We can now seek out destinations that involve large doses of relaxation without the guilty feeling that we should be doing something more active like diving with killer sharks. With this in mind, we recently spent four days on an island called Mactan, a one hour flight from Manila, at a manmade plantation style resort that boasts "one of the largest privately-owned waterways in the world". There indeed seemed to be water and pools everywhere. Our room overlooked a huge (filtered) saltwater 'lagoon' with an asphalt bottom that is drained and refilled every week. The 'beaches' surrounding the lagoons have the cleanest most perfect sand. Noticeably absent are sand creatures or washed up diapers. The 'diving rock' appeared to be made from plaster of Paris and would not look out of place at Disneyland.
Despite the un-naturalness of the place (or perhaps because of it), we had a really nice time. The service was probably the best we've experienced certainly in the Philippines and perhaps at any resort-type establishment. There is a strict no-tipping policy so you know that staff are not just being polite and helpful in the hope that you'll slip them a note and the food was very decent. Although the resort was supposedly full, somehow we never felt that there were many people around.
Mother Nature did provide the finishing touch though ... four days of almost unbroken sunshine. It made such a lovely change from Manila where it has been raining for so long that Scarlett had never seen the sun.
Anyway, enough words, now for some pictures:
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