BATANGAS: The Bahay Kubo Beach House

Gerry and I kept our eyes open on the ride from Tagaytay to Nasugbu. It's election time, so the roadside is peppered with candidate posters. We discussed the pros and cons of each (mostly cons!) and badgered dad about who he was voting for. Instead he told us whom he was not voting for. And we gave our pitch to campaign for Dr. Martin Bautista!

The tired twins were fast asleep in the car, including along the final 2 km bumpy ride from the beautiful Calabarzon road into the town of Calayo. When we last came 6 years ago, there was not even a road that we had take dad's boat from Maya Maya Reef Club to Calayo. Watching out for familiar things on the road from Wawa, we discovered that our childhood haunt White Sands is now part of Punta Fuego, and the Puyat's old Bamboo Beach is now called Kawayan Cove!

Finally, at the Bahay Kubo! We quickly changed and jumped into the water -- it was so warm and calm, I thought that this is what amniotic fluid must feel like!

That evening for dinner, we had the fresh catch of the day of fried espada fish, barracuda fish, and crabs, plus a kamatis/sibuyas/bagoong balayan salad. Yummy!

By 7 pm, the girls and I were sooo tired we just dropped off to sleep. Actually, Bea fell asleep even before dinner and did not have any. There was a nice breeze, and we just slept on the papag on the balcon. We forgot to do one thing, for which we would suffer much later.

MONDAY. At about 3 a.m., Bea and I were wide awake, so we decided to walk around the house with our flashlights, looking for something to eat. We found bananas and munched away, even tried to make Gerry join us. While we were walking around the house, apparently, we woke up the mosquitoes also, because when we woke up again at first light, we discovered that our arms and legs were covered in......BIG RED BITES. The insects smelled a different diet (NY food!) since we forgot to put repellent and the insects had a feast! Bea counted over 35 bites on herself, and when they counted mine, I had over 50! They did not spare our toes, or fingers, or Bea's nose! Gelli did not suffer as much, because she was fast asleep and did not join us in our early morning traipse through the still sleeping house. Just like in NY, Gelli woke up later than the rest of us!

Even before 6 am, we started to walk down the beach towards the sand bar by the river. It was low tide and we were able to walk far out from shore, and still have the water to just our knees! The girls found most of their shell bounty that morning. They also found lots of hermit crabs, still in their homes.

For breakfast, we had crab omelet left over from the night before, sinangag, and mangoes.

The caretakers were busy on the side of the house. Soon we heard the squealing of a pig, who would soon be our lunch: lechon! Lolo Doy bought a pig to celebrate the visit of his apos! There was a large boiling pot, and the coals were being fired. The girls could not stand the squealing so they went back into the water.

Thought I would have to teach them how to snorkle, BUT, they just jumped in the water and snorkled away, like it was natural to them. Bea even found an eel, actually two, in their rocky home by the shore. There were many, many fish to explore and follow and try to catch with a net (not! those fish are quick.)

For lunch, of course we had lechon. Even if it was a small pig, there were only 5 of us, so the half of the lechon went to the neighbors, the Maloles family. After a siesta, (truly buhay baboy: kain-tulog!) it was back to the water. Lolo brought out the jet ski. On the first run, Gerry took the girls, but Gerry was sooo slow and cautious, just put-putting around the front of the house within the cove. So then Dad gets on it, with the girls, and he speeeeeeedssssss away! He even goes out of the cove, into the next coves, and into the river. Were the girls scared? Check out the picture below and see for yourself! 71-yr old outsped 43-yr old today!

As is usual, when the village vendors see that Mang Doy has guests, they come in droves selling their wares. The native chicken woman came, and dad got one. He asked: fried chicken, or tinola? Tinola won of course, don't have too many opportunies to eat yummy native, not-Perdue chicken! By mid-afternoon, here come the shrimp ladies, a gang of three who set out early in the morning to go shrimping by the river. They came with their catch, which included various sized shrimp and soft shell crabs. Take note of their beautiful, custom-made shrimping baskets!

For dinner, we had the shrimp, freshly caught, and tinola. The chicken actually had 4 eggs in it! Early night once again, still jet-lagging, but this time, we put on anti-insect lotion, and used a kulambo! Hoping to wake up at a more normal hour, I was wishing we would sleep longer. Instead, the full moon woke us up, and it was only 2:30 am! Gerry was up too, so we just watched the night fishermen paddling around the cove, including the shrimpers with their night lights by the river. Funny how silence has a loud sound -- the sound of night in a rural place. It was so relaxing to look at the shadows of the mountains in front of us, listen to the cocks crow (they crow very early here, are they trained for fisherman's hours?) and the sounds of the animals at night including the butiki, the tuko, and the crickets, all of them new to the New York ears of the twins.

TUESDAY. What finally got the twins out of bed that morning was watching this spider fall from the ceiling and seemingly onto them, but of course it got caught on the kulambo, thank God for that! And yes, we still had some more mosquito bites, because this fancy dancy organic no-DEET lotion did not work against tough Pilipino lamoks!

For breakfast we had sinangag, leftover tinola broth, fried chicken Pinoy style (marinated in toyo and calamansi) and watermelon. After that it was back to the water for one last swim. Time passes by so slowly, which is wonderful. We were back in the water, and it was not even 7 am yet!

Back to Manila, to get Dad home on time because he was color coded today. In Nasugbu, he stops by a bakery that he said sold yummy ensaimada, nothing fancy, just yummy, what China said is known as "ensaimadang pot-pot", usually sold by itinerant vendors on bicycles! Gerry of course got his favorite pan de coco. Before we got to Tagaytay, we stopped at a fruit stall to buy an entire langka fruit, which Gerry held in place in the SUV between his legs all the way to Makati....

Lunch was on the SLEX at Delifrance, and then on to Popsie's at Rockwell.