WOODMAN
Contributor
We recently came back from about a two week trip to Eagle Point resort, south of Anilao on the Calumpan peninsula, and would like to give you my impressions of the experience. First off, a little housekeeping. This report is going to be long and detailed, as is my usual habit, so if this bothers you, be warned. Also, although we have a considerable number of dives under our collective belts, this is the first time we have left the Caribbean since 2001, and therefore consider ourselves neophytes in the Pacific. So, those of you who are old hands in this area, please consider this and make allowances for my impressions. Now then, down to business-
We found out about this trip from Jim, another scubaboard wanderer, and managed to attach ourselves to this expedition. We flew Delta to San Francisco, and picked up China Air there. No real problems, except China Air has a 15# weight limit on carryon bags, and balked at my 35# camera bag. They agreed to check it through to Manila, which made me a little nervous but went okay. The China Air 747-400 was a really nice plane, but I could have used a little more leg room. Personal video and audio and full meals helped some, but it was still 13 hours on a plane-yech! Taiwan was a 1 1/2 hour whirlwind, then back on a 737 for the final hop to Manila. All bags arrived without a hitch, but the Manila arrival area was a complete zoo. Had to schlep our collection of bags to 3 different places before we found where our van was actually waiting for us. We ended up sandwiching 6 people and an impressive array of bags into a rather smallish van, and off we went. Good thing we were all friendly! 2 1/2 hour ride to the resort, along some interesting roadways. The portion from Batangas to the resort was particularly memorable. Businesses and residences wall to wall on both sides almost the entire way, and incredible traffic congestion. You definitely do not want to drive a car yourself down here! Once we got to Anilao, we turned south on the mountain road which girdles the peninsula, and proceeded along some of the narrowest and twistiest roadway I have ever seen, which also was under considerable construction which narrowed things even more. Finally we got up to the turnoff to the resort, and proceeded down a long, steep tortuous access road to the resort transfer area, where we unloaded and moved to the resort vans for the final ride down an impossible 1/2 Km. snake path to the actual resort reception area. Wow- I wonder how many clutches those resort vans go through climbing up and down that access road...
The actual resort is very nice, and considerably upscale for the area. It is mostly all on a fairly flat area with a relative minimum of stairs (a real rarity for this area) and is an enormous place. Our actual living quarters were located in their new hotel addition, and were very nice with two queen beds, competent aircon, private bath, and private patio overlooking the ocean. Much better than I had expected. We even had an electric safe and fridge in the room, but the fridge was loaded with soda and beer which were available on a pay as you go basis. The place was pretty quiet most of the week, but perked up on weekends with Manila daytrippers and such. The actual focus of the place is mainly to corporate events and retreats aimed at companies in Korea and Japan. Not many westerners about, but they were extraordinarily hospitable to all of us. They had a large dining room which housed their bar and buffet service, and we had all inclusive meals except for liquor and soda. Bottled water was always available and free. The meals were more upscale than I have been used to, and I think Bobby Flay must have been running the kitchen. Breakfast was fairly conventional, with several asian touches added in. Chicken Aroscaldo was a frequent offering in the morning, which is a very flavorful rice congee type of dish, with many amendments offered to go in it. Pancakes and various ham and sausage and bacon offerings were present, along with Philippine specialties like Pork Tocino, one of my favorites. They even had an egg station which would put out omelettes and cooked eggs to order. Wonderful! Lunch was a selection of at least 6 hot entrees, and they always had rice available at all meals. Various cold salads were available, along with fresh baked bread and rolls. Dishes were rather higher end than what I was expecting, and we didn't see a sandwich, hamburger or pizza the entire time we were there. Dinner was very similar to lunch, and soup was always available with a different variety each day. A short summary of the dishes we encountered were longanisa (Philippine sausage), beef bourguignon, curry chicken, rau xau (stirfry veggies), pork charsui, deep fried king crab (weird, and not really worth it, by my opinion), pork tenderloin stroganoff, fried milkfish, their idea of kentucky fried chicken (not far off, actually), and so on and so on. Basically, you found a fish dish, a pork dish and a chicken dish with every meal, along with a few beef dishes and the occasional off beat stuff. (stir fried squid! Yum!) Desserts were mostly an abundance of local fruits nicely sliced and presented, along with things like caramel flan, tiramisu, sticky date pudding, buko pandpin (still don't know what this was..) mango pudding, etc. etc. All in all, something to please everyone, and no-one went hungry. Coffee, tea and juices were always available with the meals, including a few oddities like blue lemonade, one of my favorites. They also provided lightly sweetened iced tea for my wife, once they found out she liked it this way, and she never had to ask for it again, as it magically appeared moments after she sat down at the table from then on.
