Tali Beach, Nasugbu, Batangas

_____________________________________________

If you have inquiries about the Tali Beach private resort featured here, text or call the owners at 361-7091 or 0917-8828760 or email them at talibeach[at]gmail.com - Tell them you got their contact info from Reyjr.com! :D
*************************

It was Liz's department outing, and I was one of the designated drivers! Hehehe. The tradeoff: 2 days on a private resort on Tali Beach, Nasugbu, Batangas, with hotelier people who have great taste, great skills in the kitchen, and a ton of hilarious hotel stories. The 2 hour drive up was worth it. :D

Squeezing in some Tali Beach time

It was my first time in Tali Beach, and actually also my first time on a beach resort in Nasugbu. I know Nasugbu only for the wedding chapels, haha; a whole lot of my colleagues have gotten married in Caleruega, Chapel on the Hill and thereabouts, so I was pretty familiar with the place. :p

We were there on June 12 and 13. A sliver of one of the shortest summers I've ever experienced. During our stay, the sun was tucked away for the most part, although we did get to swim for about an hour or so. Liz's colleagues prepared several games for the group. I am always amused at how game everyone is in their team and I like it that they create the fun for themselves and for everybody. I think it's an important lesson, that even in a corporate setting, with hierarchies of positions and office politics, that it shouldn't prevent you from enjoying yourself and participating in a few games. Besides, everyone needs a bit of fun!

Tali Beach Resort - Holding Hands While Walking

At dusk, we walked around the short beach and "visited" the neighbors. We found the whole beach actually had a row of vacation houses, most probably for rent. It was a nice enough place, although if you're after sand, there's not a lot of that. It's not comparable to the white sand beaches of Boracay or Puerto Galera in the vicinity of the place we stayed at, but rather I would describe the beach as private and relaxing, very well suited for big families that are not much on swimming, but more on spending quality time together, in a getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Tali Beach Resort - Non Stop Eating! 

True to form, the food was always exquisite, although I probably gained over 10 pounds in those 2 days, with nothing to do but sit, eat, drink, relax, talk, and sleep. Hehe. Well, I'm not complaining. I had a great relaxing time.Before we left, we bought ourselves some lobsters straight from the fisherman's net. It was quite pricey at Ph600 per lobster, but I figured it would probably cost a lot more at the Market in Manila.

On the way down, we stopped by Tagaytay for lunch then stopped again at Ming's garden for some Yellow Bells and some hanging plants.


Click on the photos to view full sized.

Subscribe in a reader

"I miss those lovely days of..."

A Theme Thursday post

"Good day sunlight, I'd like to say how truly bright you are..."

Summer ended early in the Philippines this year. Too early! It was only the beginning of May when the first typhoon arrived and a storm warning signal was declared over parts of the Philippines. Now as I type this post, typhoon Feria (local name) is raging outside my window...

Next week it will be July. That means hoping for a bright sun shiny day is over, summer has lost to rain. This battle is now over. Soon the rains will completely take over: the skies will be dark for most of the day, the stars at night hidden by the dark clouds.

"You don't know me, but I know you, see, you're my favorite star..."

I miss the summer, when the sun is out and up. I miss the beach at summertime, when the sand and the water is warm and the nights a cool respite. I miss having ice cream and halo-halo to cool off. I miss not needing to bring an umbrella every time I leave the house (I keep losing it :p). I miss not having muddy floors to wipe. I miss jogging at sunset.

"..who needs shelter from the sun? Nothing, no, not anyone..."

What do you miss most about the summer?


Quotations are lyrics from "Who Needs Shelter" by Jason Mraz. If you like Jason Mraz, here's his blog, "Freshness Factor Five Thousand"

Puerto Galera 2009: last summer outing

This post is the second of 2 posts about my 2009 summer at Puerto Galera, White Beach in Mindoro. Read the first post here.

The end of summer

2009 Summer is over for the Philippines when it's supposed to be just beginning. (It's only May!!!) Our trip to Puerto Galera (although in retrospect was quite headstrong) would probably be our last summer outing to the beach, or rather, anywhere which requires you to ride a boat to reach the beach.

For now, I'll be happy that we got to go to at least one beach this year. :D I love the beach. When I'm filthy rich, which is soon, hehe, I'll buy the whole Boracay Island. Haha!

Anyway, on with the story...

Relaxing Day

On our second day in Puerto Galera (Sunday), our friends Paolo, Princess & Jenny left early in the morning for Manila because some of them needed to work the next day.

Liz, Bing and I agreed to spend the whole day relaxing. As opposed to the first day, we did not make any plans on the second day, we just swam around, slept and walked around the beach. The sun was still strong, and even though the sky was still a bit hazy, you wouldn't think that just a couple of days ago there was a storm here.

There was a host of things to do in Puerto Galera: aside from the normal snorkeling and island hopping, diving and swimming, you can also para-sail, kayak, ride a banana boat, hike up the mountains, visit the waterfalls, get a tattoo or a henna tattoo, get piercings, or get a massage on the beach. At night, they have a lot of bars and pubs along the beach coast, most of them play dance music, some with live bands.

