San Juan

Saturday, October 9

 

Back in Manila to pay for our reservation. Then we decided to spend a night at the Asian Mansion II, an excellent hotel at a relatively reasonable price, with a rooftop pool—so classy…

 

After doing some shopping, we enjoyed the hotel’s pool…

 

The four of us had dinner at the Hard Rock Café that evening and tried to go out to the Embassy, but we were turned away because Sébastien was wearing shorts. Empty-handed, we headed back…

At 1:00 p.m., we headed back to Cabuyao—this time, in less than an hour.

 

Sunday and Monday were for resting, before heading off to San Juan for three days with the aunts.

San Juan is located in southern Luzon, across from the island of Mindoro. After looking at a multitude of hotels, we chose the Kabayan Resort and Beach. Very nice, excellent food…

But the weather wasn’t great—way too bad, cloudy, and windy.

 

The next day, the sun was shining brightly, so we went for a walk on the beach and swam at the public beach.

Here’s a little anecdote: just as Marlon headed off to the Sari-Sari store (a small local market), Laurent, Seb, and I were approached by some Filipino women on vacation—a whole family who absolutely insisted on taking pictures with us. We happily went along with it, and they offered to buy us a drink—beer. When Marlon returned—he’d met Ryan, who works at a resort—he felt a bit awkward because he’d given Ryan 100 pesos (about 2 euros; this guy only makes 200 pesos a day) as a thank-you for accompanying him. So when Marlon got back, Ryan treated us to a snack…

Later that day, after lunch, we met up with the ladies on a bancas (a small canoe with a generator and floats—typically Pinoy) to go snorkeling in a magnificent spot. It was wonderful—all those corals and colorful fish. Better than in the documentaries. Wow…

On Friday the 14th, to tell the truth, we always get up between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. to make the most of the day, since the sun always sets around 6:00–6:30 p.m.—it’s impossible to sleep in because, anyway, it gets hot after a certain time.

At 7:30 a.m., the ladies, Marlon, and I head to the Palenke, the morning market, to buy local seafood, which we asked the hotel to prepare for lunch—grilled (barbecu) and in soup—delicious.

The rest of the day was spent walking on the beach, swimming, and eating, eating, eating… Filipinos eat six times a day—impossible to keep up…

On the 15th, we left at noon and arrived three hours later after a 120-km drive.

 

Coming up next: the weekend in Modesta…

Ninve