There was a bit of a circus with the WIFI- as we had been told it was free with our package, but when we got there we found it was a chargable item. Our tripleader was something of a pitbull, however, and after much wrangling we were allowed 2 hours apiece of free WIFI access per day. Unfortunately, their access rather sucked, and you could only get on it either really early or really late. It was broadband though, when you finally got access. They have 2 swimming pools (not counting the kiddy pool which is above the main pool with a water slide down from the upper to the lower) but the second one is way down at the south end of the property and a bit of a walk. Not much activity down there, though, and kind of private. They also have a third pool, which is a saltwater pool which is located right down next to the ocean, and hosts a resident population of reef fish, a couple of groupers, and 4 or 5 adolescent blacktip reef sharks (2-3 feet long). This makes for an interesting afternoon swim, and they actually hold their scuba classes in that pool. I hear that the sharks come over to watch.
Diveshop is a large complex overlooking the sharkpool, and they have lots of shaded tables and suiting up and gearing area in front. Diving was from the traditional bangas, and the resort has three nice ones. For those who don't know, the banga is a Philippine icon, and thousands of them ply the waters of these areas. They are basically oversized canoes, with double outriggers and inboard engine driven propulsion. They pretty much all have a sunshade stretched over the engine section of the boat, but with nothing over the passenger area. This mystifies me- why can't they extend that suncover over the passenger area? That Philippine sun can be brutal! But almost none of them do...
The boatmen (usually two and sometimes three of them per boat) were extremely solicitious, and I could never make it all the way down from the outside of the hotel building down to the diveshop below it with my heavy camera boatbag without one of them spying me and running up to relieve me of it and carry it to the waiting boat. They were also great about handling our cameras and pulling our BC's with tanks out of the water for us to ease that climb back up the ladder into the boat. Much appreciated. Our divemaster Dandy was really a gem, and excelled at finding tiny critters for us. They all stayed with us for the entire trip, and were quick to hand out icewater and fresh towels to all upon returning from the dives. I also must mention Dandy's wife Carol, who ran the diveshop. The resort only provides aluminum 80 cf tanks, and as I am the proverbial airhog, this is a problem for me. When she found out about my situation, she got to work and found a couple of 100 cf tanks at a competing resort, and arranged to rent them for me at the princely sum of $1.75 a tank use, which I gladly paid. This was much appreciated, and gave me dive times of 50-70 minutes on most sites, which was a godsend. There were also large drying racks and showers and big freshwater soaking tanks at the diveshop, but no camera tanks on the boats. They completely cared for our gear and rinsed and dried it every night, unless you wanted to do this yourself, and they cleaned and dried it prior to our departure which helped packing considerably. Incredible service!
End of part one.
We found out about this trip from Jim, another scubaboard wanderer, and managed to attach ourselves to this expedition. We flew Delta to San Francisco, and picked up China Air there. No real problems, except China Air has a 15# weight limit on carryon bags, and balked at my 35# camera bag. They agreed to check it through to Manila, which made me a little nervous but went okay. The China Air 747-400 was a really nice plane, but I could have used a little more leg room. Personal video and audio and full meals helped some, but it was still 13 hours on a plane-yech! Taiwan was a 1 1/2 hour whirlwind, then back on a 737 for the final hop to Manila. All bags arrived without a hitch, but the Manila arrival area was a complete zoo. Had to schlep our collection of bags to 3 different places before we found where our van was actually waiting for us. We ended up sandwiching 6 people and an impressive array of bags into a rather smallish van, and off we went. Good thing we were all friendly! 2 1/2 hour ride to the resort, along some interesting roadways. The portion from Batangas to the resort was particularly memorable. Businesses and residences wall to wall on both sides almost the entire way, and incredible traffic congestion. You definitely do not want to drive a car yourself down here! Once we got to Anilao, we turned south on the mountain road which girdles the peninsula, and proceeded along some of the narrowest and twistiest roadway I have ever seen, which also was under considerable construction which narrowed things even more. Finally we got up to the turnoff to the resort, and proceeded down a long, steep tortuous access road to the resort transfer area, where we unloaded and moved to the resort vans for the final ride down an impossible 1/2 Km. snake path to the actual resort reception area. Wow- I wonder how many clutches those resort vans go through climbing up and down that access road...
