Club Balai Isabel

Went on an overnight trip with my family to Club Balai Isabel in Talisay, Batangas. It's a lovely little resort community across the lake from Taal Volcano with that small village feel. The club embraces its tropical-ness and pays as much attention to landscaping as to other details: wood, stone, tile details, and colored glass. The themes are consistent--no scrimping on materials here.

We ate three times at the coffee shop and had good meals every time: laing, fried chicken, boneless bangus, tocino, biya, longganisa. My mom's only comment was that there was no kangkong in the sinigang. Given the many coconut trees, the buko juice cannot be fresher. On the downside, the HSM2 soundtrack playing in the background evokes summer but doesn't quite fit. Warning: there are plenty of red ants everywhere, on the beach, on plants, on tables, so you have to be careful where you rest your feet.

We stayed in a cramped room for four with two queen-size beds, but the villas and cottages are comfortable. The condotels under construction look really nice. What to do? The swimming pools make up for all the seaweed on the beach. There are outdoor tennis courts and an obstacle course for team building. But certainly Club Balai Isabel's best features are the view and the breeze.

Best viewed large. Complete Flickr photo set here, slideshow here.