TBK Travels to the Philippines- part eight - Villa Escudero- arrival and departure


Our arrival at Villa Escudero

On the morning Dherrick left Kuya Vin arrived, having been back home to the Fiesta in Vigan and then got the coach through the night to Manila. He arrived in time for breakfast and then our chauffeur driven car arrived to take us to Villa Escudero. There is no easy way to get there by public transport so Villa Escudero put us in touch with a tour company who provided a 4 x 4 to take us there. Vin sat up front and chatted away in Tagalog to the driver (whose wife worked in Bahrain (small world)) while I slept on and off in the back

Kuya Vin grabs some sleep in the back of our chauffeur driven vehicle

It was an interesting 6 hour journey passing many little villages including some that were having a fiesta. Finally we arrived at our destination for a welcome drink and then we were serenaded to our villa overlooking the lake in a cart drawn by a Caribou called ”Sexy”. He did not look very sexy from where I was sitting!


Quick roadside stop

If you have not heard of Villa Escudero , it is according to their website:

“ A self-contained working coconut plantation, It was founded in the 1880s by Don Placido Escudero and his wife Dona Claudia Marasigan. Originally planted to sugarcane, the crop was converted to coconut by their son Don Arsenio Escudero in the early 1900s. A pioneering agro-industrialist, he built the country's first working hydroelectric plant to supply his desiccated coconut factory and Villa Escudero,...”

Source: https://villaescudero.com/ (accessed 7.12.19)

Vin and our stuff in the reception area

It is very popular with day trippers from Manila at the weekend when they put on a cultural show, or you can stay and there were many groups of OFW with their families there. I read that it was best to stay three days starting at the weekend to take in the cultural show and then stay during the week as it gets progressively quieter. We arrived on Sunday and there were about 40 people for breakfast on Monday, 10 on Tuesday and just the two of us and the owners on Wednesday.

Walking through the estate

We toured the museum ( which was how we recognised the owners on the last day from the Escudero family photographs) and the staff village where no alcohol is allowed ( except on Birthdays, our guide told us, smiling as he added “ and we have a lot of birthdays here”) . We swam, walked, took photos and did an early morning bird watching tour. We had lunch in the restaurant at the foot of the damn (and as we ate there 3 days running they bought is a special meal on the last day) . Each day you check out, are serenaded to the exit by caribou, and then pay for the next night and get serenaded back in again!

On our birdwatcher tour

On the first night as it went dark they bought us fresh fruit and cold water, and as it was Vin’s birthday they played and sang happy birthday to him in Tagalog!

Our same driver took us back to Manila and as the ATM at Villa Escudero was not working took us to an ATM and a little detour around a pretty lake at San Pablo city on the way back , even stopping so we could walk and take photos.