The actual resort is very nice, and considerably upscale for the area. It is mostly all on a fairly flat area with a relative minimum of stairs (a real rarity for this area) and is an enormous place. Our actual living quarters were located in their new hotel addition, and were very nice with two queen beds, competent aircon, private bath, and private patio overlooking the ocean. Much better than I had expected. We even had an electric safe and fridge in the room, but the fridge was loaded with soda and beer which were available on a pay as you go basis. The place was pretty quiet most of the week, but perked up on weekends with Manila daytrippers and such. The actual focus of the place is mainly to corporate events and retreats aimed at companies in Korea and Japan. Not many westerners about, but they were extraordinarily hospitable to all of us. They had a large dining room which housed their bar and buffet service, and we had all inclusive meals except for liquor and soda. Bottled water was always available and free. The meals were more upscale than I have been used to, and I think Bobby Flay must have been running the kitchen. Breakfast was fairly conventional, with several asian touches added in. Chicken Aroscaldo was a frequent offering in the morning, which is a very flavorful rice congee type of dish, with many amendments offered to go in it. Pancakes and various ham and sausage and bacon offerings were present, along with Philippine specialties like Pork Tocino, one of my favorites. They even had an egg station which would put out omelettes and cooked eggs to order. Wonderful! Lunch was a selection of at least 6 hot entrees, and they always had rice available at all meals. Various cold salads were available, along with fresh baked bread and rolls. Dishes were rather higher end than what I was expecting, and we didn't see a sandwich, hamburger or pizza the entire time we were there. Dinner was very similar to lunch, and soup was always available with a different variety each day. A short summary of the dishes we encountered were longanisa (Philippine sausage), beef bourguignon, curry chicken, rau xau (stirfry veggies), pork charsui, deep fried king crab (weird, and not really worth it, by my opinion), pork tenderloin stroganoff, fried milkfish, their idea of kentucky fried chicken (not far off, actually), and so on and so on. Basically, you found a fish dish, a pork dish and a chicken dish with every meal, along with a few beef dishes and the occasional off beat stuff. (stir fried squid! Yum!) Desserts were mostly an abundance of local fruits nicely sliced and presented, along with things like caramel flan, tiramisu, sticky date pudding, buko pandpin (still don't know what this was..) mango pudding, etc. etc. All in all, something to please everyone, and no-one went hungry. Coffee, tea and juices were always available with the meals, including a few oddities like blue lemonade, one of my favorites. They also provided lightly sweetened iced tea for my wife, once they found out she liked it this way, and she never had to ask for it again, as it magically appeared moments after she sat down at the table from then on.
There was a bit of a circus with the WIFI- as we had been told it was free with our package, but when we got there we found it was a chargable item. Our tripleader was something of a pitbull, however, and after much wrangling we were allowed 2 hours apiece of free WIFI access per day. Unfortunately, their access rather sucked, and you could only get on it either really early or really late. It was broadband though, when you finally got access. They have 2 swimming pools (not counting the kiddy pool which is above the main pool with a water slide down from the upper to the lower) but the second one is way down at the south end of the property and a bit of a walk. Not much activity down there, though, and kind of private. They also have a third pool, which is a saltwater pool which is located right down next to the ocean, and hosts a resident population of reef fish, a couple of groupers, and 4 or 5 adolescent blacktip reef sharks (2-3 feet long). This makes for an interesting afternoon swim, and they actually hold their scuba classes in that pool. I hear that the sharks come over to watch.
Diveshop is a large complex overlooking the sharkpool, and they have lots of shaded tables and suiting up and gearing area in front. Diving was from the traditional bangas, and the resort has three nice ones. For those who don't know, the banga is a Philippine icon, and thousands of them ply the waters of these areas. They are basically oversized canoes, with double outriggers and inboard engine driven propulsion. They pretty much all have a sunshade stretched over the engine section of the boat, but with nothing over the passenger area. This mystifies me- why can't they extend that suncover over the passenger area? That Philippine sun can be brutal! But almost none of them do...
The boatmen (usually two and sometimes three of them per boat) were extremely solicitious, and I could never make it all the way down from the outside of the hotel building down to the diveshop below it with my heavy camera boatbag without one of them spying me and running up to relieve me of it and carry it to the waiting boat. They were also great about handling our cameras and pulling our BC's with tanks out of the water for us to ease that climb back up the ladder into the boat. Much appreciated. Our divemaster Dandy was really a gem, and excelled at finding tiny critters for us. They all stayed with us for the entire trip, and were quick to hand out icewater and fresh towels to all upon returning from the dives. I also must mention Dandy's wife Carol, who ran the diveshop. The resort only provides aluminum 80 cf tanks, and as I am the proverbial airhog, this is a problem for me. When she found out about my situation, she got to work and found a couple of 100 cf tanks at a competing resort, and arranged to rent them for me at the princely sum of $1.75 a tank use, which I gladly paid. This was much appreciated, and gave me dive times of 50-70 minutes on most sites, which was a godsend. There were also large drying racks and showers and big freshwater soaking tanks at the diveshop, but no camera tanks on the boats. They completely cared for our gear and rinsed and dried it every night, unless you wanted to do this yourself, and they cleaned and dried it prior to our departure which helped packing considerably. Incredible service!End of part one.
