Vacation

So Lucia and I got together around January and decided to use some well-deserved leave credits. I must say, this is one of the most testing events I've ever had to endure. For one thing, Lucia could not make up her mind at the start of things. She wasn't sure where she wanted to go. Every suggestion was met with a 'I don't know'. I was honestly on edge most of the time I was discussing things with her. When I did have certain details set, she suddenly announces that she wishes to go to the beach but under the strict provision that it was to be cheap.

Of course I would aim for an affordable vacation, there's no sense to throw so much money in the wind all for a few days' diversion. I tried to contact Coral Beach Club but they were unreachable. Seriously, what was up with that? I tried to email them, call them, send them FB messages, all to no avail. On further research, I discovered that their beach was ill kept. The plot of shore they had was not private. So I turned my attention to Laiya, Batangas. Yes, I did all the research for this trip as apparently my companion was as useful as a toothache when it came to planning.

La Luz Beach Resort was the best looking resort I saw from the plethora of websites I accessed. It also seemed to be the most affordable. I particularly liked how they forbade the presence of karaoke machines on the premises. In order to make trip even more affordable, we added another person into our party: Andrea.

La Luz was rather confusing to contend with regarding a deposit. So, keep in mind that when finished with your 50% deposit, be ready to have the deposit slip scanned and emailed to La Luz management. They'll reply as soon as they can with a confirmation e-mail. Then, be prepared to nurse that deposit slip because it needs to be presented along with a hard copy of the confirmation e-mail upon check in.

So there was a lot of things to be done, details to be finalized, and of course: SHOPPING! I'll be discussing some of the finds I got in a later post. When you're waiting for something, time seems to just crawl. Thankfully, the crawling stopped and the day for my vacation had arrived.

Lucia and I will be coming from the Alabang area so we woke up extra early to catch a bus to San Juan, Batangas. As it turns out: THERE IS NO BUS FROM ALABANG TO SAN JUAN, BATANGAS. Don't be deceived as I was about the details listed on the ALPS website. They said they had a bus from Cubao that passes on through to Alabang then head to San Juan, Batangas and they didn't. So we had to take a regular Batangas bound bus that stopped at Tambo. The fare was 98 pesos. When we got to Tambo, the conductor directed us to this little green shed and said that a bus that goes directly to San Juan would be passing there. The manongs that were waiting there were very helpful and they were on the look-out for the bus that we needed.

We didn't wait too long, it was only around 15 minutes or so when the Alps bus passed by. The fare from Tambo to San Juan proper was 56 pesos. It was pretty smooth sailing. The bus was nearly empty and I was happily snacking on the sandwich that my boyfriend had lovingly made for me. Lucia was feeling a little queasy so I gave her some apple slices and that cured her right up!

When we got to San Juan, Batangas we were immediately accosted by a trike driver asking if we were headed to Laiya. Neither Lucia or myself had been there before so we said yes. He said he'd take us to our resort for 400 pesos. Can you believe that?! 400 bucks on a trike?! He says that was cheap since the original price was 600 and that the jeeps were on a strict schedule that wouldn't start until around 11 am. We were there around 9 am. So, unfortunately, I let our newness to the place overcome my sense of thrift and we agreed to let the man take us to the resort for a bartered price of 350 pesos. I still couldn't believe it. It certainly hit my wallet and it HURT.

In fairness, the trip to the resort was pretty far. When he dropped us off at La Luz, he was being pushy about picking us up when we were headed home. I just had to draw the line there and said NO. I was going to find another way home. The staff was very friendly. They helped carry our things up to the check-in area. I was rather upset at the time as the person who had the print out of the confirmation e-mail wasn't there yet despite promising that she'd be the earliest there since she was living relatively close. Good thing that I was the one with the deposit slip and all was good. The staff led us to one of the cabanas since the check-in time was at 1 pm. The view was enough to significantly lighten my disposition. The view was gorgeous!

The 2.5 days I spent there was well worth the hassle of planning and saving. The food was really good, I particularly enjoyed their 'make-your-own-omelette' thing at breakfast. If ever you're going to La Luz, be sure to pack aqua shoes. Their 'sand' is mostly rock and corals so they can be pretty painful to the feet. I know I'll be prepared the next time I visit this place.