Big Waves

When I was a kid, big waves frightened me. I was so afraid of them I failed to learn how to swim, even though I hailed from a town nestled beside a gulf. I remember as a young girl, the sea was part of my playground. Lucky I was _ I grew up in a picturesque town as my playground. The whole yard of it, with rivers, mountains and hills to complete the scene. If you were like me who grew up in such a town with nature abound , you couldn't help but be a nature lover all the way thru' to adulthood and naturally passed it on to your own children.

My girls also have it on them_ the love for mother nature. The only difference is that they are not afraid of big waves. On the contrary, they enjoy swimming against the huge waves, and yes they learned how to swim.

Grande Island Resort

We drove to Subic from Manila and headed straight to the port of the ferry which would take us to Grande Island Resort.




We actually made previous reservation and all we needed to accomplish was to buy the boat tickets.






Done. We found ways to amuse ourselves while waiting for the ferry. Sights of big ships caught the kids imagination.






Then, a ferry disembarked and unloaded checked out passengers. Emptied and ready for us, the excited incoming guests, the ferry took us all in. It would be around 15-20 minutes boat ride to get to the island.







It was comfy and spacious. After awhile, we followed most of the passengers who started going up to the uppermost deck /view deck.






Sooner than we thought about it, we reached the island. I was not sure if it was because of the size of the resort (quite big), but this early, I felt like the resort was understaffed.There was only one staff who welcomed us and finding our chalet room on our own was an effort. There was no transit vehicle who assisted us, so we had to walk with our heavy luggages up to our room which was quite far.


The room was okey and a little bigger than we expected. We had a beachfront location so it was nice and relaxing.

vintage bathroom

We loved it that the wifi was free and generously available.

I loved the veranda by the beach

Certainly, this resort was not that type where I would sit and lay down by the beach all day, swim and be peaceful. The beach was narrow and the water was rocky with big waves. Suggestive of water activities other than swimming.

I'm not a big fan of sand that 's not white.

So the rest of our stay, we amused ourselves with the water toys available, like banana boat and kayak. We also had fun with the ATV rides around the island.




Although we had a blast with fun activities available, we also had a number of disappointments.


For instance, take a look of this ad poster of the resort. This one surely hyped up our expectation of the place.


Now, look at this. These two pics were supposedly one and the same feature of the resort. How disappointing, don't you think so? Another negative number in this resort was the food, especially the complimentary buffet breakfast ! Oh no, don't make me elaborate. It was just a total disappointment . . . period.






Yet inspite of those few nega numbers, we actually had fun and enjoyed our stay at Grande Island Resort.

Dusty & Rusty Canyon Road

Seeking more thrills at Grande Island Resort in Subic, I asked a staff  how to get to the Canyon Road , where their two antique cannons collection seated.


With J trailing behind me, armed with the camera, we took the rugged road uphill. But we had a little problem. We were not sure if the guy told us to turn left or right when we reached a cross road. There was no signage, not a single one! and the roads were empty.With only us who were nuts enough to hike the abandon site.


We turned right. After a little while I got a sight. As we got nearer to the structure, it came to me as ruins of something important then.


Without any signage, I couldn't imagine what exactly it was. Then I remembered reading from the resort's brochure_ the battery flake tower !


Maybe it was, but what really a battery flake tower is?_ I don't know! Do you? Anyway, the structure looked eerie, like old tombs in the cemetery, so we decided to make a pass on this and to run fast forward the hill.


After around 15-20 minutes of walking nowhere, J told me that we should give it up if another 5 minutes were consumed without a sight of the cannons. Five minutes passed. We turned back and went straight to the left turn of the cross road. Soonest enough, we found the cannons sitting adjacent to each other in the middle of abandoned little forest.




I've seen the likes of them in Corrigidor Island and in other old military ports in the country. But just the same, I was happy to be compensated for our efforts.


The cannons were huge, old and seemed to be useful toys during one or two historical wars in the country. I don't know. I'm just imagining things. hehehe!


But look at the holes. They looked like some opponents' guns/cannons had fired on them too. You know, in war movies, where people were firing to each other. Now tell me I was wrong ! I wonder another thing_ where was the cannons pointing, who were the targets?




Ahhh, these war stories stressed me ... enough of these rusty and musty historical ruins .. gotta get back down to the beach !! see you on the next post :D