Sulit.com.ph and Trajet Tours and Travel promote tourism in the Philippines and abroad. Find great travel deals at Sulit.com.ph, the leading online classified ads website in the Philippines.
Have you ever been to Palawan, particularly in El Nido? Many would say that the place is truly beautiful, wondrous and amazing. More so, if you get the privilege to stay in one of its luxurious island resorts, such as, The Lagen Island Resort. For me, this is by far, my favorite vacation spot in the Philippines.
In the year 2005, in the middle of a financial crisis (due to a business reversal of our 15-year old business), a family acquaintance offered my dad a job, as a project coordinator in an Archeological camp somewhere in the outskirts of Palawan. My dad accepted the offer, and that became our key to the gates of the last frontier.
In a few months -- being the perfect couple that they are, my parents could not stand being apart for so long, and at a great distance, so, my mom decided to visit my dad for a few days in Puerto Princesa. And as what the folklore would say, “Anyone who visits Palawan will be cursed with the “Kambak-Kambak”.
True enough, because only after a few months from returning back home, my mom decided to go back to Palawan. She fell in love with the place. That’s when she realized the folklore did say, “Kambak-Kambak” literally was, “Come back, Come back”. Right then and there, my mother decided to stay. They both rented a small house, and little-by-little moved some thing from Manila to Palawan.
In the year 2007, having already earned and saved some, my parents decided to allow me and my sister for a visit (not knowing of their surprise) After a few days touring Puerto Princesa, dad and mom surprised us by telling; that we will spend Valentines Day and my sister’s birthday at Club Noah Isabelle. Thanks to my dad’s new job, my parents have managed to continue paying a club membership that offers vacation packages at a lesser value, in exchange for buying points.
My parents have prepared and planned everything for months. They wanted us to spend quality time together in a beautiful beach resort before our flight back to Manila. But destiny has its own way of playing. Because a few days before our trip, a representative from the club (not Club Noah) called; informing us that there was a problem with their booking. It turned out that Club Noah Isabelle was fully booked at our given date. They asked if we would consider booking our trip a week after. My mom declined, because my sister and I would be in Manila by then.
Running out of options, my mom asked if they can book us at El Nido Resorts (Lagen Island) instead, without hesitation, the representative said, yes!
So that’s it. Wow! We’re off to 3-days and 2-nights stay at a luxury resort!
Having a tight budget, we did not take a charted plane going to El Nido. We rented a van and opted to take the 6-hour land travel. To cut the story short, we arrived at the empty El Nido port/pier around 2:30pm and waited for almost an hour to be picked-up by the resort’s boat. But before that, a call came on my mom’s mobile; it was the representative from the vacation club, informing us that there is already a vacancy at Club Noah.
Mom: Hello? Yes…we are already here at the port/pier of El Nido. Who will take us to the resort?
Rep: Ma’am, there’s already a vacancy at Club Noah Isabelle. Would you like to go there instead?
Mom: What?!!! No! We are already here, in El Nido. It took us 6-hours of rough land travel to get here. And Club Noah Isabelle is 3-hours away, back to where we came from! And you expect us to go back?!
Rep: Ma’am I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding/miscommunication. Ma’am if you take our other offer you can even stay at Club Noah for 5-days.
Mom: NO!
Rep: Ma’am, this is the situation, there was a mistake in our assessment. Your package for Lagen Island Resort is only good for 2 persons.
Mom: Well, that’s not our problem. We talked about this for days. We even exchanged booking and confirmation forms thru facsimile. Everything was signed and approved. It was clear that the booking was for 4 adults.
**fast forward**
In the end, the club had no choice but to approve our stay. But the problem did not stop there; my mom received another call, this time it was from the manager of Lagen Island, informing us that the boat that was supposed to pick us up is currently being used on a sunset cruise. So, we will be picked-up by the resort’s speed boat. The manager apologized in advance and explained that our ride can get a little bit wet, but our luggage will be secured in large plastic bags and we will be given large beach towels to cover ourselves with.
Also, that the 2nd forest room we asked for was not available. So instead, they will give us something even better, a water cottage/villa. My parents stayed at the forest room and my sister and I got the water cottage.
It turned out; all the problems we encountered from the beginning of the trip were actually blessings in disguise. Who knew that an honest-to-goodness family like ours would get the chance to experience luxury and explore the last frontier? One can consider this an experience of a lifetime.
1 comment:
Wow.. I wish that will happen to me too =)
Post a Comment