Pico de Loro and a Very Special Day

Mama turned 72 !  She wished for an out of town trip with her grandchildren on her birthday, she gets it!

Pico de Loro was the choice because it has a beach, it can be reached by car and it has a country club offering different activities, for guests of all ages- very ideal for family.  It is not an inexpensive choice but hey, it was a very special day.

Our birthday girl :)

When I googled Pico de Loro- I was a bit confused because the search returns information about Hamilo Coast and about Pico Sands.  I later figured out that there are 2 options for accommodation at Pico de Lord.  One is to book a unit in any of the Hamilo Coast condominiums, which are rented out by their owners via Airbnb.  The other option is to book a room with Pico Sands Hotel. 

Pico Sands Hotel lobby

Airbnb is a cheaper than the hotel, however guests need to pay additional Php 1,200 per person, to be able to use the facilities. The rooms with Pico Sands Hotel, on the other hand, include use of facilities plus buffet breakfast. Renting with Airbnb would be good for small number of guests.  However, since there was 9 of us, we found it more cost effective and convenient to book rooms with Pico Sands.  I would also like to mention that each booking at Pico Sands Hotel entitles Philippine Airlines Mabuhay card holders to earn 500 miles- guests only need to present their card upon check-in.

By the kiddie pool!

I did the reservation through the Pico Sands Hotel website, and 7% of the price was required to reserve the room.  I booked 2 De Luxe rooms, and since it was long weekend, each room costs Php13,300 for 2 adults and 2 children, or 3 adults and 1 child. An additional Php2,200 is charged for additional adult guest, for the breakfast and amenities.

My brother, his fiancé, my mom and myself arrived at 11:30- too early for the check-in time, which is 2PM.  We did check in anyway, though rooms were available only by 2 PM.  We were given a wrist band each, so that we will already be able to use the facilities, including the country club.

One of the most prominent feature of Pico de Loro was the man-made lagoon, in the middle of the hotel and the condominiums.  I heard that the lagoon is both of aesthetic purposes, and also it is where the waste water is treated.

We took pictures of the lagoon and then went to the pool side, which is right in front of the country club.  There is a pool side restaurant, Lagoa, and we decided to have lunch.  The price at Lagoa is surprisingly normal at an average of Php400- for a dish which is good for sharing.  And we found the food really good! I would recommend guests to try their shrimp and squid cooked in coconut milk dish.  

Such at Lagoa!

After lunch, we did a round of the country club.  There are a number of amenities, which will be enjoyed by everyone.  On one side of Lagoa restaurant, guests will find the basketball, badminton and squash courts.  There is a room for table tennis  on the ground floor and a gym on the 2nd floor.  On the other side of Lagoa, there are bowling lanes and billiards in one room, and videoke rooms across it.  There is also a big play room for kids, There are also tables for chess and even mahjong. 

At 2 PM, we went back to the front desk and our rooms were ready.

Both rooms are  on the 3rd floor and facing the lagoon.  A De Luxe room is  around 37 square meters and has a balcony.  It has the usual amenities (TV, airconditioning unit, towels, toiletries, bottled water, and coffee and tea set) plus beach towels.

Mom, brother and soon-to-be sister in law rested, while I waited for my other brother and his family.  When they arrived, I went down to get their wrist bands for them, and to handed them their key.  My nephew wanted to play table tennis right away, however, it was fully booked so they reserved for the next day. They opted for the beach, instead, while we chilled at the pool side, with our fruit shake.

By the pool side

By 5 PM, we took the free shuttle to go to the beach. The shuttle picks up passenger from the hotel, and from the condominiums.   When we get to the beach, we were happy to see my niece and nephew enjoying the sea, and the sand! We waited for the sunset at the beach side,. Unfortunately, the sun set behind the mountains today…so, no beach sunset shots for me.  

She enjoyed the sand more than the water :)

Beach!

By 6 PM, we took the shuttle back to the hotel, only to find out that it is actually very close to the hotel, and we could just have walked.  We freshened up and prepared for dinner.

The not-the-birthday girl ready for dinner.

We had dinner at Lagoa restaurant and our birthday dinner consist of crispy pata, sinigang na baboy, kare kare, the shrimp and squid in coconut milk (again), ribs, and Jalin Jin , a Korean dish.  And yes, all were good! We did enjoy the food, and the after dinner chatter.  

Birthday dinner!

The three victors: Victoria, Victor and Victor Miguel

We woke up the next day to very strong rain the next day.

