Fantastic Authentic Villa Escudero Resort

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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Iconic Taal Volcano at Tagaytay

The second time of my visit to Makati made me enable to meet my Philippino friends, we haven't met each other for few years. It's a quite nice small reunion, one of my friend was kind enough to drive us to Tagaytay around 2 hours from Manila. It's quite tiring I think, as he'd just arrived from the place one day before with his family.

As seeing in the website, the scenery seemed beautiful so I don't mind spending a few hours to go there. We visited the Picnic Grove, it's quite huge area, suitable for family leisure. Most of them were bringing their own food for picnic under the trees in the park. Some small stores were available selling souvenirs. There were some attractions or games, such as fishing on the small ponds, flying fox, etc.

Quite a lot people going to this place as it's Sunday. We decided to go to the ecotrail to get better view. As the sun shone quite bright, we used umbrella to protect our head. I was stunning with the view of Taal Volcano on the Taal Lake. It's really beautiful although I hadn't started walking the trail.

My friend said that following the ecotrail would get more beautiful scenery, even nearer to the volcano view. There were some bungalows on the right and left side of the trail path for people to sit/rest while enjoying the scenery. As we didn't have much time, we kept walking down after taking some photo shoots.

Because we wanted to take picture together, we asked help from one of the seller who following us to sell the snack. Surprising his shoot quite beautiful, the volcano and lake could be seen beautifully as our background. After that we bought one of his snack as the reward to take our pictures :-)

If you would like to go to the crater, my friend told me that it would be enable by riding the boat, but at least it would take around an hour one way journey. We didn't plan to stay in Tagaytay, so we didn't have enough time for it. For me enjoying from the picnic area was more than enough. You had to stay overnight there if you would like to visit the crater.

We passed through a hanging bridge, if you would like to fly, there's also Zipline ride's like flying fox, which could be rode by 2 persons together, or the more relax one was riding cable car with capacity up to 8 adults. Last stop was step up the stairs to the place which was build the first time to see the scenery.

After finishing the Eco Trail, we went to the office to pay for the park fee and entrance fee. The payment was centralized in this office, income was reported transparantly for all visitors on the wall. It's quite a good behaviour. There was coffee maker with a very cheap price, just PHP5 for a cup of coffee, we didn't dare to try it. We returned to our car, took a rest after sport at noon, by drinking and eating some snacks to fill our empty stomach before having lunch.

If you only have just one free day during staying in Manila, definitely Tagaytay is a proper place to visit. Thank you to my lovely friends for your kindness brought me there.

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Leisure in Manila

During weekend my friend from Manila was kind enough to show me some interesting places in Manila as that's my first visit. We visited the bay, some churches and ended with traditional dinner in a unique restaurant


The first visit was to the reclaimed land where the Mall of Asia (the biggest Mall in Philippines), some modern offices, many restaurants and also hotels with beautiful and sophisticated architecture are built. It's a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon). We didn't stop by in the huge mall, because I only wanted to enjoy and explore Manila scenery instead of shopping :-)


When passing by the baywalk, I was interested in stopping there, so we turned around and entered the parking lot. It's called "By The Bay", the popular recreation area for Metro Manila people. There were various restaurants which has open air area and also indoor. They provide various food such as western food, local cuisine, etc. Some foodstalls were also there, attempting visitors to taste snack, ice cream, drinks, etc. It's full of music, so many people hung out in that area, sitting on the edge of the bay waiting for sunset. My friend informed that sunset is very beautiful from here, so Philippinos people like to enjoy it, bringing some food and snack together with friends or family.


After passing by some restaurants, we went to the park, there was a small amusement park, where children could play with the swing, bike, etc. A small fountain decorates the promenade, with some statues accross the fountain. A big wheel such as London Eye or Singapore Flyer was also there to enable people viewing Manila from the height. At the other side of the bay, there was an exquisite yacht club area where many private yachts anchored.


The park was quite spacious, it enabled people express themselves. Such as that day there were two young boys play pantomime. It created crowd in the middle of the park to see their actions. It's good to practice and test their art performance in front of the real audience before going to professional. On the way back to the parking lot, we stopped by at Hooter, the famous bar & restaurant with beautiful and sexy waitress. Unfortunately the delicious chocolate cake we wanted was not available, so we canceled the visit for eating. The waiter was very friendly, they kept smiling at us and allowing us taking picture although we didn't buy anything.


At the edge of the bay near to the yatch club, we could see some temporary wall to close the ruin places because of the typhon last year. After passing through the main road of Manila, Roxas Boulevard, where there were some big five stars hotels, government offices, also US embassy office by the bay, we arrived at Cathedral. There was a mass at that time, I also prayed for a while, asking for 3 wishes to God. The mass ended so fast, the electricity inside the church was off after the mass had finished, lucky that I've taken some pictures before it's totally off. The cathedral's door was very beautiful, it's made of wood full of carving of the holy pictures. If you're hungry, you just need to go accross the cathedral, a unique restaurant provided various menu of cardinals' favourite meal.


