by Christine Nicole Ballaran
I was still half awake when my Mom called me to wake up, I sprung to my bed with eyes still droopy from a late night sleep routine. As I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a bright surrounding. It was a sunny morning in the middle of May 2022, my mom told me to pack my clothes, and she was moving in a haste, I was startled. She said our relatives were already at the resort and we are the only ones they are waiting for. I immediately took whatever clothes I could find and put them in a bag. It does not anymore if it was crumpled inside, what’s important is that we could leave already.
It was blazing hot outside signifying how summer is just around the corner waving at us. It was added by the scorching heat emanating from the pavement as we crossed the highway street and the smoke from the vehicles was moving in turmoil in the air. There was no wind, the air was dry and no signs of rain. We also bought lunch on the way.
When we arrived, I was amazed by how spacious the resort is. Villa Alegre Resort, as far as I know, is a newly constructed resort here in Daraga. It is also only a few kilometers away from the Bicol International Airport. Before we entered, we took photos at the huge “Villa Alegre” signage and then we were accommodated by friendly staff at the entrance. They stamped us with “CASA ALEGRE” in our arms. I guess the resort was actually “Casa Allegre” in the first place but they changed their minds.
The swimming pool for adults was asymmetrically made, widely stretched in size and reaches up to 8 feet. There was also a wooden slide on the right and a diving space on the left in the 8 feet lane of the pool. It was swarmed with people giggling and laughing. The splashing of water makes me want to dive into the water but I ate lunch first, I ate bare hands on a banana leaf. There were a number of small huts on the side to stay, we stayed on the first one. There were also many wooden chairs around. The space of the resort is really huge and given that it is placed in the far side of the city, families can really enjoy the breeze from the environment because it is surrounded with trees. The resort gives off a smell of leafy nature and chlorine water combined.
I went to the bathroom to change into swimming clothes, I walked past the kid’s pool and it was rectangular in size and there was also a hall beside it where there were people singing karaoke. The sound of the music from the karaoke made the people there enjoy it more because it was fun listening to people singing different songs. At around 3 PM, I saw the clouds get gloomy. It then drizzled, the rain was not strong so people still swam in the pool mixed with rain and probably chlorine.
All in all it was a good place to bond with your loved ones or your friends. I would recommend it and would probably come back again soon. There are only two things that I did not like about the place, which is that the huts near the adult’s pools were too small for big groups or families, only enough for at least (4) four people. The nipa huts at the back near the comfort room are kind of bigger than the rest in the front, probably good for big groups but we haven’t tried it. Another is that there are only four toilets to take a bath and change clothes into, (2) two for male, and (2) for females. If I could suggest they could have added more toilets because the place is big and there are so many people but the comfort rooms are few although the number of showers outside are enough. Because of this inadequate facility, we had to fall in line to wait for the person using the toilet to finish before we could use it.
The Lit Creatives 