How Are You : Catanauan Cove

Sometimes, it took me months ( even over a year ) to find and reply  comments in my old posts cos I don't get to read them right away, unlike those who comment using blogger account. I would only find them when I get to revisit my old posts. Nevertheless, however late and futile already_ I still reply.



Like_ just today I found this almost a year old comment (above screenshot) in my Catanauan Cove  post. The resort post itself is already almost three years old (2010). I thought of doing a sort of update about the resort which brought me back to  my old post. There I found the comment which I replied right away.

Well, the sad part is the comment is full of disappointment about the resort and quite contrary to what I was claiming in that post. The difference is I came to visit Catanauan Cove in its earliest phase. In its almost virginal state.

Personally, I've long wanted to revisit this private resort in Bondoc Peninsula (Quezon Province). I wanted to see how it progressed since my visit in 2010 when it was still relatively undergoing construction and found it to be a paradise of a beach. If only I had not gotten negative feedback from one of my bestfriends when she & family came to experience the place last Nov. 2012. I would have had revisited it by this time. Above photo was actually hers, taken during her visit. Oh well, I stole it from her FB and the rest of the photos coming below, haha. She'll never find-out anyway. She doesn't read my blog, haha.

this infinity pool, overlooking the ocean, was not yet there during my visit. nice!




I don't remember the resort having this area either, I guess it wasn't there yet too.

But I remember there were already activities for rent like kayak even then.

From this view, seems the beach is perfectly alright..




Not quite obvious with this photo of the beach she took, the reader's comments above, echoed and reaffirmed my friend's disappointments towards the resort. She exactly told me that the water was dirty and full of jelly fishes. I actually felt a little of guilt here cos I highly recommended the place to her. Expecting that the place must be more beautiful by that time cos of added structures like the infinity pool and whatnot. My friend also added the isolation she felt with fear cos she & family was the only overnight guest that time. It was a holiday in November. They stayed in a cottage by the beach.

I feel a little sadness here cos I truly feel concerned. I was happy when I discovered that there was a high-end resort in my home province (Quezon), I also love the proximity of it from Manila and that it's only takes a short  road trip. I really thought I would come to frequent this resort on its full blast.. but well, hearing these low maintenance buzz..




I wonder why the resort can't get motivated by their tree.. imagine 130 years old and still strong and beautiful. The resort is barely three years and already maintenance is an issue. Catanauan Cove is I think going for members only when it reaches its full capacity and temporarily open to the public.

Sad :(

Beach Coves

Before my memory of Fairways & Bluewaters, Boracay totally fails me, I thought I ought to share the rest of my experience there, right now or never:) It has been a month, let me refresh you from my latest post on this to the previous-est : around this resort, the most fun filled activity we had here , our room, our awesome land & sea transfer, our Halloween outside the resort. Then now we go....

... from where I was standing here ( please ignore the empty bottles of smbeers, definitely not mine, haha., it was 7 am, haller!!),  I saw...

these

:

:

V

One of the private beach coves of the resorts.

And this one too. Obviously, privacy is generously provided at this resort.



This also caught my eyes.

I lingered a little at my chosen platform and enjoyed more my bird's eye-viewing..



At the other side, I spotted the biggest beach cove of the resort.

It has a longer u-shaped white Boracay beach...

.. disrupted by a massive rock formation with a hole like a gate but no doubt another true beauty by itself.

I knew right then that that's the beach to check- out first, over the other beach coves in the resort. Besides at this point my younger daughter was pushing me to bring her to the infinity pool which is located there and if you're keen about it, you could jump here to see.

So there we went down the beach and that's me and younger daughter. Seems such a perfect beach, right?.. from a far!

Unfortunately, closer_ there's my older daughter tiptoeing over what-are-they? Massive seaweed garbage? I got confused, I was thinking : well atleast those are still organic and naturally sea produced. But still... you can't swim with them getting all over your body. That's so gross.

And then, came the real garbage. Plastic cups, candy/chips plastic wrappers. Such a shame for a high-end resort, don't you think so? Especially that the rest of Boracay : many other private beaches, stations 1,2,3 long beaches. are all so clean and white and pristine and oh so perfect Boracay!!!

Then, as if the management had e- read my thoughts..that quick, before I even thought of tweeting it ( haha, no worry, my tweeter account is dormant and never been used since created, haha ) a truck arrived with cleaning aides and started to clean-up.

So maybe, we were just too early for the beach. It was 7 am.

We chilled away from the water while the aides were busy cleaning up. In fairness, can you spot the perfect
sugary super white sand?

The villas behind us are spa cottages. I'll make a separate post on it, maybe later ;)

We also found the cave chapel nearby these spa cottages.

After seeing that we couldn't use the first beach for a swim..yet, we thought of checking the other one nearest which is located after another rock formation behind me (*see photo) at the end of the first beach. But actually changed our mind and decided to go out of the resort and go to the stations beaches.

The following morning, after breakfast, we went to check this other beach of the resort. This one is smaller. Same should have been perfect beach except that it lacked maintenance. The big rock is in full view here and quite an awesome photo backdrop.




Yet, the  privacy and "au naturel" state of this beach served its purpose for us to take beautiful photos for our private collections like the one above.

Around Fairways & Bluewaters

This was the road view from the window of  our room. Across was the panoramic view of the sprawling world-class golf course of Fairways & Bluewaters, Boracay. And wt# was wrong with me??? I didn't even bother to snap a single photo of the lush greens fairways. And we were there inside Fairways & Bluewaters for 4 days with nothing but bluewaters and fairways!! wt#!!!!



