Wild Orchid Resort, Subic

By Kin Enriquez -


Every year my company sponsors a summer event for its employees (yes, it's a great place to work in!). Usually the outing is held in April a beach resort south of the metropolis. For the last few years we went to Canyon Cove, Laiya, Eagle Point, and Lake Caliraya. This year, we head north, to Subic, in a place called Wild Orchid Resort.

The resort is just along Baloy Long Beach, in Olongapo. The main building, where most of the hotel rooms are, is actually along the road, but there's another beachfront complex across the road that has several more rooms and a 24-hour bar called Barefoot Bar.  

Baloy Long Beach

After arriving there in a chartered bus, me and my colleagues went about our business: games and team-building exercises until the activity was officially closed by late afternoon. After that,we were free to do whatever we pleased. Some went to swim or frolic on the beach. Others, including me, had an impromptu game of beach volleyball until the sun was below the horizon.


Jetskiing in Subic Bay
Aside from beach volleyball and swimming, there are other activities to do on the beach. I was tempted to rent a jetski but balked at the price (PhP3,500 for an hour), and I find banana boat ride lame, so I passed on that as well. There's also a floating bar beyond the beach, called Blue Rock, that you can go to to chill out and have a drink or two.


It was an overnight activity, so we were also given accommodations in the resort. Most of us were given deluxe rooms in the main building, while a few lucky ones got the beach front rooms. The rooms were comfortable and have ample amenities: queen-sized beds, fridge, 32" flat-screen TV with cable, a DVD pleyr and complementary toiletries.


As the night went we explored what the resort has to offer. The first logical place to be after beach volleyball was the pool, and there were two in the resort. One of the pool actually straddles the bar. Aside from the Jacuzzi  there are tables on the pool as well where you can set your drink while soaking in the water. The dip in the pool was refreshing, but I find the water to be too chlorinated that it almost smelled like weak bleach solution.

Those minor complaints aside, the trip to the resort was an enjoyable experience. I had the chance to bond and socialize with my officemates, and it gave me a chance to visit Subic again.



How to Get there
Wild Orchid Resort is located in Barrio Barrieto, Olongapo, Zambales, just along Baloy Long Beach. It is one ride away by jeepneey or tricycle from SBMA.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Golden Tara of Agusan

By Kin Enriquez -
Image
One of the main reasons why I am always drawn to museums when I travel is that I would want to see, in real life, the fascinating things that I've only read in books or have seen in the films, such as archaeological artifacts or the paintings of Van Gogh and Dali . Museums give you access to all that. I majored in History when I was an undergraduate in the University of the Philippines. As such, I am always excited to see artifacts and historical curiosities that I encounter during my travels. But sometimes, they also make me sad, like when I saw the Golden Tara of Agusan in the Field Museum in Chicago.  The reverse of the Golden Tara The Golden Tara is a gold statue of a Hindu-Malayan deity discovered in 1917 in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, in southern Philippines. Weighing about four pounds, the 21-karat gold statue depicts a woman deity sitting cross-legged, ornamented with a headdress and various accruements in the arms and legs. It was dated to early 13
Read more

Off the Beaten Track: Mapun, Tawi-Tawi

By Kin Enriquez -
Image
Guest post by Mara Ione Sarail Mapun? Where is that?” I get this question a lot when people ask me about my hometown. I’d ramble on and on the island (its location and the culture and the pretty spots...) but since the place is not really in any of the Philippines tourist spots and is in the middle of nowhere, I might as well talk about Atlantis instead. But the island does exist.  Mapun Tawi-Tawi or Cagayan de Sulu) is an island municipality in the Sulu Sea on the southwestern extreme of the Philippines, located very close to Sabah. Or from the way I see it on the Philippine map, the island is located on the Philippine’s “armpit”. Mapun is a volcanic island. The picture above shows Mt. Nanggoy, an inactive volcano near the Sapah Lake. The most popular tourist attraction in Mapun would be the three crater lakes on the west part of the island. Legend says that the three lakes were once volcanoes that erupted together. The first two, Danao and Singuwang, becam
Read more

How To Track Your Travels with Google Location History

By Kin Enriquez -
Image
Ever traveled to a place then forgot the name of that small shop that sells the best tasting cronuts you've ever had? Or have you ever wanted to retrace your steps in your travels, down to the smallest alleyways you passed along the way but couldn't? Here's a travel tool that enables you to do that - so well that it's cool and scary at the same time: the Google Location History. I use the service - which you need to enable on your mobile phone and Google account - to look back at my travels and generate some cool maps that retrace my steps during my trips. Google Maps, by itself, is an incredibly useful app already; I cannot count how many times I've used it when traveling to find my hostel, the nearest subway station, that cronut place. Having location history enable, made it cooler and more useful. Take a look at these examples: The top photo shows my movements around Singapore during my trip there in September, It basically showed my movements in t
Read more