My paternal relatives have been taking advantage of every opportunity to get together after my paternal grandfather passed away a few months ago. Lolo used to be the reason why the extended family gets together, usually during hospital visits in Manila. Now that he’s gone, any paternal relative’s birthday is a reason for our family to spend the day in upland Cavite or in Batangas. I hope it stays that way. Last weekend, we went to Nasugbu in Batangas for the birthday of one of my young nieces. We spent the night and the rest of the day-after leisurely at Canyon Cove Resort.

A day after our trip to Batangas, I took a bus to Pangasinan to join my fraternity batchmates from UP Los Banos in a brief leisure outing.

After a little more than four hours on the road from Manila, I reached the municipal hall of Bugallon, Pangasinan. I had asked for the bus to drop me off at the landmark where my fraternity brothers were to pick me up. They had arrived hours earlier and had gone sight-seeing ahead of my arrival.

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Tags: Batangas, Bugallon, family, fraternity, Lingayen, Nasugbu, Pangasinan, sorority, Upsilon

Last weekend, the family went on a short two day, one night trip to a nice semi-secluded beach in Laiya, San Juan, Batangas, three to four hours away from Manila. The resort was called Palm Beach at Barrio Hugom, and was far down the road from the rest of the resorts along the increasingly famous Laiya shoreline.

Its relative isolation from the rest of the resorts in the area, and its seclusion from the other beaches by some mountains, give it a serene and relaxing character. However, despite its apparent isolation from the rest of the popular resorts in the area, it has relatively new and modern facilities and amenities. There is even wifi access in many parts of the resort. I was able to surf the internet one afternoon, under the shade of a tree right at the beach, while I hear the waves lapping on the shore and the sea breeze blowing to cool me off despite the hot afternoon. There was, however, no signal for the Globe network, so I was inaccessible by phone the entire time–which helped me relax, I guess.

I spent most of my time just lounging, and swimming at the pool. I missed swimming like that, though it made me realize that I have to lose some weight and do more regular exercises. I found myself excessively gasping for air after two laps.

Food is served in buffet at breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is also afternoon snacks. They ration the food in the beginning, but you can go back to the buffet table anytime for second, or third servings.

It was just a short trip. We got back to Manila by Saturday evening.

Tags: Batangas, beach, family, Laiya, resort, San Juan, sand, sea, shore, swimming, vacation

May 24, 2008. My parents picked me up from the Manila Domestic Airport, fresh from my 5 AM flight from Cebu City after the KASAMA sa UP National Council Meet. We were to proceed to my father’s office outing at Laiya Beach in San Juan, Batangas that day.

Because I was largely sleepless, I was asleep for most of the four-hour drive from Manila to San Juan, Batangas, only to be awaken when we were to eat breakfast at a fastfood restaurant.

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Tags: Batangas, beach, family, Laiya, San Juan, sea

Two Saturdays ago, to cap off my mother and my brother’s birthdays (which both fall within the same week), we went to Hacienda Escudero (formerly Villa Escudero) for a short day trip.

It was my first time at the estate-turned-tourist destination. It took us a almost four hours to drive down to San Pablo, Laguna / Tiaong, Quezon from Manila. We passed by the route crossing Batangas.

When we arrived at the place, we were toured briefly at the church-turned-museum. It looked familiar for me. No, not because I’ve seen it in the many postcards that it may have appeared in. It was after a few minutes when I realized this was where Wong Kar Wai shot parts of his film Days of Being Wild. Anyway the museum was basically a hogwash of various antiques and Escudero memorabilia, which I found quite interesting.

After the museum tour, we rode these carabao trolleys to the resort’s main recreation area, where we had lunch at the foot of a man-made dam with fresh water falling off the dam’s slope and streaming through our feet. If not for the heat of the midday sun, it would have been a very relaxing and refreshing lunch.

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Tags: Batangas, estates, family, farmers, Laguna, land reform, Quezon, resorts

March 21-22, 2008. The family spent two days in Batangas for the Good Friday and Black Saturday holidays. We dropped by Matabungkay Beach in Lian in the morning of Friday before proceeding to Golden Sunset Resort in Calatagan, where we spent the rest of the short getaway.

We left Quezon City at around four in the morning and arrived in Tagaytay just before six. We had fastfood breakfast in Tagaytay before proceeding to Batangas. Since I barely had any sleep because I spent the entire night till early morning editing my thesis short film, I slept the entire time. We eventually arrived in Matabungkay in Lian, Batangas a little past eight in the morning.

Even if my parents prodded me to take a dip in the salty water to, apparently, help heal my fungal infections, I refused. There was also quite a crowd on the beach and in the waters. Too many rafts, too. Didn’t want to swim at all. I contented myself with taking stolen photographs of Tisay and other people.

Because it was getting pretty boring, we decided to proceed to Golden Sunset Village Resort & Spa in Calatagan where we had a reservation. Didn’t have much fun since I wasn’t really in the vacation-mood at all because of thesis-worries and other such leftover academic concerns. Plus I didn’t feel comfortable swimming with the dark fungal infections I had in some parts of my body. I again just contented myself taking photographs of Tisay, my nieces, and other things around the resort, including the golden sunset from where the place borrows its name.

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Tags: Batangas, beach, Calatagan, family, Lian, resort, Tisay, vacation