My neighbor SU and I, together with her friends RM and SM, went to Batangas last weekend for a much-needed bout of relaxation.
We decided on Palm Beach Resort because it is the only one with acceptable-to-SU's-standards (a really good basis for judgment) room available. Said resort located at Barrio Hugom, San Juan, Batangas near Laiya.
Getting up at 5am to get ready is no easy feat, but the excitement of getting to be ONE with nature, particularly the beach, had me waking up with no repeated bout snoozing the alarm clock. SU and I drove to the South to SM's place and hitched in RM's car to Batangas.
We had the map and directions printed out from Palm Beach's site to help us, but they need to update it as the Star Tollway now stretches up until Batangas City, not Lipa City as it originally did.
We got to the Laiya stretch, lo and behold, they are starting to pave the dirt road! Hooray! Bad news is, lowered cars are still a no-no for this stretch. It is literally impossible for said rides to pass through the worse dirt road leading to Palm Beach and the downward slope from the hill to the resort itself.
We didn't get to take photos of the mountain-like dirt road and the downward slope leading to the resort as we had our mouths open in amazement and our fingers crossed the whole time.
After five hours of travel (stopovers included), we finally arrived at the resort. The room assigned to us is simply divine! It can fit up to six people, with two on each bed, one on the sofa, and one on the pullout underneath the sofa. Mind you, even I, a 5'9er, can fit on the sofa comfortably.
Here are some of the shots around the resort.
I fell in love with the beach, but the click-happy me willingly gave up swimming and tanning (reason here) in favor of capturing the landscape.
I will definitely go back to Palm Beach as I find their accommodations above my expected standards, but only when we are in SUV's.
Super thanks to RM who agreed to let SU and me hitch so I can leave my a-bit-lowered car in Manila.
Photo Credits: me
