Tag Archives: resort
Philippines: Recap - MacArthur & Monbon Beach Resort
After finding out I had just returned from a vacation in the Philippines, people ask me “Where did you visit?” At that point I tell them I was in the town of MacArthur. People they look at me with a strange face and say. “Where?”
Before knowing my friend, I had no clue of where MacArthur, Leyte was. After meeting my friend, I want to return. MacArthur is not a place anyone would think of to visit on a vacation, as there are no tourist attractions around. Most small villages that become tourist spots are usually fishing villages offers good cuisine around. But MacArthur does not eve have a huge fishing population (but it does have a good amount of fishermen).
So what is there to do in MacArthur? Well, nothing. And that is the point, do nothing. That is what I did there. It was a great place to sit in a nice beach house and relax.
Now the MacArthur is a small village with not a lot of luxuries. With that said, there are no large extravagant resorts around, well not quite. The place that allowed me to stay for 3 1/2 days was a place I fell in love with. A small resort known as Monbon Beach Resort. This blog here tells more about the resort than I could.
The price was right for this place. For 1500 Pesos (about $33 USD) per a day I had an air-conditioned room with access to a kitchen and living room in a house. Also had access to a large living room area where the view was a the beach. The beach had places to eat and there was always some one there.
eyte
That beach was amazing. Every day I went there, there was some one who was eating, relaxing and just having a good time, usually a local. Almost every time they invited me to come and sit and enjoy some drinks and food and some laughs. It is hard to not want to leave a town where the people are so nice.
Every night my friend and I took a short walk down to the town central market where we got some fresh vegetables to cook and some fruits to eat the next morning. The place was just a wonder to me. It is no wonder why I want to go and visit the place again some time in my life.
I would also invite everyone else to visit the small friendly town of MacArthur. Enjoy the relaxation and the people there.
Philippines Days 4 -7: Mac Arthur to Maasin
So when some one told me there was nothing to do in Leyte I knew they had to be lying. This morning as I woke up, I looked out the sliding windows of the guest house I was staying at and said to myself, “Now I Know they are lying”. The view of the ocean and sun rising was a sight to see.
At first started with some confusion in Tacloban, but my anger and confusion was quickly defused when I got to meet my good friend Jessa. That night we ate at the resort diner, where I had chopsuey and pinakbet, two vegetarian safe pinoy foods. But later that night there was also an anime costume contest. The contestants paraded their costumes for everyone around. This was a sign of the huge Korean influence in the Philippines.
The next morning my friend and I went shopping and then headed off to her home town of Mac Arthur. If you were to ask someone what there is to do in Mac Arthur, they would say “absolutely nothing” and that is about right. And that is also what I did. I did nothing, and enjoyed it. What I mean about nothing, is I relaxed, with the nice beautiful scenery of palm trees and a gorgeous ocean on the beach. Not to mention doing absolutely nothing with the locals who are very welcoming to the tourists. Always willing to invite to sit down and eat and drink some tuba. What is tuba you ask? Well it is not a musical instrument, but a coconut wine equal to moonshine, and damn good; at least when coke is added. This occurred more times than often, where I enjoyed some good
Times with some Filipinos.
Yesterday my friend Jessa and I made way to Castañas Springs in Balinsasayaw, Abuyog, which is about an hour and 15 minute trike trip from Mac Arthur. It is a gorgeous natural spring that is perfect for swimming, if you ask me. But if you ask my friend it was too cold.
After returning to Taragona Beach Resort, place I stayed for 1500 pesos ($35), we ate and cooked dinner like we had for most of our stay. The next day we would start our adventure very early to make our way to Maasin, a great place for hiking and cave dwelling. Unfortunately, the hiking and cave dwelling was not going to happen. Trying to hail a van passing by in Mac Arthur was hard as many vans were already full. Instead we made our way to Tacloban to catch a van. We waited about 3 hours for the van to fill up til we finally left. Now our adventure in Maasin awaits us, which is probably just a disco and some beers now, but tomorrow we head off to Ubay via ferry to the island of Bohol.