year in Catbalogan, Samar and just decided to put up information about it on the internet.
Hopefully some of the information will be of use to other travelers.
I really enjoy visiting out of the way places like Gamay and the rest of northeastern Samar!
cheers
dp
Hi DP!
Thank you so much for promoting our hometown, Gamay, especially “Gamay Hotel” I’m here in Cebu City and visit the place every townfiesta.
Hope you could also visit Matikawol Falls located at the end of Gamay River.
More power
Fe
Loved Gamay!
cheers
dp
hi mr. dutchpickle,
i think there is a mix-up in the posting of your photos. i am from gamay, and communicates constantly with my family there. they have not mentioned anything about a gamay hotel. i have a feeling you reached palapag or lao-ang.
Hi David Lavin,
It’s right on the river in Gamay, very new and beautiful!
I just named it “Gamay Hotel” because of lack of info and the owners don’t seem to be actively promoting he place.
It is very possible that some people from Gamay do not even know it is there, it is off the beaten path
dp
Hi, http://www.dutchpickle.com !
Thanks for that very informative story about Gamay Hotel. I am a native of Cagamutan, Gamay, N. Samar and spend my living in Manila for almost 16 years. But, I used to have my vacation every after 3 years. I really surprised when I knew from this site that there’s such hotel in Gamay. I can’t even imagine that this place, which lay along a medium river, can have a nice and very accomodating hotel like this! Thanks to the Owner of this hotel… I really appreciate this! Hope the security is good also.
It’s me,
Edwin Dulfo
Hello Edwin,
That hotel is really nice and seems completely out of place.
Joni and I left Biri Island early in the morning on the first pumpboat. We passed through Catarman and crossed the river to Palapag but it was still early so we decided to continue.
It was a long ways to Gamay and we arrived well after dark on my hable-hable.
There had been steady rain for 3 weeks so you can imagine the condition of the road! I had already lived in Samar for a year so was used to the driving conditions.
We were very grateful to be able to get out of our wet and muddy clothes and take a hot shower
ingats
dp
I am so glad you found that hotel and post it. I went to gamay with my kids last year and didn’t know it was a hotel. we’ve seen it and it looks very very nice from outside. my parents have a nice house there. but, i have a big family so thier house is always full. so next year i will stay there. come for a fiesta on September 13,14 and 15. you will have so much fun during that time. fiesta there is every year same date.
THANKS FOR THE INFO
Jovita
Thank you guys…. for the free ads.
FYI Gamaynon’s – that house is located at the end of Da-o St (riverside), Orriental. It is just beside our ancestral house (or you may ask the pedicab drivers the house of Dr. Engo and you’ll find it side by side) and whenever I am in Gamay i sleep there in that hotel as you call it. It is the house of my brother-in-law and my sister. The owner is a simplest person i know and accomodatingand both shy. You will enjoy the place. You’ll love to stay at the rooftop and have a snack of banana cue. You’ll feel so relaxed and so out of stress. Try it and i promise you’ll like the fresh air and the nature. Oh.. Gamay… Near is the Fiesta and my family will be there… maybe in that hotel…he..he..he…
Nancy Engo-Lim
Dear Nancy Engo-Lim,
Thanks so much – that Gamaynon’s is such a special treat when you are coming up the trail in the rainy season in the middle of the night!
I can not tell you enough about how nice it was to find that place (and the courtesy and kindness that the management showed Joni and me).
We were the only guests, but yet they fired up the generator just for us.
We had left Biri Island that morning and drove all day through the driving rain. The “road” was a rutted, muddy mess and we took several boat trips across the water that day. No Jeepneys were running due to the condition of the road – as a result of three weeks of steady rain!
Thanks again.
Hope to stop in there again some day – it is a fabulous trip – north eastern Samar!!!
dp
I am combantrin and also from gamay, i missed gamay ,it’s a small town i wish i could go back soon,
Hello comban,
Gamay really is a cool little town!
I really like north eastern Samar and hope to make another trip there soon. I spent a year in western Samar in Catbalogan and enjoyed it there too but now have relocated to Ormoc City in Leyte.
cheers!
dp
hello again to everyone of you! thanks a lot! we have almost a hundred of members are here and i believe gamay is not (gamay means small) and i was really surpriced when i call to my father about the electric power.thanks to our government anyway. so i’m really interested to take my vacation to go back gamay and to find gamay hotel thanks.
