(Travel) Road Trip to Bicol

These days, a lot of our weekend invites revolve around weddings, christenings and children's parties. Yes, we're at that age and it's really a welcome change. We get to see our friends with their loved ones and it's a very nice treat to witness these moments. 

Since becoming a couple, Love and I haven't missed a wedding we were invited to, we even crashed a couple. And with all our friends, there's bound to be one or two destination weddings—an excuse to travel. We have two of them this year. The first one was in Misibis Bay, Albay.

Day 1 - The Road Trip

For this trip, we decided to drive going to Bicol. Other options we considered were booking a flight (2,000–5,000 PHP per person one way) or the lower costing bus ride (800–1,500 PHP per person one way). By carpooling with our fellow guests, the cost was even less.

The drive to Legazpi City from Manila took about 12 hours. The route was not difficult as we had Google Maps and Waze to guide us. Our group had two cars, the first group left at 4:30 a.m. and ours left at 6:00 a.m.  

The Mayon volcano can be seen up-close on the way to Legazpi but it was covered then by clouds and steam.   

We arrived at Legazpi around 6:00 p.m., found an inn and had dinner at the Crown Park Restaurant, Pacific Mall.  

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

Most of the hotels in Legazpi were fully booked that day because of the long weekend so we ended up staying at the first inn we found with five available rooms. A room there (I won't mention the inn's name) only costs PhP500 per night—not a room quality the girls in our group would like. But since we had no choice, Love and the other girls just endured through the night. Babawi nalang daw sa Misibis.  
  

Day 2 - Legazpi City and Misibis Bay

Mayon Volcano

To see the volcano with clear skies, it seems that the perfect viewing time is really early in the morning. Clouds and steam already covered the volcano by mid-morning.  

Cagsawa Ruins

Our inn was located near the Cagsawa ruins, another tourist spot in Leazpi. It was our first stop of the day.  The ruins are the remnants of an old church destroyed by the eruption of the Mayon Volcano in 1814.

The spot offers a nice view of the Mayon Volcano which tourists use as background for their photos. Local photographers offer their services for creative shots like these:  

Huli Ka!

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

It's amazing how they can handle multiple cameras (phones and DSLRs alike) and how fast they shoot fancy shots, jump shots and panoramic shots.

The area also houses a lot of souvenir shops and food stalls. We had breakfast at one of them.

Daraga Church

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

Old churches from the Spanish era are always a nice place to visit. The Daraga Church (also known as Nuestra Señora de la Porteria Parish Church) was built in 1772 by a community of people relocating from Cagsawa who feared another eruption of the Mayon Volcano.

Misibis Bay

The drive to Misibis Bay took around one hour from Legazpi. The road going there offered a scenic view of the ocean and Albay's landscape.

The resort-hotel looked great, I can understand why our friend chose to get married there. It took about 30 minutes after we checked-in at the reception until we got our keys.

The rooms were nice and classy but we needed to call reception for our towels and for the iron and ironing board we requested during check-in. Other than that, everything else was just fine.

The wedding ceremony was held at the Stella Maris chapel near the hotel. It's a small and intimate chapel with glass walls that merge the great view from the outside with the simple and elegant architecture inside. The chapel is located on the top of a hill with a great view of the sea and the Mayon Volcano. One of the nicest chapels I've seen so far to hold a wedding.

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

We attended the reception in the evening, and the after party bonfire and drinks at the beach later that night—our first beach party for the summer. It was a fun night and a really cool wedding. Love and I retired at 2:00 a.m. (yup, no pics—we know better).

Day 3 - Morning Beach Bumming

The next morning, after our buffet breakfast, we took a stroll, swam a little at the beach and finished the morning with a dip at the private pool in our villas. 

Photo Credits: Kats and Ge Sacay

The resort really keeps track of the declared persons during check-in which gave us trouble checking out—the 2nd person of a twin sharing room should be explicitly declared or else it will be an extra person (double charge). It was later cleared up and refunded (after talks with different hotel personnel).

Since our carpool had to drive back to Manila earlier, we opted to take a bus ride home.  We arrived at the Legazpi Central Terminal just past noon. Our big mistake was not booking a day before. The only open trip available that day was at 7:30 p.m. With no other choice, we bought the tickets and just hanged at the Pacific Mall beside the terminal.

We had lunch, watched a movie and ate merienda at Legazpi's famous DJC Halo-Halo.  

Day 4 - Back in Manila

We arrived in Manila at 6:00 a.m., the bus trip was not bad, we slept through most of it anyway.  

Overall, it was a nice weekend and the first real out of town trip for our team. Now we're just waiting (and gossiping) on our remaining single teammates—a hobby married couples develop.