In Laiya, San Juan: Beach Trip with Friends and Typhoon Bebeng

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The rainy season’s starting to make us feel its presence. But hey, summer’s not yet over until it’s over! We’ll still have our “huling hirit sa tag-init” tomorrow. Abangan! 😉

Last weekend, May 7 and 8, I went to Laiya, San Juan with some friends and it was one unforgettable trip. Really. We went there without anticipating Bebeng. The typhoon that has entered the Philippine area of responsibility and had left 20 people (or so) dead. Bad Bebeng.

Going back to the Laiya trip. We’ve learned a couple of things on this trip. Not that it was screwed up, it was fun, fun, fun! Why? Because we have the right company to enjoy.

It was actually a trip for my two sets of friends: the Weekend Gang (composed of my ‘ancient’ friends from grade school/high school) and the Superfriends (my friends from college). Since both groups wanted a beach trip, I asked both parties’ permission to get together and have one single trip with me as the common denominator. Haha.

Let’s go down to lessons learned from this Laiya trip. And hopefully we could help you out if you plan to go there soon.

Lesson #1: Get early reservation.

We went there without an exact location to go to. We were so kampante that there would be a lot of resorts to choose from. But upon reaching Laiya, fully-booked na halos lahat ng puntahan namin! We spent about an hour scouting for a resort that would fit our budget for a cottage only. Kuripot as it may sound, we only alloted P1,000-P1,500 for the cottage.

Kasi we have a tent to keep our things safe and since it’s an overnight swimming, getting a room was not really part of the plan. But there’s no cottage that would fit into our budget! We haggled but the lowest rate was P2,000. Kabayan Resort has a cottage for P1,000 but for day tour only.

We hopped from one resort to another until we reached this so-called Baludlud Resort (it doesn’t look like an actual resort in your mind). The owner was so kind she gave us a fair deal. For P2,000, we got a cottage, a covered table, and she let us used the tent without extra fee.

Lesson #2 Budget wisely.

We did it. Since I’m the common denominator of the two groups, I took responsibility of budgeting, what to buy, what to bring, where to go to (I failed on the last one).

We rented a jeepney for P2,500 (overnight rate) which covered the gasoline and the driver’s fee. P1,500 went for the food (dinner and breakfast plus pulutan) and the beverages. Then P2,000 for the accommodation. We’re 12 in the group, our contribution was P500 each so sakto, P6000. Libre na sina driver at kasama nya.

Lesson #3. Makinig kay Kuya Kim.

Saturday before noon time, the news said that Bebeng will hit eastern Visayas and Bicol. It was too sunny when we left Lipa but on our way to Padre Garcia, makulimlim na. We have to fetch Jonathan in Padre Garcia at dun na kami simulang abutan ng ulan.

The evening prior to our trip, I wasn’t able to hear Kuya Kim’s weather forecast for the weekend and nobody in the group did the same. Kaya ayun, kasama namin si Typhoon Bebeng sa outing!

PABORITONG EKSENA: Nag-swimming ang ilan sa amin nung gabi. Ang sasaya ng mga tao. Tapos umambon. Tapos lumakas at naging ulan. Tapos, biglang nagbrownout sa buong Laiya! Nag-ahunan ang mga tao, parang pang-Survivor ang eksena. 😀

It doesn’t matter if you avail an accommodation na hindi sosyalan. Sino bang may sabing para ma-enjoy ang trip eh “shala” dapat ang resort? We went there to enjoy the sea, the sand, and the sun (which unfortunately was hidden by Bebeng) which means most of the time will be spent outdoors.

With this Laiya beach trip, new friendships were created. And it also tested the existing friendships’ strength. Literally and figuratively, we survived a storm. 🙂