Spent my Saturday morning getting prettified by Bambi for my Blog Na Pinoy portraits. Blog Na Pinoy is this new blogger directory organized by Juned with the help of renowned photographer Michael Sy Yu. But unlike the average blog directory, which is a simple list of blog URLs, every blogger listed in Blog Na Pinoy has his or her portrait photo taken by Michael Yu himself.
My blog is listed under the lifestyle section. Don’t ask me what kind of “lifestyle” this blog describes, because I pretty much just dump all sorts of not-so-personal stuff here. I wanted to use this photo, but you can’t really see the details of my military jacket from this angle.
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2010 has been a year of awesome vacations for Marco and I. Last month, we spent a week eating and shopping at Bangkok. This month, we were determined not to let the summer pass without going to the beach, something we’ve been too busy to do since last summer’s trip to La Union. I didn’t want to suffer another round of bumpy six-hour bus rides to La Union so we ended up booking three days at Coco Grove in Laiya, Batangas, which is only two or three hours away from Manila.
Marco and I didn’t intend for this trip to be a romantic vacation – it happened quite by accident. Some of my high school friends were supposed to come with us but they canceled at the last minute because the resort could only accommodate us on weekdays. The biggest perk about working freelance is that you decide when your weekends are. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to share the experience with your friends, unless you had enough foresight to book a weekend months in advance. Another thing about Coco Grove is that the rates per person get cheaper if there are more of you in the group. In the end, only one friend was willing to take three days off work but she didn’t want to pay too much for her stay.
The commute to Laiya, Batangas wasn’t as long as La Union, but it sure involved a lot of transferring. At 4:30 am, we got a bus to Lipa, Batangas from the JAM Terminal station at Cubao (P230 for both of us). When we got down at Lipa two hours later, we had to take a one-hour jeepney ride to the San Juan Public Market (P60 per person). From there, it took us another thirty minutes to get to the resort by tricycle, which cost us an expensive P300. I could kind of see why the trike ride cost so much; the resort is really that far, plus it’s not like there are any passengers coming back to town with the driver. For this reason, I would suggest that anyone commuting to Laiya spend around two or three days in the resort, if only to delay the inevitable hassle of commuting back to Metro Manila. Resorts like Coco Grove also allow day trips, which is a great option if you have a car.
Once I finally laid my eyes on Coco Grove’s grounds, I knew the commute was definitely worth it. The resort itself is dotted by shady trees and tropical flowers to evoke the sensation of a real tropical paradise, which went well with the crystal blue waters and the white-ish sand. As for our treehouse, it is probably the most gorgeous beach accommodation I’ve ever had in my life! I’ve never stayed at a treehouse before, especially not one so close to the ocean. Ours was literally a few steps away from the water, providing us a picturesque view of the waves and the sunset from the balcony or the porch. Unfortunately, this beach wasn’t very good for swimming; the shore is littered with seashells and the shallow areas are covered with slimy seaweed. But our proximity to the water also gave us one other unusual luxury – the ability to enjoy the sounds of the ocean while taking a dump.
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Thanks to The Pirate Bay, I finally got to see Dutch director Tom Six’s highly-anticipated horror movie, The Human Centipede. I’m warning you now that this review contains vomit-inducing concepts and images that cannot be unseen, so if you don’t have the stomach for this sort of thing, I highly suggest that you read something else.
The Human Centipede starts out predictably enough. Two ditzy American girls on a European road trip are on their way to go clubbing with a cute German guy they met earlier in the day. They end up with a flat tire in the woods, and there’s nowhere else to go but a modern sprawling bungalow. We’ve encountered all these tropes before. Unfortunately for the girls, the bungalow is occupied by Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser), a retired German surgeon with a sick fantasy and way too much time on his hands. The following day, the girls wake up next to each other, their hands and ankles bound to a hospital bed.
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