Feb

Diving at Eagle Point Resort in Anilao

A few weeks ago, we went to a diving resort in Anilao called Eagle Point Resort. One might wonder why, out of so many resorts in Anilao, did I end up choosing this resort. We had the following criteria: (1) wireless internet is available (2) organized diving (3) within 4 hours drive from Metro Manila and obviously they should have available rooms for us at a reasonable rate.

Driving to Anilao was faster than we thought. About 85% of the time, we were driving on a highway at not less than 60km/hr (I think). The only time we were driving slow was at C5 and the last 20 minutes of the trip. It is quite simple: just go to the end of SLEX and and then go towards Batangas City. Then from there, follow westwards towards Bauan, then to Bagalangit where you would turn left into a narrow road and go through quaint small towns in between winding roads.

To reach the parking lot of the resort, you need to pass by a steep and narrow road (semi-paved) for about 3 to 5 minutes. The parking lot is well-lit and has a security guard who will then immediately call their shuttle to pick you up.

The rooms we got had balconies facing the sea and was at the fourth floor. Only problem with the rooms was the plumbing. The faucets could not be shutdown easily. One of our guests had an unfortunate incident in his room — he accidentally hit and broke the bathroom glass doors! Not just that but he also took down the curtains.. I have no idea but this guy seems to be attracting a lot of trouble with regards to hotels.. The fourth floor is on same level as the road while the concierge where you have to check-in is one level down using a winding staircase. If you go down one more level, you end up in their restaurant which I thought had a really remarkable architecture.

Anilao-EaglePoint Restaurant

High ceilings, all-wood, modern, very homey and have huge windows facing the sea. With regards to food, we had mixed reviews among our group. Fortunately, my feedback is very positive. All the meals I ordered were really good and served reasonably fast. They have a wide selection of international dishes and a few local ones. The prices of the meals are between 100-200 php. Lots of juice and cocktail choices. Dessert choices were not plentiful but were just okay (banana split and halo-halo) Beer is relatively cheap. The waiters were very attentive and friendly. One thing I did notice is that their kitchen is one step up from the dining area which I thought is not quite practical. I am pretty sure all their restaurant staff would be quite physically fit (by now) from all the stair climbing from the kitchen to the bar and to the dining area.

Diving activities are very organized. They have a training pool and require those without certification to have an orientation on this pool. This enclosed pool is complete with corals, groupers, and even small sharks! If you don’t have equipment, you can rent them in their diving shop. They have a resident or on-call instructor who lives nearby and each person is assisted by one in-house diver. They have diving tours to various places in Anilao (see map). They are so many you need several days to see them all. I have seen many groups of divers come in from other countries, some even bringing their own underwater cameras. I actually bought an underwater bag for my camera but we were not able to use it because MrC didn’t do a lot of diving plus that bag was only good for up to 5km deep. Only one of us did a lot of diving. He is quite experienced though. He’s also a Dutchman like MrC but lives in Vietnam. He had so much fun diving there that we came back one week after. The other Dutch visitor didn’t seem to enjoy diving after trying it on the pool. On our second trip we found out everyone remembered us there (the security guard told us) — especially that other guy who couldn’t go down because he couldn’t breathe with his mouth using the oxygen tank (that’s MrC’s business partner)