In the afternoon, while the ladies were taking a nap, I went by myself and walked the length of White Beach. I took my camera and snapped away at the sand, the water, and the people. There was not a lot of people left that day so I got a good relaxing walk.

More shopping and more swimming after that, and a massage on the beach at sundown was the perfect way to end the day.

Sunset at Puerto Galera is one to watch out for. It begins like a candle light and then spreads quickly like wildfire across the sky. To me, watching the sun set is a rarity. Often, I come out of the office when it's already dark.

A good thing to note to non-Filipino readers is that sunset in the Philippines is very quick. It begins at around 6PM varying depending on the month, and it can be over in as short as 10 minutes.

Dancing the night away

More grilled food for dinner (yummy), and more drinks too! We tried the new Carlsberg drink, and danced around our table until we got sleepy. I find dancing is a great way to loosen up and relax and forget about the troubles at work. Too bad there's not enough good, clean, dancing places around (or maybe I just don't know about them haha!)

In the bar where we stayed, there was this gay waiter/waitress who did stunts (lol), he/she jumps and then lands on a split, or climbs this pole and hangs upside down. He/She looks like a bat! woot! Check it out ----

Hahaha!

Back to Reality

On Monday, we slept in, packed our bags slowly, and made our way to the beach to catch the 12noon boat to Manila. Tudoy (my really kind and good looking friend! hehe!) agreed to pick us up from the Batangas Pier. The trip back took longer than we expected, but we arrived safely nonetheless.

I leave you then with a couple more photos of Puerto Galera. You can click on any of the photos to see them in their original size.

And, if you're going to the beach, take me with you! :D

Back to Reyjr Travel Blog Log

Finally Off to the Beach!!! Puerto Galera Summer 2009.

The storm before the calm

This has got to be the most stressful vacation preparation I ever went through.

On the day before our scheduled trip to Puerto Galera, I was closely monitoring the PAGASA website for updates on the weather. They lifted the storm signal warnings just in time for me to convince my friends that it's safe to take the boat through the shark infested waters on the way to White Beach, Puerto Galera in Mindoro. :D

On May 2, onboard Paolo's dad's pick-up, we drove to and parked at the Batangas Pier and made our way to the boats. It was a quick enough trip, only about and hour and a half, but that didn't stop Liz and Jenny from taking a nap, and Princess for finishing her "baon" Romance Novel (yep, she was crying like a little girl over it too!)

The Beach

We arrived on the cream colored beach too early for the 2pm check-in time... but the good people at White Beach Guest House allowed us to check in at no extra charge. It was not a beachfront resort though, the place was okay if a bit far from the beach. It's clean and quiet at night. There's a kitchen, and even a place to grill. The path from the beach to the house was a bit difficult to traverse, especially if you're a bit drunk (haha, yes this was based on experience!) and there was this spray of water coming from who-knows-where!

"...the water was a deep turquoise and the islands a lush green..."

We had an early lunch then went straight to island hopping and snorkeling. The water was a deep turquoise and the islands a lush green, but the sky was a bit grey, remnant clouds from the storm that just passed. Nevertheless, the view, the waves and the wind was relaxing, and we were grateful the sun was not too glaring and burning.

We went first to the Coral Gardens, awesome place. Fishies all around. Unfortunately, a few minutes off the boat and I hit my foot on a coral; one small bit of coral punctured the side of my left foot. Ouch. Anyway, we still swam around, fed some fishies some toasted bread (no, really) until they were full. (Basta, Mama! Molto pieno! - sosyal ng Italian fish :p )

After that we went to The Sandbar, this strip of sand with water on either side. After some camwhoring picture-taking, we stayed a bit and had some halo-halo there too to cool down and relax.

Tricky Boatman

When our boatman asked if we could skip Bantayan beach, we thought we were going straight to the next snorkeling spot, but he took us back to White Beach and we ended up just paying him less than what we were supposed to. Bummer, because we still wanted to find Nemo.

We just settled on swimming around at white beach, which was not bad at all, my friends got their massages and Liz and Bing and I went to get our Henna tattoos. Mine was a huge paw on my left shoulder.

"...we were all set for a night of booze and partying..."

Grilled food dinner is always great on the beach! With our stomachs full, we were all set for a night of booze and partying. :p There was actually a beach party going on, something Rubber duckie productions with the featured band being Urbandub.

But we didn't like the music all that much so we opted to go to this bar playing more dance-able music. Turned out it was an all-gay-waiters/waitresses place, and when Buttons by the Pussycat Dolls played, they all went to the front of the bar to dance. Haha! Whoa!

We ended the night drunk and happy, (some of us just drunk, ehem..) and slept like babies, looking forward to a second and more relaxed day...


Read part 2 here - Puerto Galera: The last summer outing