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We thought we needed a weekend getaway so She Who Must be Obeyed and I decided to get “ON THE ROAD AGAIN”! We headed out to The Basang Basa Coral Paradise a beach resort in not so far away Barangay Amboyuan, San Joaquin on Saturday morning with a convoy of three vehicles. You see if you really want to get away around here it means you have to do it with the entire family and while you’re at it you may as well include a few friends. So, when we left we had a total of: 18 people with us and two more joined us later in the day. SOME GETAWAY, HUH!
The deal was it was “dutch treat” – you’re welcome to come along but you pay for your own family group and you provide a share of the groceries and ‘liquid refreshments’ for the entire group. Actually it worked out pretty well.
We had discovered the place a few weeks ago when a massive ‘brownout’ hit us very early one Saturday morning. On enquiring from Ileco 1 (our electricity provider) we were told that it would be an all day thing. At 8:00AM is was a scorching 96 degrees F and the humidity was over 70%…So, SWMbO told me to get my bathing suit and head to the beach, have some lunch, a few San Miquels and come home late in the afternoon.
“She Who Must be Obeyed” (SWMbO).
That’s the usual drill with major brownouts in our household – I get sent to the beach for some beach ‘viewing’, lunch and a few San Miquels etc…while the rest of the family simply endures the heat and humidity!
This Saturday was so insanely hot (as has the entire summer been so far – summer here is between Mid-February and the end of May when the rainy season starts and hopefully things cool down somewhat). When this conversation took place it was about 7:30 AM and the temperature was already in the high 30′s and the humidity was approaching 75%. I suggested: “Why don’t we just pile everyone into the car and just hit the road, follow our noses and see where that leads us?” She took that for cash and rounded up a group of 11 and we headed off shortly thereafter. That’s how we found this place. It obviously impressed us all because we were back a few weeks later and for an overnight this time.
Let’s say that people envision a beach resort somewhat in the same way you would see a place like Boracay – glorious sunsets, endless white sandy beaches accompanied by luscious looking ladies, and superb hotel accommodations…just like this:
SWMbO on her “girls only” getaway to Boracay recently.
Well, let me say this about that.
Boracay this ain’t. Just think about it. Why would you want to drive 5 or 6 hours when only about 1 hour from your from your from door is something just as relaxing, warm and comfortable? And best of all the water is just as wet as Boracay’s water at it’s all yours at a miniscule fraction of the cost of those big name resorts?
Oh, sure you’re going to have to do your own cooking (Filipino style) in the “dirty kitchen”, bring in everything you’re going to need. The beach? Well, it’s a stone beach but the water is crystal clear and it’s not polluted. Hey! Why not? The price is right and it’s just a relaxing! (Just bring some water shoes, it’s not a big deal!).
I had pictures flashing through my mind of not being able to sleep, because of rock hard or lumpy mattresses and not so clean rooms and bathrooms…RELAX – nothing was farther from the truth!
We rented a ‘cabin’ with air con (air conditioned) which had one bedroom with two double beds, a CR (comfort room as they call the bathroom here) and a shower room. But with that there is a beautiful covered porch with a fantastic view of the sea and a dining area…just down a few steps is the ‘dirty kitchen’ with the cooking area and a wash-up section. No fridge though so if you go bring your coolers with lots of ice…
There are three or four “air con” units like the one we had and an equal number of ‘non-air con” units with fans…we ended up renting the one as described above and one non-air con unit which has two bedrooms with two double beds in each room and everything else as described above…It was Saturday night and the place was empty except for our neighbours a couple in from California visiting the wife’s family in Iloilo…so we got a deal!
The main cottage on the beach with air con was 1,800 pesos and the second unit with the two bedrooms was only, a special deal for SWMbO at 800 pesos. See, I told you the price was right! Everyone had a great night’s sleep!
That’s Nilo, Pad and Joemarie at work in the dirty kitchen
The bonus is a picnic table next to the beach facing your cottage
It was ‘high tide’ when we arrived and the kids wasted no time getting into the water
All you have to do is just sit there and sip your favourite ‘cool ones’ and enjoy the life as the world whizzes by…The fishing pump boats are out in the bay and you can even buy some of the catch – the fishermen will send one of the children or their spouse to peddle their catch of the day. Apparently, there’s nothing better than fish just out of the sea for supper…I wouldn’t know since I just don’t do (eat it that is) fish!
from the ocean to your table within minutes…
Everyone got to go swimming and had a wonderful time, the boys on the other hand were sipping Emperador with iced water…and they were fine with that.
‘SWMbO’ with Jean and her son BamBam.
There is one thing I clearly don’t understand about Filipinas – why do they insist when you take a photo of them to flash the V sign? If you can enlighten me on that I would be eternally grateful!
You no doubt noticed the sign in the photo at the beginning of this article. It stated that the resort was a Coral Paradise. They are not kidding! At this time I have no photos to prove it, but I can attest to the fact that the coral is living and the reef is just teeming with fish. Fish, that where I come from, you only see in an aquarium – “black mollies”, angel fish of different multi-colours any and all types of other ‘tropical fish’ just an amazement and an overloading of the senses. It is a wonderment! When I saw the catch pictured below, I was a little unsettled, thinking that those fish should not have been kept but rather released and returned to their habitat to grow bigger and maybe reproduce some! The answer I got was the universal Filipino answer to everything we ‘westerners’ find interesting or puzzling: “well yes, but you’re in Philippines now!”
The tide is going out and that sight is truly something to behold. I borrow one of the childrens’ underwater goggles and ‘dive’ to go take a closer look at the coral.
Amazing! The coral is actually living and slowly sways back and forth with the rhythm of the waves coming in…it’s a sight to behold. And then there are the fish…they’re small and every colour under the rainbow is visible, darting to and fro it’s feeding time for them and it is incredibly beautiful… As I mentioned earlier, the water is crystal clear, even when I was chest deep in water and looked down I could see the bottom as clearly as if it were not 6 feet deep underwater, here is proof of that:
The ‘Tidal Flats’ (?) we’ll see this shot again shortly and at ‘high tide’
After seeing this phenomenal sight, I encouraged, SWMbO to come check it out. Now you have to know that she is not a swimmer and until recently would never go into the water deeper than her ankles…This time, she jumped right in, I had to hold hand and sort of guide her…she was blown away and spent the better part of an hour checking out the underwater life. We resolved then and there that we had to explore more waters like this and decided that on our return we would be going out and buying two things: 1. a new waterproof digital camera that can be used in the water; I know which one I want already, I’ve seen it (it’s a small Pentax with changeable lenses) and the price I saw was right. So, maybe when we’re in Hong Kong in July we can find one at a better price…we’ll see. And 2. a proper set of goggles for each of us so that we can really enjoy the sights.
As the day shortens and progresses into evening, supper is cooked and served…TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 2, COMING SOON!
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