Last December 2012 I went to the nice Philippines' rich cultural heritage place (around 3 hours driving from Manila) accompanied by my friend, ex my colleague, with 2 of her friends. Before going to the place, we stopped for lunch in a delicious traditional restaurant called
Pasti Tito, at 285 Bry. Sta. Cruz (PUTOL), San Pablo City 4000, Laguna, Phone: 725-2686 / 724-4231. It had a nice architecture with painting and ethnic furniture, it also had a garden with some flowers, trees and birds. A small store was selling souvenirs next to the restaurant.
Our destination, called Villa Escudero Resort, was founded in the 1880s by Don Placido Escudero and his wife Dona Claudia Marasigan. The small village earn their living the coconut plantation, there was also school for education. It's opened for public in 1981. Arriving at the place, 1059 Estrada Street | Malate, Manila, Luzon 1004, we had to buy an entrance ticket, cost PHP 1000. You could enjoy some facilities such as riding buffalo (carabao cart ride), watching cultural performance(only at weekend), entering the museum. You need to pay more if you want to buy drink or food, or riding bamboo raft. You also could stay overnight or just rent the hut for day time.
A cart pulling by a buffalo was ready to bring us to have a rural village tour. A woman singer accompanied by a man playing guitar provided live music during the journey. The singer voice was very nice, unfortunately I didn't understand the meaning of the song, anyway I could enjoy the rhyme. On the way we could enjoy the nice scenery with many green fields, some statues and building were described the people activities. The journey ended in front of an alley to the main hall.
We had to go along through the long alley to the main hall where the music and dance performance had been started. There were many tourists at that time, we had difficulty to find seats. Some round tables were set up facing to the stage, it's quite huge areas. Walking down to the back we could see some empty chairs, lucky that there were some people left the performance, maybe they had seen it before.
The Philippine Experience Show played traditional music almost similar to Javanese music. Some traditional dance were performed from different tribes and colonial legacy in Philippines. The performers were the resort employees and accompanied by the resort's own musicians and rondalla ensemble. As I sat in the middle of the room, it's rather difficult to take picture. Sometimes I went to the front to take pictures anytime they performed a different dance. At the end of the performance, they let the visitors went up to the stage to take picture with the performers, it's very crowded until I gave up although I was on the stage, because the visitors kept coming so that I could not have a private picture with the performers.
I was more interested to the Labasin lake at the side of the dining and convention hall, it's very tranquil and beautiful, I kept taking pictures for the beautiful scenery. There were some huts at the left side while the right side full of green trees. You could see at the end of the lake narrowed with beautiful background of a mountain. I really enjoyed it, unfortunately I didn't have enough time to ride the bamboo raft, it's quite sunny at the afternoon, maybe enjoying from the lake side was better than sunbathing paddling on the bamboo raft :-)
My friend brought us to go to different area, going down to the stairs to the waterfall restaurant. It's very amazing, that's why my friend asked me to change my sandals to rubber slippers, unless my sandal would be broken. It's amazing, they provided some bamboo bench and table on the water with man-made waterfall as the backdrop. Usually people would come here for lunch, then going to the performance. We did the other way around, so it's not crowded at all.
Although we didn't order anything, the waiters didn't prohibit us to sit on the bench. Even he helped us to take picture together, he's very kind. We enjoyed sitting on the bench, with our feet on the water. It's cold and relax, there were some fishes swimming on the running water. The waterfall came from the Labasin lake, it's used to create power for the village, called "Arsenio Escudero Hydroelectric Power Plant. Then they utilize it as one of the tourist attraction, really a very great idea. I didn't want to go too soon, we enjoyed sleeping on the bench, feeling the fresh air and relax ambience. It seems that we could stay there forever.
Before it's getting dark, my friend pushed me to leave the place to see the museum which would be closed soon at 17:00. The carriage was waiting for bringing us to the museum which was next to the entrance. We passed by the private home of the owner, we could not go inside the house with beautiful gardens at front and mountain as the background. A statue of the founder was in front of the owner house gate.
Entering the museum, you could not bring your camera. I have taken picture from outside the pink museum only, we're not allowed to take any picture inside. The collection in the museum was from hundred years ago, from church collection/ decoration, various coin and money from different countries, also clothes from the 1st Philippines president until the current one. A guide would help to explain about all collection displayed in the 2 floors of the building. We had only 15 minutes left before closed, so we were in rush to see all of them.
It's quite a memorable experience, especially for the wonderful and relaxing waterfall restaurant. It's worthy to visit this place when you had a leisure time on your visit to Philippines.
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