La Mesa Eco Park

We came from a trip to La Mesa Eco Park in Quezon City. I have read so much about this park and have even seen a couple of pictures from officemates as well... so we decided to visit and have a look for ourselves. We took the commonwealth road all the way to winston street and turned left to the Eco Park. It was funny though that the security guard from the winston street entrance asked for a donation of 10 pesos so we do not have to go around the back entrance.

The parking area is huge, but is not possible to accomodate like 100 cars, buses are required to go down a different road, possibly another parking area much farther than the one closer to the parking entrance. Entrance fee is 50 pesos for adults, 30 for children and free for senior citizens and children below 3 feet. All other amenities when you get inside is not inclusive of the park entrance. They have Paintballs, boat riding, horseback riding, butterfly hatchery, biking and wall climbing amongst others. Cottages are free though, first come first served basis.

We spent an entire 4 hours inside the park, walking up a trail, climbing the stone stairs to see the dam, and eating a hotdog and buko juice sold inside the park, taking a lot of pictures as well. I'm impressed with the park because the Comfort rooms are clean, not a slight uninviting scent is present; that is a good indicator that the place is very well maintained, and I hope they keep it that way. It is a good start to our future nature trips.



*If you decide to go for a swim, it is advisable for you to come early, we went there at around 11 am and the people and the pool is not yet packed with people (it was a friday - weekday) and was packed when we are leaving the park att around 3pm. They refuse entry to the pool area if the maximum capacity of 300 is reached. So be there early.

*The view of the dam is spectacular. It is beautiful in its own way, suggest you go up the stone stairs and experience fresh air and nice view you can see over there. Its worth the sweat and the thirst, even the heat of the sun...

Other Information:
No, we did not avail of thee boat ride as it costs like 100 for a 20 minute self service boating spree... Butterfly hatchery is also at 50 bucks each person, and swimming costs 80 per head.

Bataan to Subic Road trip!

After our Montemar Beach Experience... We headed off to Morong for a Bataan White Corals  Experience.. From Bagac, we traveled up to morong, following only the road signs leading us to the Pawikan Conservation Center. It was a long drive with worries that we might soon ran out of gas as the sign keeps popping up that the car is low in Gas now. hehe

Finally, At the Pawikan conservation Center... We found 3 Sea turtles, small medium and average sized ones. they are the only ones there, no baby turtles, no other worth seeing... :( quite disappointed that the conservation center did not have much to offer. The pawikans are lovely though, It is the first time i have come so close to one and have actually touched their "feet". The caretaker said they bite to we cannot touch the head. 

We gave the person there that asked us to enter the place 50 bucks as "entrance fee". After going to the site.. we decided to go to further, but having changed our minds in going to the Bataan white Corals, we then headed towards Subic Bay, after seeing the road signs. :) I thought there might be more to see in Subic than in another beach resort that might just be similar to where we have been. 

Going to the subic bay, We saw low rates sign of the Subic Bay Venezia Hotel... Hmm thought we could just spend the night there for lower rates; the concierge was very nice at giving us additional discounts since we checked in at almost 4 in the afternoon already. The room is very comfortable, the bed sheets are nice, the amenities are complete and they even have a water heater for our coffee. They also have a Casino in this place... 

Oh prior to this, we also had a great time go Karting. It was our first go kart experience and we had to try it at Subic! haha as if there are no go kart places here in Manila. 

The next day, we decided to have lunch first before going home; we had to go too the bay view area (
Waterfront road) but there are limited choices, i think we will not enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed our Aristocrat meal. We were so full and I sure do love to eat their chicken barbecue! It is really the best barbecue ever!! 

It took us another 2 hours of long road trip from Subic bay to Manila, A very worthy travel of fun and spontaneous decisions. haha I like to have planned events, journey, etc... but being spontaneous at times helps add spice and adventure! :) 

In the spirit of fairness, I think this was built for the Maya birds. It was called Villa Maya. hehe I thought this one is  cute, isn't it so we took the time to take a picture and have it shared to everyone. 

