We went to Malarayat Golf and Country Club in Lipa, Batangas last May 1 and 2 for my company’s summer outing. There were 3 options for this year, New World Hotel, H2O Hotel and Malarayat. Last year, we went to Canyon Woods and Canyon Cove. I chose Malarayat because I wanted some place which is a little bit far from Manila, and we were informed that it was just a 1.5 hours drive. Little did we know that we were in for a surprise.
Since the check-in time was 2:00pm, we left the house at around 9:00am. We even stopped at Petron Station in South Luzon Expressway to meet some family who will join us for the outing. Faye was so surprised when she saw Kyla — we didn’t tell her that Kyla would be joining us. It would have been nicer if I was able to capture her facial expression on camera.
After having some coffee at McDonald’s, we were on the road again at 11:00am. This was where the road torture began. Traffic was terrible a few kilometers before the toll gate, and when we saw the piling up of vehicles at the end of the highway in Calamba exit, we decided to take the Canlubang exit. But still, we had nowhere to go except through Calamba, so, we still landed on the same exit point as if we took the Calamba exit, and I doubt if we even saved a few minutes of travel time, much less, on gasoline.
After exiting from the highway, we had to stop to rest our vehicles. A lot of vehicles got stalled due to overheating, because aside from enduring this torturous traffic, we also had to endure the scorching heat of the sun. It was really unimaginable! We left McDonald’s at 11:00pm and reached Calamba exit at 2:00pm!
While resting, the kids were still in a good mood, and were amusing themselves with their antics. But at this time, the adults were already hungry because we haven’t eaten our lunch yet.
We had a very late lunch at the nearest Jollibee, then we hit the road again at around 3:00pm.
Finally, at 4:00pm, we arrived at Malarayat! The kids were so happy when they saw the entrance to the Malarayat Golf and Country Club.
The place was huge, but then, of course, a golf club should have a big land area. Our room was nice and there was even an extra treat of a picturesque view of the golf course and vivid green lawn outside.
The view outside was simply relaxing, we couldn’t help but take advantage of it through several photo shoots. The kids were cooperative, but Faye was already so eager to jump into the pool that she couldn’t spare even a few shots for her Mommy.
Despite the heat, the kids still enjoyed the pool. Swimming was only allowed until 8:00pm, after that, Php500 will be charged per head, although the kids didn’t go beyond that, they stopped at around 7:00pm, since they were already shivering from cold, and it didn’t help that the water in the jacuzzi pool was so cold also.
There were ducks in the pond that the kids can feed for Php20/pack. But we didn’t buy the feeds, we just enjoyed watching them and taking some photos.
We even discovered this play area for kids at the far end of the swimming pool area, though there was a playhouse which I think was off-limits because it was damaged by typhoon Ondoy. But the kids enjoyed the swing, nonetheless.
Since the food inside the Club was so expensive and way beyond our budget, we decided to just go out and have dinner outside. Where else? but in the nearby SM City Lipa! Earvin experimented on his food, Pasta Laing from Goldilocks; just looking at it made me squirm, but he said it was good and he finished it in no time.
In between swimming, we had some photo shoots inside the room. We planned on having group photos before checking out, unfortunately, the rain started to pour outside, so we were not able to go out to take advantage of the scenic view.
Incidentally, this outing coincided with our wedding anniversary, so we also had some photos together courtesy of Earvin and my sister-in-law.
In general, though we had a terrible start, this outing was a nice bonding for the whole family and if we had a way, we would have wanted to stay one more night — or even two.
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