Verde Island

On Friday afternoon, Neil and I met to catch the bus down to Batangas for a relaxing weekend away. It didn’t start too well – I left work early to get a taxi – but there were no free taxis. So I arranged to meet Neil down at the bus stop by catching the train. On the way down there was a huge downpour – and when I say a downpour – it was a monsoon-like storm! Of course Neil, who was meant to leave work at 4.30 couldn’t get a taxi and ended up having to get the train too – an hour and a half later!! Needless to say I was a little tired of waiting for him to arrive, even if it wasn’t his fault for being late . . .exactly. Anyway, I won’t continue because I was a little pissed that he took so long to get there, and he got angry that I was angry, but we eventually got the bus down to Batangas and arrived at our hotel at about 9.30.

Saturday morning we got up early to catch a boat over to Verde Island where we had booked our nice relaxing weekend away. Unfortunately the rain hadn’t really subsided much – it was still really stormy and not the best weather for a weekend on the beach! The rough trip over to Verde Island took about an hour and a half and a few people in the boat got pretty sick. Of course when we arrived at our destination it was too windy and rough to dock the boat, so we had to boat around to the other side of the island while the weather calmed down a bit. Finally we went back and were able to dock the boat and walk down the pier while getting totally wet from the rain and the high, rough sea which crashed against the pier throwing water all over us. But by 1pm we had finally arrived and were ready to eat lunch/breakfast and relax.



Verde Island Resort is made up of separate cabins overlooking the sea at the base of a tall hill. There isn’t much to do here besides relax and go snorkeling or diving when the weather is nice. Unfortunately for us it continued to rain and despite the ocean water being really warm, there was no way we were able to go swimming or snorkeling – it was just too rough. Instead we had a buffet lunch, an afternoon snooze and a brief walk around the surrounding area. I even went for a swim in the very picturesque pool. That evening we had dinner and a few drinks before retiring to bed.

Sadly we had to leave extra early the next day (7am!) during low tide to ensure that we were able to leave at all. Despite being a very nice, quiet place, our time spent on Verde Island was way too short for the 5-hours or so travelling time, and the money spent on our relaxing weekend away. It was also the first weekend where it has rained and been overcast the whole time – typical! But it was still nice to get out of Manila and to be in a nice environment with fresh air, no traffic and a beautiful view of the ocean.

posted by batik billy @ 9:59 am