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