Sunday, January 9, 2011

An Afternoon Bonding at Taal Vista

After our brief adventure in Nuvali, we went straight to Tagaytay. On our way there, we asked the kids if they want to go to Picnic Grove and try the zip line or go to Calaruega and stay there until late afternoon. They chose Calaruega over Picnic Grove so the latter is out on our list already. Thank God because there's a heavy traffic along the route going to Picnic Grove...almost all cars are heading that way. Before the junction, we again experienced a moderate traffic so I told the boys that instead of Calaruega, we'll just have to settle at Taal Vista and stay there till 6:00 pm.

I remember my first time to be here... It was our hotel familiarization tour 13 years ago and I was still a student then at LCC taking up HRM. I fell inlove with this hotel and promised to be back someday...

The facade of Taal Vista Hotel

Hahaha!!! I took a picture of them here before entering the hotel.

What I love about this hotel is that they have a magnificent view of the lake and the famous Taal volcano, in fact even better than the view at Picnic Grove and the place is not too crowded.

at the hotel lobby

good thing was... I brought this Sponge Bob table cloth :)

My youngest son Jeffrey really enjoyed his stay here...

We spend four hours here, it's a great feeling and we all felt good!

Bonding time of Justine and Jeff :)

And because it's super cold that afternoon we ended up ordering coffee at the hotel's coffee shop.

I, Justine, Jeff and Yeye had Cafe Mocha
Grabe! Hindi makuhang umiinit ng husto ng coffee :)

Hubby preferred the Brewed one...

He liked it :)

Hayyy... binata na ang anak ko :)

My husband ...

The fire place is cute :)

Hope for another bonding moment like this :)

The parking fee is P 100.00 per hour. We stayed for 4 hours but paid nothing at the exit... good thing was, Justine noticed that..... hahaha!!! Whoa! It's a secret that I opt not to reveal :)

David's Tea House - Nuvali

It was our first time to eat at David's Tea House. Being a big fan of Emerald and YingYing I can say (IMHO) that the taste of the food at David's is quite bland, I was a bit disappointed that I was not able to finish the food on my plate ... I don't know if our first two fave restaurant are using MSG or toher kinds of flavorings that's why their food is so delicious compared to that of David's.

Originally, our plan is to eat lunch at Conti's but to our dismay, they were closed that day and we ended up at David's.


David's Tea House in Nuvali

It's almost 12:00 noon but the store is not yet full.

Justine here was excited to order his fave dishes...
(with Yeye and Jeffrey)

A big Chinese family was already eating when we got there...
seems that they enjoyed their food though.
The food were...
Yang Chow Fried Rice
(such a big disappointment for this one)

Sweet & Sour Pork

Hot Shrimp Salad

Seafood Hot Pot
(we liked this one)

ready to eat...

me with hubby :)
Well, we'll still give David's Tea House Restaurant a second chance...
Hope they'll be better next time ;)

Our Nuvali Experience

Finally! We were able to visit the new "pasyalan" at Sta. Rosa Laguna last January 1. I've waited for months for this to happen and see if the manmade lake with hundreds to thousand of Kois really exist and I want to ride the water taxi too. It's only 40 minutes drive from Manila to Sta. Rosa if you're coming from SLEX going to Tagaytay.



Welcome to Nuvali!

The manmade lake... I just love the beauty of Nuvali!
Love the fresh air and open spaces ...

One of the reasons why we went there was the water taxi. Jeffrey wanted to experience riding on a speed boat and we all got excited too. There's a maximum of 12 persons per boat. They have 3 boats and 3 stations. Just don't know why they called it Water Taxi though. Oh! The rater per person is only P 30.00, it's very cheap :)

See how happy Jeff is while riding the boat :)

The main reason that got us excited were the Kois. There were thousands of Kois and you can feed them by buying fish feeds in one of the booth at Nuvali. I think we were able to buy more than 10 packs of feeds.


It looks like they're very hungry!

It's prohibited to feed them with anything except for the feeds being sold
in their booth for P 15.00 per pack




My boys really enjoyed feeding the kois :)

Nyek! The super hungry fishes!

You can also rent a bike for P 60.00 per hour.

Actually, Nuvali is a biker's haven. There were dedicated lanes for bikers and I learned that the residents in the area are encouraged to bike for fitness. Such a treat for bikers like my hubby who now wished to have a property there someday :)

Two bikers passed by, kaya si hubby nanghihinayang at hindi nadala ang bike niya, as if naman papayagan ko siya! hehehe...
I think one of the reasons why Nuvali clicked for travelers going to Tagaytay are the food establishment in the area. Just like we did, we had a brief stopover at Nuvali to eat lunch and enjoy the activities that it offers. Below are the pictures of some food establishment that I was able to capture on cam.

Domo Tomo

Yellow Cab

Pig Out

Starbucks Coffee

Conti's

David's tea House
There's also, Crisostomo (fine dining), and Brother's Burger around the area, but the Reyes Barbecue and Kanin Get It (by Kanin Club) were located at the Convergy's building... I forgot the others ... Ooops! there's a Nature Trails Cafe for bikers too... It's a restaurant with a bike shop, a shower room for bikers and their bikes... "it was really cool" according to hubby :)

We really had a great time at Nuvali and we're looking forward for another visit soon for some bird watching activity :)




Media Noche

Okay, I won't explain why I was not able to post this after new year... hehehe... You already know the reasons... I'm busy with lots of things, and also I promise to myself that I will refrain myself from blogging :( Why? Well... I wanna lose weight! I know I can't do that seriously but I will gradually decrease from eating outside from now on... Hahaha!

Anyway, here are the pics of our Media Noche feast!

13 kinds of fruits...

They say that it brings luck for the coming year!

Oh! We have visitors :)

It's Ate Bengs family... They had their dinner here on the 31st and hubby cooked spareribs caldereta and I bought 2 pcs. Rellenong Bangus at Dolor's as requested by Ate Beng :) Fave din kasi nila ito.

Slow cooked Spareribs Caldereta!
Ang Sarap!!!

Dolor's Rellenong Bangus
@ P 320.00 each


After dinner, ay umalis na sila ate Beng and we prepared our table for our Media Noche. We had...

Panettone... an Italian Cake
It's smells like a fruit cake and the bread is like that of a raisin bread...

had Pork BBQ on stick...

Creamy Sopas of hubby

Dolor's Kakanin

Ube Halaya and Cassava
from a friend...

Vegetable salad ...

Buco Salad

Sylvannas from Ate beng :)

Here's our Media Noche :)

Enjoying the end of 2010 :)

Wish to have more success this 2011!