Cavite: Balay Indang

Last weekend we headed to Tagaytay to attend a friend's wedding. It was our first time to visit Balay Indang and had no idea what to expect. To get there turn right from Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway to Mendez-Tagaytay Highway. Just go straight about 8 kilometers and you'll see the signage of Balay Indang on the left side. It was a bit hard to find so we relied on Google Maps.

Balay Indang is also known as "The Red Ginger Farm and Garden". It wasn't raining when we got there and we explored the surroundings a bit. Lush vegetation surrounded the whole place and you can either stay in the main house or at the cottages scattered across the property. I was too enthralled with the garden and promptly forgot to take photos of the outdoors (haha). Don't bother to bring your laptop since I only managed to get Edge internet connection at the most. That's a plus for me though since I really needed a vacation from my online life. 

I certainly enjoyed the interior of the main house. They had a lot of knick-knacks and I would assume decor bought from abroad. The theme seemed to be "rustic-mismatch". No two things were alike. Chairs, tables, plates, mirrors etc., everything was different. Even the wallpaper was just scraps from different pieces, but everything surprisingly jelled together.

Balay Indang is a place where you can just sit back and relax and be unplugged. A safe haven from the busy wired life you may have in the metro. I should've followed my instincts and left my laptop at home. 

Dinner was an affair to remember and I'm going to make a separate post about the gastronomic delights that we had. For now I can share that we took advantage of the bottomless feat. 

 

 

Anyway, after dinner my friends and I hung out by the pool, but I guess we were just too wired we immediately got bored (haha). We moved to the library and just hung-out. I just played some games on my phone, but it soon ran out of battery. The cool weather and soft lights was like a lullaby to me and soon I asked Sweetie if we could go and sleep already.

 

 

 

 

 If only Sweetie didn't have work the next day I would've wanted to stay another night just to sleep :)

Balay Indang - The Red Ginger Farm and Garden (map)
88 Mabang Kahoy
Indang, Cavite
+63 917 866 5825

Morocco: L'Amphitrite Beach Hotel

It never crossed my mind that I would one day be able to visit Morocco. To me Morocco is a faraway land that I'd just visit through Google Earth and by looking at images online, but alas, work brought me there for a few days. I wasn't able to get around (at all) but I was pretty happy already that we were booked at a beach hotel. 

We stayed at L' Amphitrite Beach Hotel and my seatmate in the plane said that it's a very nice place, but mentioned that I should find the time to go to Casablanca. I loved my room's color scheme, so I took a photo to remember. 

Just a meter away from the bed is the balcony where you can take in the amazing beach front. It was my first time to see the Mediterranean Sea up close. Too bad I wasn't able to find time to wade in the sea shore. 

 

Good thing I had taken sunset photos when I arrived because I didn't have the time anymore. 

The hotel was lovely and my stay would probably have been better if I had my family around with me. Well maybe someday we'd all be able to go have a vacation in Morocco. 

Sarangani Highlands

I had no idea where Avel was taking us last night for dinner. I admit I was a bit nervous because it was really dark outside and I couldn't trace where we were on the map (I really have an overactive imagination!). Anyway, when we finally got to Sarangani Highlands I instantly fell in love with the place.



The open air restaurant was really lovely. Check out our dinner set-up.

After we ordered food we decided to look around the place and we found a lot of lovely nooks.

 

 

This garden area overlooked the sea and was a really charming place. 

I was really surprised to find out that they had a hotel area and lots of rooms. And they also had an area where you can hold seminars/workshops.

 

 

 

And here's some of the sumptuous fresh food we had.

 

 

How I wish we just stayed at Sarangani Highlands for the rest of our trip!

Oh, good thing my dear friend Chelle reminded me... they also have the yummiest avocado shake!