Honeymoon in Sorsogon
We’ve always fantasised about going to Europe or the US for our honeymoon when we were still talking about getting married. Shiela had always envisioned our honeymoon to be in Paris while I saw us visiting Hawaii or going to Antartica. When it came down to it, we chose the Philippines (keeping our Quest that we will explore PH more in 2016). We decided to pick a place in our country that we haven’t been to and set a course to Sorsogon.
Sorsogon is a province in the Philippines that is located in the Bicol Region. We flew via Cebu Pacific to Legazpi Airport in the morning of February 16, 2016. Our hotel arranged for a van for us and it took us around 1.5 hours to reach our hotel from the airport. One surprising thing about our flight was that we were actually arrived earlier than the ETA.
We booked our accommodations at Siama Hotel. It is a 40 room eco-friendly hotel with a modern design located in San Lorenzo, Sorsogon which is around a 10 minute tricycle ride from the city proper. Siama is owned by Kat and Milo Naval who are furniture designers and exporters by profession. No wonder the hotel looked amazing.
We spent our first day lounging around the hotel, taking a dip in the big pool and eating (a lot). Our Breakfast and Dinner meals were included in the package that we bought so normally I wouldn’t expect much but Siama surprised us with great food every single day. If the hotel has more guests checked in they would typically have a buffet set up for the guests but since there were only a few us checked in during our stay we were served individually.
So our dinners typically go like this… They would first serve us a big bowl of soup which can probably serve 5 people. Then they’d bring in a big bowl of rice, a vegetable dish, 2 meat dishes and lastly they’ll serve us dessert with coffee. Sometimes we would enjoy our dinner so much that we forget that there’s still dessert and the waiter had to remind us not to leave yet.
There was this time where they served huge prawns and barbecue ribs for dinner and we just dove right in. We forgot to take a picture as proof so I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Our second day in Sorsogon was quite busy. Our first stop was Gubat Beach. This beach is ideal for surfing. So apparently the birth of surfing in Gubat originated at an old breeding site of the Department of Agriculture which I think they called Breeding, Buenavista village. We also dropped by this Bamboo two-story structure which was designed and, I think, donated by the Navals (the owners of Siama Hotel).
We then visited St. Joseph Parish Church in Barcelona, Sorsogon. It is more commonly known as Barcelona Church. It is one of the oldest and well preserved churches in the Bicol Region. The church was built by Spanish priests in 1874. It is said that the church was constructed out of coral stones, beaten egg whites and tuba ( a type of local wine). The Church’s current facade, walls and the bell tower are still the original ones.
How they did that sounds amazing and all I can think about on the way back to the hotel was how many eggs did they needed to crack open to build this church.
After visiting Barcelona Church, we drove to our next destination, Bulusan Lake. Bulusan Lake is part of the Bulusan Volcano National Park. We took the scenic route overlooking the Pacific Ocean to get to the lake, passing through Gubat, Barcelona and the centre of Bulusan town.
Once you get there you need to pay an entrance fee. There are NGO volunteers that serves as guides. You can trek and go around the lake or you can opt to go kayaking or boating in the lake. We chose to have a leisurely boat ride and enjoyed the scenic view of the lake and its surroundings. I personally found it very peaceful.
We stopped over an area of the lake where they were constructing some covered structures along the trail which they hope can serve as covered picnic areas for tourists. They were also finishing up construction of a very long hanging bridge which would be a tourist feature of the park this year.
After our boat ride at Bulusan Lake, we headed to Balay Buhay which is a Bee Farm and is considered as an Agri-Tourism spot. It is quite popular destination among tourists to enjoy the natural view.
I am not quite sure as how they proportion their food but we were again surprised as the staff laid out lunch for us. Since we dropped by on a weekday it seemed like we were the only guest in their restaurant.
The pictures above shows the food that they prepared for the two of us. We couldn’t finish it and we ended up bringing it back to the hotel and sharing it with our driver and some of the staff.
After a very hearty lunch we drove to Irosin, Sorsogon to spend the afternoon enjoying the warm waters of the San Benon hot springs. It could get crowded pretty quick on the weekends but lucky for us, we had the place to ourselves. The water is very clean and clear. There is a pool where the water was warm and another one which was hot. We tried both but ended up staying longer on the “warm” pool. While swimming you have a great view of the lush green trees. There’s an entrance fee and you can rent out the cottages if have big groups. Going to this place reminded us of our childhood outings with our parents. My dad would’ve loved this place (Note to self…. bring dad here).
After that refreshing dip, we headed back to the hotel for some rest before heading out again to Buhatan River Eco-Adventure for some firefly watching. We reached the location around 7pm in the evening unfortunately for us the moon was shining brightly that night so we had to wait until around 9pm to be able to see the fire flies. I think we are lucky to still have witnessed some fireflies and lightning bugs on our first try.
The Buhatan River Eco Adventure is operated by a local cooperative supported by the ABS-CBN foundation and the community pitch in together to earn money through the tours that they book. The men were typically the ones who go with you on the boat as guides while the ladies make local sweet delicacies and cook food for the guests. Typically the firefly watching tour included dinner but had dinner waiting for us at the hotel. We did buy a lot of sweet treats to bring back home.
Day three was reserved for island hopping and we wanted to carve out some relaxation time at the beach. We drove up to Matnog Town to get a boat that will bring us to Subic Beach. The boat is usually good for 8–10 pax. Before reaching Subic Beach we passed by Juag Lagoon Marine Sanctuary.
We then continued on to Subic Beach where we spent the rest of the day. Since it wasn’t officially summer yet, the beach was not as crowded. I am no expert on beaches but the beaches that we found beautiful and thoroughly enjoyed are beaches in the Philippines. We kept looking for amazing beaches in other countries but realised we have those right in our own backyard.
To my wife (naks!), heres to more adventures and misadventures. To the highs that makes us happy and to the lows that makes us stronger. We can be brave when we face this world because deep down inside we know that we are better together.
