Every year, I make it a point that I would go someplace I have never been on my birthday. Last year (2015), I chose Maniwaya Island in Marinduque for my birthday special 🙂
I did my research on where to stay and how to get there. For starters, Maniwaya Island is in the town of Sta Cruz in Marinduque, the heart of the Philippines. What’s so nice about Maniwaya is that the resorts in the island are very very much accommodating. If you inquire, they would actually offer you almost everything. After careful researching, we picked Marikit-Na Beach Resort for our short vacation. The owner of Marikit-Na Beach gave us a reasonable price for our stay which included boat transfers from and to Buyabod Port, welcome drinks, full board meals, island hopping tour, private room with its own bathroom and an awesome beach view in the veranda.
We left for Maniwaya Island on a Friday evening. We rode a bus to Dalahican Port where we will board a RORO to Marinduque. We arrived at the Dalahican Port at around 2Am and boarded immediately the waiting vessel. I tried to get as much sleep but the seats were a bit uncomfortable (though thumbs up for the air-conditioning, good job!). We arrived at Marinduque with the sun almost peeking.
We immediately boarded a van that would take us to Buyabod Port, our gateway to Maniwaya Island. It was actually a veeeeery long travel, but when we saw the island plus the resort, everything was worth it.
When we arrived at the resort, they immediately offered the very refreshing Melon Juice at right then and there, I knew this was a very great choice for my birthday 🙂 This place gave us a very homey feeling, the room was amaziiiing. If we were to stay longer in this place, I’d chose to stay and get lazy all day at this room. hehe.
We arrived a bit early, at around lunch time so they prepared lunch for us. This place, they serve such amazing food! You’d get excited when kuya would knock at your door and would tell you that the food is already served. hehe. after lunch we rested a bit then proceeded to our island hopping. I am really sorry, since this trip was last November pa, I forgot the beaches we’ve been to (and I’m so tamad to research). The boat ride was really bumpy. The waves were scaryyyyyyyyyyyy. But nevertheless, we enjoyed the beautiful beaches and sceneries. Lemme share it with you 😉
We returned at our resort at around sunset and wasted no time to shower and take a rest before we had our dinner. Since our travel time was very loooooooooong and I had only a bit of sleep, we immediately dozed off after dinner. So much for evening socials and karaoke!
In the morning, we wasted no time and headed to Palad Sand Bar. It was actually a very short boat ride form our resort.
It was really such a bummer that I had my period during our Marinduque trip, I was unable to enjoy the beach. But, I still had the chance to wear summer outfits. hehe. We bummed for about an hour or more then we returned already.
Being very much amazed with the resort, we took all sorts of pictures, and I am very much excited to share it to all of you. I can’t believe there is such paradise in this quiet part of the country. So, here it is 🙂
The resort was full of la-z- boys, amazing furniture, also with its own home theater with digital surround sound. The attic has books and when you stepped into the balcony, gosh, breath taking view 🙂
I was so sad that we have to leave already.
On our return to Manila, we chose to go via Quezon. We braved the big waves for more than 2 hours (whew!). We rode a van to Lucena and boarded a LRT-Buendia Bus.
All in all, Maniwaya Island did not fail to make my birthday a special one. I enjoyed every bit of my stay here. I hope this place will stay as it is so as to maintain the beauty of it. I hope you guys are inspired to visit this place! Sorry I failed to provide so much details. I promised that next time, I’ll jot down everything. hehe. Till next trip! Sayonara! 🙂
☀LIVE.LOVE.FLY✈ 