A piece of Mediterranean

I was searching for a place to unwind near Manila at Agoda.com when I stumbled upon Mediterranean House, a resort in Nasugbu, Batangas.

The pictures from their website caught my attention. I liked how the place was designed.

 I booked for an overnight stay for Php2500. It includes breakfast for 2 persons. However, we decided not to stay for the night and they were ok with it. We even had to move our reserved date to another date and they were ok with it. You just have to call them since they don’t reply thru email or text.

How To Go There:

1. We rode a DLTB bus going to Nasugbu, Batangas at Buendia bus station.

There are other bus stations at Taft and Cubao that travel to Nasugbu.

2. Tell the bus conductor that you’re getting off at Sitio Calo and that you’re going to Mediterranean House. It was a relief when the conductor knew where we were going because the Maps and Navi apps in my phone could not locate it.

3. You get off at a basketball court and there you’ll find a signage going to Mediterranean house.

You’ll be surprised where the resort is located. You wouldn’t guess that a resort as stunning as Mediterranean house is situated inside.

facade of Mediterranean House

You wouldn’t expect much when you see the facade but when you go inside…

paintings at the reception area

resto

buffet table

Asian b’fast

American b’fast

cozy corner in the resto

room

pathway to the pool

poolside area

jacuzzi

See how great the place is? 🙂 It’s really worth your while. I enjoyed our stay even if we didn’t stay overnight. I bet the ambiance is better at night.

I didn’t say it’s perfect though. Here are some of my personal quirks on the resort:

1. They don’t reply to text or email queries.

2. The room for 2 was not that spacious.

3. The lay out of the room and bathroom were quite different. The TV was placed at the side of the bed instead of the usual at the foot of the bed. The bathroom was a toilet and shower room. It’s ok except that, again it was not that spacious, water will be splashed all over including the tissue paper and trash can.

These are all small things but if you are sensitive to those listed above, you might want to reconsider. But for me, I could get past those. 🙂

Timetable and Expenses (per person):

6:30 AM          Rode bus at Buendia

6:45 AM          Bus left for Nasugbu                                  Php116

8:30 AM          Arrived at Mediterranean House               Php1250

                           Breakfast

                           Lunch (pizza)                                           Php150

4:30 PM          check out

4:45 PM          jeep to Olivares terminal                           Php28

8:0                   bus to Buendia                                               Php80

                          taxi to MRT station                                       Php30

Total: Php1654

There are buses and vans that may bring you to Manila when you step out of the resort. But since it was a holiday, we anticipated that buses might be full so we decided to take the jeep to Tagaytay then ride a bus from there. Took us 4 hours to go back to Manila! -_-

Would love to go back there and stay overnight! 🙂

By the way, their day tour is priced at Php220/person, good for 5 hours. If you’ll take a room for the day tour, price is at Php1300.

Climbing Mt. Batulao

From a random suggestion, me and 4 of my colleagues decided to climb Mt. Batulao. We’re not exactly hikers or trained climbers. We just wanted the outdoors. So off we resolved to climb. Searching through the net gave us an idea on what to expect during the trip – long walk/climb. Who wouldn’t be enticed to climb/walk just to see these?

  

Unlike my previous adventures, this time, I took note of the timeline. We had to be at the Bus Station going to Nasugbu, Batangas at 5 am. Some of us, including me, just came from a 1PM to 10PM shift the night before so imagine how much we lacked sleep then. But I guess the excitement gave us energy the whole day. We arrived at Evercrest at around 7:30am and took a tricycle going to the base trail. There’s an abundance of tricycle and guides when you get off the bus. We had a hard time deciding which guide to take as there were several kids wanting to be our guide. It’s an extra income for them. We took 2 guides and 2 tricycles.  The tricycle driver gave us his number so we could text him after the climb and transport us back to where we got off the bus.

It took us 2 hours to reach the registration area. We actually thought that was the climb already but it was only part of the climb. We were thirsty upon reaching the registration area. In fact, on our way to the registration area, we already took some rest and drank buko juice and water.

  

    

    

As you can see from the pictures, it was quite a challenge. And to think that Mt. Batulao is for beginning climbers! Or maybe we were just not in shape. ^_^

We reached the summit at around 11AM. I don’t know if we were just too tired to eat or the water and chocolate bars were enough to sustain us throughout the climb. After some more sightseeing, we headed down the trail and back to the base where the tricycle drivers await us.

    

  

It was quite an adventure. We were all perspiring and tired. We all wanted a bath. Good thing that some houses at the drop-off area allow tourists to take a bath in their place for a minimal fee (so minimal I forgot how much!). After we freshened up, we had a feast at Leslie’s in Tagaytay. We were all famished!

  

  

How much did we spend for this unforgettable adventure? Here’s a breakdown per person:

Bus from Pasay Terminal to Nasugbu – Php 106

Tricycle – Php 40 (to and from the base trail)

Registration – Php 20

Jeepney fare to Leslie’s – Php 15 (estimate)

Bus from Olivares(Tagaytay) to Pasay – Php 78

TOTAL of Php 259 excluding the feast we had at Leslie’s. ^_^