Chasing the cold away

Winter in the southern hemisphere is around the corner. In fact, snowy Maluti mountains sent us on Friday an unexpected cold front which lasted until yesterday. No, actually, there’s still a bit of leftover today. At least, it’s slightly better today than yesterday. I don’t know how I got myself out of the house on Saturday but yesterday’s Mother’s Day was best spent at home in total relaxation. I stayed in my pajamas the whole day. It was dark, gloomy and, apart from freezing cold, it was wet. It was a strange autumn weekend for the highveld.

To feel better, I decided to reminisce about our last year’s trip to the Philippines. (No, I didn’t blog about it as there’s not much to it.) I am hoping that some pictures of our beach day will chase away the cold and the blues. (I am not a huge fan of heat so I like winter but I don’t like wet and gloomy. It’s enough to give me SAD, I think.)

We went to the Philippines last year to “sort out” my son.

(The plan was for him to study and live there for the next four years. Cut the story short, he is home with us in South Africa. Perhaps, adjusting to Asian life is impossible for a sort-of-spoiled 90’s South African young man. The language barrier was a huge thing, though… I think. He is excused.)

We were in Manila so there is not much to share here. But, we did go to “The Beach” for part of a day. The resort is really called “The Beach”.

It belongs to my college best friend’s former spouse (ex). We didn’t pay for anything to be in the resort. We did give the caretaker much more than the usual gratuity to say thanks for being accommodating and hospitable and for buying drinks for us from elsewhere. There were no refreshments/snacks or meals available to guests so we had to cater for ourselves. Fortunately, we were only there for a couple of hours of sun, sand and sea. I don’t think “The Beach” was quite ready for visitors. The owner has another, more popular, beach resort: Punto Miguel.

Both beach resorts are in Batangas, in Quezon, south of Manila. It’s a comfortable 2-hour drive. I don’t know which road we took.

The advantage of going to an unpopular resort or one that isn’t quite open/ready for visitors is it’s like having a private beach all to yourself. We were literally the only people there until a girl came to enjoy the warm water not far from us.

I have not been to the “best” beaches of the world (I’m not big on water fun) so I am sure that there are many with clear waters but I was quite impressed because this beach is relatively unknown, a nondescript resort.

We all had fun and this is that one part of our trip which could convince hubby to go back to the Philippines. He hated the city.

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I think that both hubby and son would be happy to live here. We could take over the lease of the resort and we can make it the best beach resort for international tourists that’s a stone’s throw away from Manila. 🙂

Here we are…

A beautiful sunset bade us farewell as we headed back to Manila.