Lola Tekla's Beach Resort of Laiya, Batangas

This trip is actually unexpected. The original plan was to go to Puerto Galera with my officemates. Unfortunately, the weather didn't permit us and so we had to think for an alternative route. We're in Batangas Port, stranded and feeling hopeless because there were no trip going to Galera that day due to a bad weather condition. I hate that LPA building up that day! Good thing we were able to use our smart phones and search for a good spot in Batangas where we can spend our weekend getaway.  We traveled for 3 hours already and turning back will be and will always be our last resort. After a couple of arguments and lay back moments in Batangas Port, we finally made up our mind -- Laiya, Batangas it is.

We chose Laiya, Batangas because there are tons of positive feedback about how beautiful this place is. Most specially its beach part.  Creamy sand, enticing clear water, water adventures/activities, and lots of resorts to choose from. These factors made Laiya, Batangas a perfect place for us who were unprepared for this change of plan.

Personal chat? Lol (Photo from Thea Velasco)

As we land on Laiya, Batangas, the beach of Laiya didn't fail to 'wow' us. Our disappointment on our Galera trip just fade away and all we can think off that time was to get a nice place to stay in. Budget friendly, lesser crowd, fun activities, accessibility to market place, and lots of freebies. These are the qualifications we wanted as we scout for a resort. Then we found Lola's Beach Resort. A public resort in Laiya, Batangas that almost fulfilled our qualifications. Trivia: Lola is a local term for grandmother. The resort is called Lola Beach Resort because the owner of this place is already a grandmother - named, Lola Tekla.

Serves as our home for an overnight (Photo from Lola Beach Resort FB Page)

Lola Beach Resort is a non-private resort so there is no entrance fee implemented in this place. Aside from that, they have 5 rooms to choose from which can accommodate large group. We were 9 in the group and we chose Room #4 to spent an overnight. It costs 5,500 Php per night which includes a refrigerator, bathroom, kitchen with stove, dinning table, spacious receiving area, and (1) AC room with 4 beds that can accommodate 3 persons each bed. A free large nipa hut near the beach was granted to us as a freebie. Yeah!

This is how it looks like as you enter Room #4 (Photo from Lola Beach Resort FB Page)

The are 4 beds in the AC room and 1 bed outside of it (Photo from Lola Beach Resort FB Page)

Small bathroom and our free hut! (Photo from Lola Beach Resort FB Page)

There is also a Sari-sari store inside the vicinity of Lola Beach Resort which is good if you need something like soap, shampoo, canned goods, alcoholic beverages, etc. Another key factor why we chose Lola is because of its accessibility to wet and dry market. Since the room we got has a stove, might as well cook our own food instead of buying ready-to-eat food which is not ideal if we wanted to save money. Fresh fish, chicken, pork, and vegies are available in a market nearby. It is just a 5-10 mins walk away from Lola Beach Resort and it is hard to miss out.

We don't have any problem with the staff of Lola. They gave us a warm welcome and were all friendly. Lola Tekla even visited us in the house. Even at her age, she still manage to walk and checked out her guests. They also let us borrowed some kitchenware like plates, spoons and forks, knife, frying pan, etc...

After doing the grocery that we will be using for our whole stay, we decided to have a swim. I don't know if it is normal but the temperature of the water there is a bit warm. However, the water level there is gradually changing from shallow to deep so it is also ideal for non-swimmers. Apart from splashing on the water, we also had some fun games like creating sand castles. We divided the group into 2 to compete and let our creativity shine! Lol.

Fun time in the water (Photo from Thea Velasco)

D' Castle builders. Which is better? (Photo from Thea Velasco)

never mind... hahaha (Photo from Thea Velasco)

It's time for some water activity. One of the facilitator of Lola Beach Resort offers us a banana boat ride. Note: Standard fee for this ride is 1500 Php for 15 mins and is good for 5 pax. Only 6 of us are willing to try the Banana Boat so we divided the group into 2 again. One group decided that they will only go for a plain ride while the other group wants the extreme ride wherein the Banana Boat will turn sideways and riders will be toss into the air (of course, I am included on the 2nd option). It was my first Banana boat ride and I really do had fun. After that, we were also offered to try the boat ride going in the snorkeling part of Laiya. Again, the weather/rain stops us from doing that. We didn't take risk. Safety first.

Photo op before the water activity starts (Photo from Thea Velasco)

Team Extreme and Team Unexpected Fall (Photo from Thea Velasco)

Love the part when we are being toss in the air! Thrill part of the Banana Boat ride (Photo from Thea Velasco)

After almost 5 hours in the water, Jean and Ate Cath (the cooks) called us for dinner. It was one of the best dinner I have ever had! It was just a grilled fish, grilled liempo, plain rice and Ferdie's sawsawan recipe but it was a perfect combo! We all ate like a construction worker and seems like there's no tomorrow. I can still imagine how good it was as I blog this entry. Yum!

After the dinner, everybody washed up while others take some short naps before we continue on our socials. We drink all night till dawn and laugh. We also celebrated Jean's birthday. By the way I would also like to mention Donna because she took the responsibility for washing our dishes for this whole trip :] Thanks Donna!

The chef, the assistant chef, the dishwasher and the lazy boy (Photo from Thea Velasco)

The next day, we were all surprised to see the big waves. I actually planned to have a boat ride that time unfortunately it was really impossible. Just simply refer on the photos below to see how dangerous those big waves are. Having said so, instead we took that chance to have a photo op.

Big waves at my back! (Photo from Thea Velasco)

Next time we'll make sure that the weather condition is clear from LPA (Photo from Thea Velasco)

Polaroid shots from Jean's Instax camera (Photo from Thea Velasco)

Our most perfect jump shot that day...  (Photo from Thea Velasco)

Trying to catch viewer's attention but Claire outstage me here. Aw

We left Lola Beach Resort at around 3:00 PM. One of the caretaker called a jeepney that took us to Alps Terminal Bus and costs 35 Php per pax. Even though it seems like everything was against this trip, we still manage to enjoy and relax away from our busy life in the city -- not bad!

Breakdown of Expense:
Accommodation: 5,500 Php (divided into 9 persons)
Banana Boat: 1500 Php (divided into 6 persons)
Food: 250 Php (group contribution) good for 4 meals
Pasalubong: 300 Php (makapuno, espasol, etc..)
Transportation: estimate of 450 Php Two way (can't give you a breakdown since we
originated in Batangas port and we just rented a private van from there)

Lola Beach Resort
Balacbacan, Laiya Aplaya, SanJuan Batangas
Contact # Alex Atienza: 0917-3643602 | Ronald Atienza: 0919-6807597