Wonder Island

Wonder Island, Calamba, Laguna, Philippines

Saturday 12:30 pm, while I was groggily still reading the morning paper, Richard texted me: "Don't forget our outing today. Meet u at enterprise at 2pm."

No, I don't think I'm in the mood to go! I opened my laptop, and suddenly, I felt empowered to do my thesis. Must be a case of always thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. This was a case of me procrastinating so I end up not doing anything. I just wanted to lounge around and not make the effort to do anything! But a promise is a promise, and I did say I would go.

I ate a little lunch, checked my emails, and at 1:30 PM, I texted back. "I don't think I can make it at 2PM. I'll be there around 2:30."

Of course I'm late. I took a quick shower, grabbed a few clothes, and made a mad dash to Makati, slightly peeved that I'm being rushed.

It was an almost two-hour drive to Calamba, and in the car, really hungry, Tenantz and I attacked Hazel's cassava cake to soothe hunger pangs. We met up with Sammy and Dang and their kids at Calamba, and finally arrived at the Wonder Island parking lot around 4:30. From there, we had to take a ten-minute ferry across Laguna de Bay to reach the resort. The ferry was clean. I was expecting a small banca, and well, it was nice to see a motorized boat (I can't describe it, suffice it to say it wasn't the typical banca). We reached Wonder Island, and surprise! There were no other guests but us. The whole island was ours.

Wonder Island?


Wonder Island is an island somewhere in Laguna de Bay. From Calamba, a short boat ride is needed to reach the island. Full of swimming pools (there must have been more than 5), the place is an ideal company outing destination. There are a lot of accommodations and dormitory-type rooms.

We spent the rest of the day swimming, eating, drinking, and singing karaoke. There was a juke-box like karaoke machine there that played songs for 5-pesos each. After dinner, we had an "American Idol" type contest to see who could get the highest score from the karaoke machine. If it wasn't for the fact that there were no more 5-peso coins left, we would have been singing till morning came.

Breakfast Cruise


 

In the morning, we had a breakfast cruise across Laguna de Bay. Breakfast was supposed to start at 7:30, but we only managed to get out of the room 30 minutes later. Good thing the owner of the resort also took his breakfast while cruising, so we were able to join up with him while he went on his morning cruise. Breakfast was tocino, garlic fried rice, eggs, papaya and bread. The pandesal was delicious! The cruise boat was really pretty, and photogenic.

After the 1 hour cruise, we played pingpong, billiards, and even though it was raining hard, we swam in the pool/s.

Due to a previously set appointment, Tenantz and I left after Sunday lunch, at 1PM. Our friends were still at the karaoke machine that time, belting out tunes and singing their hearts out.

Nice

 

Overall, Wonder Island was nice, a really cool company outing/family/barkada place. It had a nice view of Mt. Makiling, and Talim island in Rizal. The swimming pools are large and numerous, there were a lot of areas where people can congregrate. As Dudong said, "Pwede mag-outing sunlife dito, maraming upuan eh." There are seminar rooms, a chapel, dormitories, wooden cottages, and all the necessary equipment to hold company seminars. For 1,400 pesos, you can even go jet-skiiing if you wished. If only the waters of Laguna de Bay were cleaner (meaning if it wasn't so murky), the place would really be a sight to behold. Nevertheless, Wonder Island is a nice place. And if you read how the place came about (see the link somewhere in this post), you can see the passion with which the owner developed the place. And that passion, more than anything else, makes the place really worth visiting.