Hi absalon,
Are you from bry.dau? i am from brgy. gibuangan and right now i am here in iraq working and like you also i have problem going back to work if i will go to gibuangan in gamay, i almost get crazy here in mosul, i missed gamay especially gibuangan, thanks a lot to all of you…
comban
Is Dr. Engo’s Family the owner of this hotel? I remember Dr. Engo as he was the Doctor as far as I remember, operated my finger. That was year 1982. And i know also Dr. Engo because his house is also 100-meter away from the house of my relative – Capoquian.
Hello Edwin,
I am not sure of the owners name but the “Gamaynon” or Gamay Hotel as I call it is really a nice place to stay!
dp
im from calbayog samar. i never heard those lovely place only now thank u.
As a Gamaynon, I am happy to know that there is now a “hotel” in my hometown. Whether it was really built as a hotel or just as a residence that would accept or accommodate transients, does not really matter. What’s important is that it is now there to be appreciated both by the Gamaynons and by the visitors as well.
Gamay is a beautiful town. It’s a pity that up to now, the road that connects it to Tinampo(a barrio of its mother town, Palapag) is almost always in a miserable state. Help us pray that those in government who are in a position to help the Gamaynons would make things happen by paying that particular road the attention it deserves. The politician who can do that will truly earn the Gamaynons’ eternal gratitude because by then Gamay would be more accessible to more people. Then and only then would the beauty of Gamay, and the Gamay “Hotel”, be more “universally” appreciated. Or am I just dreaming?
I echo Jorge B. Ty’s sentiments regarding the road from Palapag to Gamay. I love going to the towns beyond Palapag to the Pacific–Mapanas, Gamay, Lapinig. But I get body aches most of the time, “free massage” as I call it :D But really, a good road will make a big difference in the lives of the people living in these towns.
Hi, dutchpickle!
I had been from Gamay where I’ve spend my 2-week vacation. Just in Nov. 6, 2009 i went there and asked a pedi-cab driver about this Hotel. He confirmed to me that there’s a Gamay Hotel beside the river. But because of my hectic schedules at that time, I did not see Gamay Hotel in my very eyes. I am planning to go back again by September next year to visit my parents and relatives and also to spend maybe a night in this hotel.
And surprisingly, the electricity supplied by NORSAMELCO is 24-hour a day already except when there’s a power interruption… When the power is interrupted, expect the 2 to 3 days brownout! That’s the bad scenario that i experienced during my 2 weeks stay in my hometown. The road from Palapag is almost perfect and almost complete. Excellent road quality.
The signal of Smart is too bad in this place but I used my PLDT landline on some of the areas along the beach in Cagamutan.
Thanks Edwin for your post!
dp
hi DP
maybe you missed the beautiful matikawol falls as we name it.you can see the pictures if you search the group ‘GAMAY PRIDE’ in facebook. That place is very cool and very refreshing.i just typed the word gamay from mr.google and i noticed the gamay hotel..great job!!thumbs_up!!.you better roam around the gamay to discover the real beauty of our home place.
paul
Thanks Paul,
For sure – I would like to explore that area of Samar some more.
When Joni and I were there, the rain was almost non-stop so we didn’t dally very long. I really enjoyed my trip around Samar by motorbike and stayed for one year in Catbalogan Samar.
Samar will always have a special place in my heart!
cheers
dp
wow i love my beloved home town i really excited to come home im at pampanga,..im a gay i love to stay here with my boyfreind…from uk…he love to come there…
First of all I would like say thanks a lot four your dutchpickle (website) I’m happy you know i see in your website about gamay,i know in gamay is a nice place than before now I’m planning my family in bicol to transfer in gamay because i missed it in long long years from saudi and qatar now im here in qatar, you know i really exited to stay in my home place….T.Y very much your website.
This edifice called “Gamay Hotel” is very inspiring to us it’s an open gate to those dreamers and artist that those days were only “wall paint” in our hearts now become reality.As an artist i love to call this hotel since it has no formal name “River View Hotel”because it is located along the river of Gamay especially viewing on the roof top right?or shall we call it ” Pacific Sunrise Hotel” because it is facing where the sun rises on the pacific ocean correct me if am wrong.Actaually Gamay looks like an Italy because of its river but of course not a sunken city..hehe and i think because of its unique characteristic this town will become well known town,full grown of potentials and become our pride.
great day!
i’m proud that i am a “gamaynon” when we talk about gamay, yes it means small but paradoxically speaking gamaynon is very hospitable. i think that hotel is near @ gala vocational skul..am i right??