Last week was Holy Week and this year I didn’t want to get bored like the last time (when we all spent it just at home at BP doing nothing!) So this year, the hubby and I decided to compromise and spend the Holy Week partly at his hometown (the first two days, evening actually of Wednesday and the whole day Thursday) and the remaining days (Friday to Sunday) with my family vacationing at Taal, Batangas.
Anyway, I wasn’t truly bored during the first day at BP since I had an assignment – to bring atsara and puto for the ‘oldies’ at Taal, so I spent the day helping out in grating the papaya, cutting onions, bawang, siling pula and carrots. Then, Inang mixed it and adjusted the seasonings, before we transferred them to plastic containers, ready for shipment the next day.
On Good Friday, we finally left for Taal at around 11am. Good thing that Papa called asking us to bring an extension cord otherwise, we would have left after lunch. We arrived at Taal without much of a hitch since there was no traffic. We did get lost a bit because I failed to see the small street we had to look for but it was just a minor glitch and we finally reached Taal Imperial Resorts – the one owned by Mother Lily and indeed the place was very refreshing!
The place had many trees and three villas which we all rented so, in a way, we had the entire resort exclusively to ourselves. The first villa was rented by my two aunts and their families (each villa had two bedrooms). Papa and the maids occupied the middle villa while my family occupied the third villa with my stepsister and her family. Each villa was tastefully designed and their website said the furnishings were handpicked by Mother Lily herself. Indeed you would not feel any of the cold ambiance of hotels but rather it feels warm and welcoming, just like a home away from home.
The resort had three pools but the two were small and shallow ones (for kids) So, we only made use of the big pool near the entrance. I wasn’t so sure if the pools were clean so I just dipped for a short time when I felt too hot and I just let the kids enjoy swimming for most of the three days we were there. Anyway, the villas had centralized air conditioning so we stayed mostly inside the bedrooms to escape the summer heat. But I was surprised to see my dad and stepmom swimming one morning so I guess they weren’t too bothered over the fact that the pool’s water was already quite translucent, maybe the overpowering chlorine had already cleansed away most of the germs of the resorts previous occupants??? But still, I shudder at the thought, which is why I’d much rather swim in the sea than in artificial waters like pools.
But I guess more than the resort’s amenities, what we enjoyed truly was the camaraderie and companionship that we shared with our relatives since we normally don’t get to be together all that often especially for out of town activities. And of course, most of these ‘bonding’ moments happen during…of course, mealtimes! Our family’s favorite pastime! There were lots of delicious foods, more than enough for everyone. Ace regaled us with his concoctions like pasta Alfredo and Visayan humba but still there was something lacking – the lechon, of course! But I guess because of the expensive resort, we’d have to make some budget cuts especially with the food. They had to pay 20K for each villa for the entire three-day stay and that’s more than the usual expense allotted for the accommodations.
Anyway, we were all satiated with the food naman and that’s what matters. We even had the grand dame herself – Mother Lily as a guest for Good Friday dinner and she enjoyed eating with us. In fact, she even liked the puto/bibingka I brought from Pampanga! Furthermore, we weren’t always cloistered inside the resort, we had much time to visit scenic and historic Taal, particularly the oldest Basilica in Asia and the heritage houses that littered the town. We also visited another mountain resort in the area (Noni Resort) which was also quite full despite Philvolcs warnings on the possibility of a Taal eruption so I guess we weren’t the only ones who were hardheaded eh?
The final day was the highlight of our vacation – the Easter egg hunt! But this time Kit was not able to find much because the kids (Kaye and Alex) had a five-minute leeway time to search in advance so all those he was able to see earlier were seen by the kids…oh no! Alex turned out as the biggest winner and Kaye came in second while Kit only got one but at least all the others had a difficult time also searching for the eggs. Well, maybe next year he’d do better but I guess not here again because this may be the last time we would be visiting here. Not because we didn’t like the place but rather due to the hotel currently being constructed behind the villas, so that means we would not be able to ‘own’ the place like we did today. Still, everyone had a fun time vacationing here at Taal and it is one good place we would surely recommend to everyone!
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