We started the second day with buffet breakfast, at the restaurant downstairs. Breakfast can be taken at Lagoa. For breakfast, there’s the bread station for the toasts and bread, cheese, butter and jam.  Then there is the fruits and salad station, as well as the cereal station.  There is also the main course station. During our visit, there was adobo, sausage, and bacon, among others. Outside is the egg and pancake station. Overall, breakfast is ok but not exceptional.  I did love the cheese though!

Breakfast in pj's

After breakfast, we went to the country club to play table tennis.  I was surprised to find that my nephew is now very good with it!   When the weather improved and after table tennis, we went for a quick swim at the beach.  Because weather was not good, the waves were pretty big, and strong - so we gave up after 5 minutes in the water!  

No to waves!

Blue, green and pink- and mostly gray.

We had a quick walk by the lagoon, before heading back to our room to take a shower. Then we packed our stuff for the 11AM check-out.

Overall, I am happy with the Pico de Loro experience-despite the weather, and the beach.  I’m glad that mom’s wish was granted and she had a weekend get-away with her grandchildren.

Rizal Beach, Gubat, Sorsogon

Rizal Beach may not be the most beautiful beach in the Philippines - but it gives me the happiest memories.

Rizal Beach is an unspoiled beach (For most part, that is.  They are now starting to build more beach resorts in the area because a part of it is becoming famous with surfers). It is located near the southernmost tip of Luzon Island and is part Gubat, a very laid back town, I would say. 

My grandmother lived by this beach, and had a small cottage which she rents out to visitors, some of them tourists from other countries. We used to visit her, and Mamay, our greatgrandmother, on Saturdays or Sundays. Mamay was already very old then, has lost her sight and her head shakes involuntarily but she looked very happy whenever we visited. One of my favorites during the visit is the grilled pork, which grandma used to prepare for us.  It's the best grilled pork ever!

We used to spend the day just playing and running around , swimming (or taking a dip, in my case), covering Papa with sand, catching small crabs and just talking and laughing.  And we would come home sun burnt but happy.   

It was lovely to be able to visit the place again.  

West Wind Resort, Morong, Bataan

Baranggay Nagbalayong of Morong, Bataan has a number of beach resorts.  Via JJ Linao Highway, Nagbalayong is less than 30 minutes away from Bagac, Bataan so that was where we decided to camp for the night after our visit to Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar.    

Ten days before our trip, I have booked us a room in a resort called West Wind Beach Resort. I have read the reviews to most of the hotels in the said area and West Wind got good reviews.

Westwind is a relatively new resort, but it has a number of plus points.  One is that it is situated some distance away from the other resorts.   Which we liked.  That means, the beach was not crowded. Another is the clean beach with powdery sand (not white sand, tho)

The price of the room is good enough. A junior suite room , good for 5 persons with en suite T and B, costs Php3,600 or around USD80.

The owners and staffs are very polite and hospitable.  They allow guests to bring their own food and provided facilities to cook. They would willingly go to the market if the food you ordered is not available. 

Although they do not have wi-fi, they provide guests with some things to do. There was a photo booth, complete with hawaiian costumes:

At night they set up a projector for some concert shows.  And of course, guests can camp and setup tent at the beach, or play volleyball (net was provided).

And, of course, guests can always catch the sunset in the late afternoons.

A Day in Beach Garden Cha Am

I badly needed a break in June, as one would after a grueling first half of the year.  And since I have a workshop in Thailand at that time, and my Ecuadorian friend is coming over for my workshop, we made arrangement for a pre-workshop vacation.

We wanted to see the beach.  Phuket was out of the question because June is a stormy month and storms usually affect Phuket, as warned by our Thailand office security officer. We had to settle for places closer to Bangkok so we went for Hua Hin/Cha am-for some beach getaway and Ayutthaya , for some cultural exploration.  

Having did our research before travelling, we know our way-well, kind of. The mini bus station is located in Victory Monument, which can be reached via the BTS (train). Coming from Asok station, the terminal is at the left side exit of the Victory Monument station (Exit 2), right beside Century Cinema Mall. There are different booths for each destination- most are written in Thai. Luckily , the Hua Hin/Cha-am booth is in English.  