See, I even snapped some of useless greens but none of the beautiful fairways, just few feet across where I was. Blame my lack of  inclination for golf. Maybe later when I get the chance to play golf, you'll see nothing here but golf.golf.golf. haha.



I know I promised you a tour of the resort ( for those who haven't been there yet, stay with me. and if you've been there already, whatelse you're waiting for? go browse other blog, haha ).


Beach holiday here could be boring if you start comparing it to the busy loud long white beaches of stations 3,2,&1 of  Boracay. Especially if  you don't "golf". Wt#, isn't the name of the resort a give away already?? Yet, the privacy and luxury provided compensate for the lack of noise and vibrancy and that's quite fabulous for old hen like me. Not so much for my teens thu' . So I tried to balance it for them. We kindah had 60/40 of both Boracays. That_ I would share in my coming post. But now, here let's go around the resort.

It was easy to get spoiled here. Generous shuttle services were provided both  for around resort and around town.



Inside the resort,they used e-shuttle like this. I've seen similar version of it in other resorts in the country.



I'd say the hotel lobby was the ugliest part of the resort. It was tired and outdated. Opposite of the brand new villa we stayed-in. It seemed to be the  oldest structure in the resort. Definitely in need of total make- over to match the rest of the resort.

The resort / hotel has the following facilities :

• Exclusive clubhouse
• Food and beverage outlets
• Mari's Spa (Salus per aquam)
• E-jeepneys (24 hour shuttle service inside the resort, as well as pickup in D'Mall every hour until 10 PM)
• 40 new eco-friendly golf carts 
• Over 250 well-appointed guestrooms
• 18-hole championship golf course
• 4 private beach coves
• 2 Infinity Pools (the biggest freshwater pools on the island)
• La Terraza Restaurant 
• Ballroom/Convention Hall 
• Meeting rooms
• 24 hour security

* yep. I copied pasted again. from their website. haha.

Buffet breakfasts were served at La Terraza Restaurant with awesome ocean view. The food? Oh well, later at my food blog. I've started posting some of our Boracay food trips there. If you're keen about food. jump here.

Daughters were excited to have their morning swim after breakfast. Seemed like we were too early cos the first pool was under treatment when we came. It was the elevated one Did you notice that beautiful rock structure at the background?



I'd be happy to have some photo ops there, but it was currently close to the public.






Daughters insisted on swimming pool, so we went to the one right down the beach.



We walked down to one of the coves of the resort. Let's ignore the awesome white beach for now.. you gotta drop by again later for the rest of them on my next post..



Cos right in there we reached the other infinity pool...



It was so pretty facing the vast ocean, we immediately  got off the camera and enjoyed the water. So if you wanna see the beach coves and some more of the resort..

abrupt ending here.
it's going too long.
gotta stop here.
don't you think so?

see you later ;)

Nirwana Resort Hotel

Weather is not yet the cold December we usually have by this time of the year here in the Philippines. Have you noticed it? I'm so keen about weather these days. The global climate change has intrigued me a lot. The weird exchange cycle of wet and dry seasons ( atleast us here have only two, what more if we got the common 4 seasons,  that would be crazier:)) has never been so unpredictable as it is this year and the previous year.

So don't laugh at me if you saw me layering my outfits on supposedly summer season here or spending weekends on a beach during supposedly cold "ber" months.  

Hence the summer feel in December, I thought a beach post could still fit in before the year ends. Thu' I don't promise that this one would be my last beach getaway this year. Matter of fact I just got an invite for a day stay in a local beach. Only I'm not yet sure if I would have  time to attend to it with this busy yuletide season setting in. We'll see.

This particular beach day was a month ago. At a neighbor here in the tropics _ at Bintan, Indonesia. After an almost  one hour  fast speed catamaran ride from Singapore, we needed not to avail the regular coach transfer cos we had rented a car that we used around with our mini Bintan tour and finally sent us to the resort .

I was amused by the size of Nirwana Gardens. The whole resort has a total of five holiday stops. So big it housed giant animals_ it has an elephant park!!!. . to say the least. 

At Nirwana Resort Hotel, we were welcomed by a musical performance and were served with  welcome drinks ofcourse.

The reception lobby was relatively huge that when a friend saw my photos, she thought they were taken in an airport. See, we are  third world like that, haha. Show us a a big space and we would think of it as an airport, haha.

The lobby was full of tribal trinkets on display.

The accommodation was a sweet delight.

The facade of the resort hotel buildings reminded me of our own Shangrila, Boracay. There's small similarity in architecture but Shang.Bora is more awesome in many ways.

How can you refuse to idle your day in a haven like this? I can't. . I'm weak.haha.

You notice it too?? The whole Bintan trip I wore this black top intensively, haha. At overseas getaways, we actually are so random and always travel light. Usually with no extra clothes at all. Sometimes we would decide on our next destination right on the spot. Most of the time, no extra margin to prepare for our outfits, I hate that!!! haha.

Extremely opposite of the beaches in Batam ( Indonesia also ),  Bintan beaches stand mighty!!! Nirwana Resort Hotel best asset is the beach. With spanning hectares of powdery beach!!!! Best of all soooooooooooo uncrowded. Think about our white beaches in station 1,2 & 3 of Boracay, delete the images of crammed commercial establishments and the uber crowded beach goers. . then you get the image above.

What can I ask for?. . but to bring me back there. .now!!!! haha.