After almost 4 hours on the road from Manila to Talisay, Batangas (this includes lunch at Grace, Sister of Rose, Restaurant), we arrived at Club Balai Isabel. On our arrival, we were greeted by the mass of guests staying at this fully booked resort and a number of courteous (and not so courteous) staff. I immediately explored the resort grounds with my son, David.

The resort is nestled by the shores of Taal lake with a good view of the Taal Volcano Island and the 'false' Taal Volcano. (False, because a great number of Filipinos think that this smaller volcano shaped isle is the Taal Volcano). The resort has a beach with a long stretch of construction grade sand on a somewhat cloudy freshwater lake with lots of vegetation. Although, the resort does not recommend swimming in this lake, it has a number of beautiful swimming pools for kids and adults.

On our first day, we immediately went for the pool after settling the rooms. I stayed with the family swimming until sunset came. There wasn't any sunset though, due to the thick gray clouds, but I was still able to capture some nice images of the lake. After dinner, we wandered the resort grounds and, as my son calls it, go places. We discovered a large park on the other side of the resort with a large green, lots of mango trees, swings and hammocks. The place really looked nice and inviting. We capped the night away chasing frogs.

The next day I woke up at 5 am, as is my tradition, and took quite a number of pictures of some men fishing. There was no visible sunrise, again due to the cloudy skies. I went back to bed at 6 am and woke up at 9 for breakfast. We had another typical vacation day where we ate, swam, ate, then swam again.

At dusk, I retreated to a small ledge by the lake and sat there waiting for the sunset and looking at the kingfishers diving in the water. I took some very nice long shutter images of the resort's pier/picnic area, which I will submit to dpchallenge for the light theme challenge. We had dinner after, took some more night shots, and then stayed in the 4th floor balcony with my laptop, under the moonlight, listening to John Mayer songs and started writing this blog. I can say this is one of the most relaxing vacation I've had.

On Sunday, our last day, was the scheduled fight of Pacquiao vs. Hatton. Balai Isabel set up a large TV screen in one of its function rooms for everyone to gather and watch the fight on pay-per-view. They charged us 250 pesos each but the room was packed. Maybe about 100 to 150 people. Imagine how much the resort made on this event. Everyone was so ecstatic when Pacquiao finally dropped Hatton on the 2nd round, it was pure utter chaos!!! Watch this video of the place.

After the fight, we had our buffet lunch and packed up and went on our way.

Review

The place is very new and very clean although the construction grade sand on the beach was a real turn off. Just walking on it with wet feet and slippers is agonizing. The rooms are nice. Beds are still firm, pillows are nice and comfy. There were some insects though on the ceiling right on top of one of the extra beds, so it was unusable as the insects occasionally fall onto that bed. The room we rented, at P6,000 per night, has a loft, a kitchen with an electric stove, a fridge, 3 queen-sized bed and 2 double-sized bed. That room could fit about 10 people comfortably. Great for barkadas and families.

There are a lot of things to do on the resort. It has a large twin pool, adult and kiddy, just beside the resort's restaurant, plus 2 more pools on the other side of the resort. It has a couple of billiard tables, darts, playground, a basketball court and a tennis court, which I just found out on our last day. The lake, as the resort suggests, isn't for swimming, but I could see some people water-skiing and wiping out, so it isn't really unswimmable. You can also rent a kayak to explore the lake further.

About the personnel, some of the personnel were not very courteous and not well-trained. There was an instance where only 3 tables were occupied on the restaurant and the waiters were confused on what they were supposed to do. We had to wait 20 minutes for our food. On the pool, we asked for beach towels and we were referred to the front desk which then told us to just use the room towels and then the next day we saw some personnel distributing beach towels. This was so much different from our experience in Caylabne Bay Resort. And the food wasn't very good as well. There were lots of choices in the menu, but half of it isn't available. So you'll be forced to order buffet, which isn't very inticing either.

Overall, our stay was fun and very very relaxing. And now, back to reality.

View photos of the place here: Club Balai Isabel Photos