The booths at the mini bus terminal

We paid for our fare, got our ticket for 180 Baht each, and got confused :-D.  We were asked to wait for the minibus on one side-but it did take some time and the lady does not speak English. 

my "confused" friend

When the minibus finally came, we were expecting to board first since we were the first in the queue..which did not happen. So we ended up getting the most undesirable seat at the back-beside the luggages. It was however a fun 2.5 hours ride, with us talking all the way- which could probably have annoyed the other passengers. :)

We finally reached Hua Hin- and looked for a place to eat before boarding a taxi to Beach Garden Cha-am.  

Street food!

We reached the Beach Garden resort- and since we were booked for the cheapest room, we got the garden view, not the beach view..which kinda sucks because we went there for the beach. And so..we rushed to the beach, not wanting to miss the fun. And it was a clean, very nice beach...better than the beach at Amari Hua Hin hotel, where I was in March.

So nice that we stayed on until its dark...and had our Amarula drink, which came all the way from Africa. We had fun catching up, enjoying the wind and the sea, and trying to catch some pictures of lightning just for the heck of it.

And then it was dinner time at beach garden's restaurant.  We called it a day after dinner. We realized how badly we needed to rest.

Early morning was for catching the sunrise..we were surprised to see a bunch of young kids racing to the beach to do the same thing.  

Had quick breakfast, some time at the beach, a dip in the pool and then were off again to Bangkok to get ready for our Ayutthaya adventure the next day.

Blast From The Past: Romblon in 2008 (Part 6)

A write up of my previous trip to Romblon in October 2008

Day 3: Snorkelling at Alad Island

After Cobrador, we headed back to Alad island to pick up the five community leaders. While waiting for them, we went snorkelling.

A confession. It's my first time (!) .So i changed into my swim suit, and pretended i have been snorkelling all my life. But when I tried on the goggles, and forgot to open my mouth (which was a stupid thing to do), I panicked. Good thing nobody was in the boat and nobody witnessed my stupid, panicked look. My brother remembered that I haven't done this yet so he went back for me, gave me some sort of an orientation on how to snorkel and helped me out with the gear. (See how nice my brother can be! Well sometimes hehe...ok, ok, most of the time).

And so down the boat we went. I have fear of water, rather, of being under water, having been almost drowned when I was 9 years old or so. But my brother helped me out and I was able to go through my first snorkelling :-).

I was nervous at first, but when I saw the different colored corals swaying with the wave, and the fishes of all kinds and colors, it was like being in a real life "Finding Nemo" setting :-) It is beautiful down there! I knew there is a different world under water, I just didnt expect it to be as beautiful!

After an hour or so, our companions arrived, and we had to leave...sadly.

It was a really good day, better than most, my only regret is, I still do not have a digital SLR and an underwater camera! Sigh.

Blast From The Past: Romblon in 2008 (Part 4)

Day 2- Romblon Island: Pleasant Surprises

And so my brother and I continued our ride. As the view was getting better, the road was getting worst. It was a good thing the motorbike was built for rough roads.

Calabogo

And then we reached Calabogo.

Calabogo seemed an entirely different place. The yellow-greenish hills, to our right, could easily make one think of the grazing fields in a countryside in a European country. The view to our left, however, looked more tropical, with the coconut trees, the view of the beach and the really-blue sea.The only thing that connects the two very different and contrasting scenery is the small island, which looked like it was chunked from the hills.

Islet in Calabogo

We rode few meters up, and we reached the lighthouse. And here is where you get the best view of the entire place. We got off and spent few minutes enjoying the view. This would be a good place for family picnics, just like Tagaytay!

Lighthouse

Beach Everywhere!

We started off again, and wherever we went, there's beach everywhere! What made it more beautiful is that most of these beaches are still undeveloped, and thus, water remained very clean, very clear, very blue. We stopped a lot of times to take pictures. I could not get enough.

Beaches

Sunset at Agnay

I had time to rest after lunch, and started to draft my first story from my interview the day before. At 4 pm, it was time for my next interview. We headed off to Agnay.

We looked for Kuya Pendong, who is one of the leaders of the community-based organization on coastal resource management. We found him drinking tuba (a local wine) along with three others.

He walked us through the mangroves, to their "guard house", (where they guard their fish sanctuary from fishers), which is still under construction. And it was a beautiful place. The guard house is being built on the stone formations, by the fish sanctuary, amidst the mangroves.

It was already sunset when we finished the interview. And talk about being in the right place at the right time. There was one of the most beautiful sunset I have seen, and experienced. The rock formations made it more dramatic.

Sunset at Agnay

We stayed there until the sun has completely set. And then , it was dinner time once again.