This can be seen at the Subic Tipo entrance. It is on your right side coming from Subic - Manila bound and  on your left when entering Subic (from Manila).  

Bataan... Churches and Beaches (Montemar Beach Resort)

It was a clear day when we left manila at around 6AM. Heading towards the north with no clear plan at all.. We just have a list of Bataan hotels and resorts where we can stay for the night... not sure where exactly though. haha We have planned to stay in Balanga Crown royale Hotel, but passing thru the small "Inn" looking hotel, we decided not to stop by and I am sure we will only be staying in our rooms if we did stop there as the Balanga is the "city" of bataan where there are not much nature attractions.

First Stop was in Abucay - we went to view the Balanga Catholic Church. It was close at the time of our arrival and only the small chapel beside it was open. We managed to take a few pictures of the church's front facade, which is not very attractive compared to the Manila(Intramuros) area churches. The left side of the church is a cemetery(it does not look like a century old cemetery but a very common one). The right side of the church is where the small chapel is, it also has its office to its right with very little space for car parking.

After our stop to the said church, we headed off towards Bagac Bay, with the hopes of having an accomodation facing the beach; we were informed that the bagac beach is a nice place with cheap rates too. Unfortunately the bagac beaches have suffered greatly from the "Ondoy" typhoon, soome cottages still need to be cleaned and the beach shore needs to be cleaned as well. We did not stop and take aa further look around, as their day tour rate is a stagerring 300 bucks!!

Next option is Morong Beaches... But we called and have been answered by someone from the Montemar Beach Club, so we did not go to Morong and decided to go visit Montemar First. Their overnight rate is about 3100bucks with free breakfast and well, we were told that the Montemar has really nice rooms and the beach is also quite heavenly. Since we are in Bagac stopping by won't hurt anyway. We were asked to call the front office first prior to the guard allowing us go inside the resort vicinity. We were given a room at the first floor, sea and pool view, but we requested to have a room at the 2nd floor instead, and they allowed us to change rooms and did not even charge us an extra hour since we arrived prior to check in time. 

The view is really great, the waves are almost perfect, but the water is rough and not quite good for non-swimmers. The Montemar Beach is in between two land formations...

There are lots of things to do in this resort, 2 swimming pools, but the one is closed when we got there. We dipped into the blue pool, the water is cold, chlorine free! We enjoyed the almost an hour dip and chitchat at the pool because it was shaded and we were not much exposed to the heat of the sun at noon.

Non-water activities are available as well and there are spacious places for sports like basketball and volleyball, and even a small children's playground. There was also a hanging bridge joined and supported by two old trees, one must be careful climbing these trees as the structure needs to be repaired, some soft spots can cause accidents, so I did not dare try to cross it.

There are some cottages where you can relax and just listen to the beach waves, and the bird's sweet humming sounds... even the sounds of the dancing trees makes the day in relaxation perfect!

At sunset, the montemar beach isn't the best site for sunset viewing, here is a picture of the sunset here in Bagac... its just ordinary, but still romantic, in my opinion... The weather too is perfect, it was such a blessing that we did not encounter rains and have enjoyed going around the resort from "left" to "right". If it weren't for the cost, I would have loved to go to this place quite often. From the services, the courteous greetings, the beach shores, the huge rock formations, the trees, the spacious rooms even is just a perfect getaway! We were there at a time where the beach is not packed with people and it feels as though we have the place all to ourselves!

It was such a sad time thinking about leaving the place... :( I was so relaxed at this place, felt as though I am really close to nature, and though there are no other things we did at the place aside from walking from one beach side to the other, it seems like the time is not enough for more than that! Oh if other beaches have ant holes in the sand like the ones in potipot, Montemar beach has a number of baby crablets! haha they are not biting, but are really cute crustaceans that walks or crawls really fast when they see moving people on the shores. No worries about the sea water too, it is really very clear - like that of a fresh water body. Montemar, by the way is a Triple A rated resort, and it does feel like everything is indeed rated triple A in this resort. :)