Finally we had dinner in a traditional restaurant Bakahan at Manukan, Roxas Boulevard near corner Gil Puyat Avenue, Pasay City, which held cook & waiter singing and dancing. It's fun and a different ambience, all of them could sing and dance beautifully, without microphone their voice was loud enough to be heard by all guests. I enjoyed the ambience, although it's rather noisy. My friend suggested to order gisa monggo (green bean soup), and Adobo manok (chicken). For beverage, she said that the popular mango shake ice was very nice, it's true, I like it very much, one glass was not enough for me :-). The green bean soup is unique but delicious, contained of vegetable, chicken, and pork. We enjoyed the food accompanying with their live music. If you visit Manila/Makati, you should stop by at the restaurant to feel different ambience.

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Unique Chocolate Hills at Bohol

Bohol is a prime eco-cultural tourism destination. My friend and I rented a car to reach one of the most famous tourism place in Bohol, the Chocolate Hills. Spread over the municipalities of Carmen, Sagbayan and Batuan, the Chocolate Hills is the province's signature attraction. They were similar to giant mole hills, consist of more than 1268 hay cock hills with heights ranging from 40 to 120 meters spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown seemingly endless rows of chocolate "kisses" hence the name. From this color, the hills derive their name. When I arrived there, the hills are green, because it's not a dry season.



On the way, we stopped by at a photo corner among the kiosks selling souvenirs. There was a giant screen with chocolate hills picture. A photographer with digital camera were ready to take our action who stood right in front of the backdrop picture. He gave us a broom, first I didn't understand what it was for. He asked us to act as if we rode the broom, and jump as high as we could. Amazingly we were like Harry Porter who could fly with the broom among the hills. He had a small printer, we could select which pictures we would like to print, it cost 100 Peso per piece. The paper quality was not too good, but the idea was quite bright.


Two of the highest hills have been developed and provided with facilities such as a restaurant, hostel and view deck. We went to one of them, entrance fee was Php 50.00/person. My friend has been visited a few times, she prefered to wait me in the park area than accompanying me to reach the top. The very long stairs were discouraged me of tiring walk to the viewing deck, but my friend pushed me to go up, she said it's worthy to see the scenery from the deck. The driver was kind enough to follow me climbing the 214 steps of the observation hill, to take my picture. I had to stop a few times before reaching the top, to take a rest, catching my breath.


There is an explanation on a bronze plaque at the end of the stairs. My friend is right, the scenery from the viewing deck was very remarkable. As far as my eyes could see the scenic panorama of Chocolate Hills. At the edge of the deck, there was no fence, but the scenery was very beautiful. You had to be careful to take picture, don't jump as the land was very narrow, and the ravine was very steep and deep, it would be dangerous if you slip.


The unique land form known as the Chocolate Hills of Bohol was formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion. Self-published, popular web pages present a variety of fanciful and less credible explanations about how these hills formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are the weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of a impermeable layer of clay.


In the middle of the viewing deck, there is a wishing bell among trees, you could make a wish by throwing a coin and ring the bell.


Going down was easier than going up, it's getting dark already. At the parking lot, I went to the toilet, as our journey back to town would take around 1-2 hours. There was no water at the closet, you had to fill the bucket with water from outside the toilet. It seems the water was very difficult to get there. The restaurant was also very quiet, I did


Formed centuries ago by tidal movements, the hills are considered as a National Geologic Movement. The Chocolate Hills is another contender to become one of the natural wonders of the world.

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Amazing Virgin Island in Bohol, Philippines

Virgin Island in Bohol, Philippines was very beautiful. I got a chance to visit the amazing island with my kind friend by renting a boat last May 2011. On the boat while reaching the island, we could see the barsand, it's very beautiful white sand span towards the sea from the main island.


If you're lucky and come early, you still could walk on the soft and clean white sand beach. The sandbar would dissapear when the tight is high around 12:00. We berth on the main island, my friend asked me to go around the island, it's not big, but I refused it. I was attempted with the sandbar. If you need water to drink, there're some sellers who also sold seashells in the main island.


We was lucky, we arrived on the right time, so I still could walk from the main island followed the sandbar almost to the end of the path. It's quite long, I liked it very much, because the sand was very soft, I put off my sandal and asked my guide to take my pictures. When taking picture on the sandbar, as if you were walking in the middle of the sea, because it's only a white sandy line contrast with the blue of deep water.


My friend prefered to ride on the boat from the main island sailing to the sandbar. I really like to walk on the sand, unfortunately my friend asked me to go to the boat for having lunch first. We brought grilled fish and squid from the previous island, because no people living in virgin island. Our guide also brought grilled pork and sausage from the city. The fish and squid was very delicious, maybe because it's cooked from fresh materials.


After having lunch, I wanted to continue playing on the water, unfortunately it's already reached the waist, I didn't want to make my clothes wet, it's a pity I didn't wear swimsuit at that time, so I could not play on the water. I only took some pictures from different angle, it's very beautiful. Because we could not do anything else, so we decided to go back home after another half an hour. If you visit Bohol and you like beach, definitely you have to visit Virgin island before 11:00 o'clock in the morning, so you still have a chance to walk on the beautiful sand bar.

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