south-east asia → philippines → batangas → san juan
with the cloudy dark sky last weekend, obviously it’s not yet summer…but still we went to this fantastic beach in san juan batangas. i went with a couple of new friends from lawson. it was actually my first time to a beach in batangas province, and i’ve heard so many good things about this particular district in batangas, san juan, so ‘was really excited. the place is called ‘La Luz’. website for more info -> here
unfortunately, we only had the weekend for leisure. so we were on our way to batangas early saturday, and back manila bound a little bit after 12pm sunday. travel time is about 4 hours each way coming from makati area, and as i live in the south, they just picked me up at an expressway caltex station in laguna area. (sorry for being late though, hehe)
we got there a little early before check-in time (1pm), so just took a couple of pictures while waiting for lunch..and tried the see-saw for kids..finally, lunch, which is not bad. we preordered all our meals for our stay ’cause the place seems a little bit private and there’s no other place around where you can get food. all foods are okay i guess, and priced just right. 900 pesos for a buffet lunch , merienda and dinner on saturday, and a buffet breakfast on sunday, which i would have turned into a brunch (because of long travel time ahead) only if didn’t have that slight hangover from saturday night drinking.
talking about drinks, ’twas a little bit mix of everything. boys drank mostly fundador, a bit tequila and gilbeys, and splash of baileys. 7-up or sprite (can’t recall) for chaser. well, thanks to my dad’s ever insatiable alcoholic genes, i didn’t get drunk honest, nor vomit… just a little dizzy. ‘was even able to run get some water to drink before dozing off.
apart from drinking, eating, taking photos and being merry, we swam, played our very own version of football (that was after multiple failed attempts of playing decent volley). mind you, we even have rules! including hand ball penalty, hehe. score was 1-0, us one, and then just stopped when 2 among us got injured… there was a wooden raft a few meters by the shore and i figure it’s nice to have some jumping and diving again! i’m a terrible diver and a belly flap expert. 
nevertheless, i still enjoyed trying it despite my chest totally red! i just don’t know how to do that head-first-splashless dive, so would a karate-side-kick be cool instead?
of course, trip wouldn’t be complete without checking out marine life around this spot. so once again made use of my snorkeling set (a good investment). we were suppose to get in a boat and go snorkeling somewhere else sunday morning, but everyone hardly got up at 6, so we cancelled that. but still, ‘was really surprised by some of random corals and species that you can find not too far from the shore. blue-neon small fish, orangy big fish, silver with black stripes fish, plain silver fish, some rare fish with purple spots. diversity really! from my own experience, i would say that marine life, at least for snorkeling, is best around these areas of the philippine water. i mean, mindoro-batangas area. no doubt it’s a lot lot better than what you can see in subic area, or aklan, puerto princesa, and alaminos. but that is not to say those places are half bad!
this was also the first vacation and out-of-town of my beloved holga! (which i was able to shoot a good roll of fuji superia. sorry can’t shoot more, 120s supply is limited, and will probably have it developed shortly).
more pictures from the trip –> here
