Sunday, February 22, 2009

Scud's Travels: Naga City

It started out as an three-man out-of-town trip to far-away Naga City in Bicol. Wakeboarding on a Valentine weekend. When the others from our team heard of the trip and the plane fare (P1056 round trip ticket) they too wanted to go. Syempre pumayag kami. The more the merrier. So the three-man trip ballooned to an 11-man trip then dwindled down to eight when three had to back-out due to more important commitments.


Our flight left Manila at 6:30AM and less than an hour later we arrived at a gloomy-weathered Naga City. Since it was my first time in Naga, I had my picture taken with the Cebu Pacific plane and Mt. Isarog as the background. The clouds that envelop the mountains will be a consistent presence throughout the whole trip.

After getting our single check-in baggage, we were whisked off to the CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC) where we would be staying. The van in the picture, owned by CWC, fetched us from the airport which is only 5-10 minutes away. We registered and got our keys at the reception (above).

The Villa Del Rey Wood Cabins (shown above) are a sight to behold, numbering at about 50, located opposite the reception. I think these cabins are still unoccupied since the landscape was still unfinished.

The pool above, which is accessible from the reception, is for exclusive use only of guests staying at the Villa Del Rey Villas. The villas cost P5000/night good for two people. Expensive.

After getting our house keys the CWC van, numbering to at least 5, brought us to our rented cabanas. The location of the cabanas is a long walk from the reception.

Villa Del Rey Cabanas. This is where we stayed for 3 days and 2 nights. Since we were 8 (plus one 2-year-old), we rented 3 cabanas (2 single rooms, 1 twin room) which cost P1350/night/cabana. We paid P900 each for the whole stay. 3 persons per room. Not bad since CWC don't do a head count. If you're in a tight budget like, 4 persons instead of 2 can actually fit on a twin-room cabana. A fifth wheel would cost 500/night for the extra matress.


After settling down we walked the distance to the wakeboarding area. Expert wakeboarders were already strutting their stuff in the water. Cool!

The wakeboarding rates are printed on a board (shown above) at the registration area. For an hour of wakeboarding, you would need to spend a total of P265: 1 hour (P125) wakeboarding fee, 1 hour (P40) equipment rental, and P100 deposit which will be given back after returning the rented equipment. The night rate is P50 more expensive but you get a discount when you avail of the halfday or wholeday rate.


The starting point when wakeboarding. This is a memorable place for a teammate of mine who repeatedly crashed directly to the water for 4 straight tries. It was hilarious seeing her dive into the water. And we have the video to prove it. Haha...

The wakeboarding (kneeboarding for beginners) was fun. I only did two rounds since the line was long and it took me ages to get off the water after missing the orange bouys. It was embarassing since the lifeguard had to "save" me since I could not reach the shore after trying in vain for a few minutes. I really should start taking swimming lessons.


The CWC restaurant (above) is open from 8am-11pm. The bad thing is when you eat late there is not much you can order. Halos lahat not available. Mababad-trip ka. Lalo na pag tom jones ka na.

I ate thrice in the resto and ordered Monte Cristo (ham and cheese sandwich poured with strawberry sauce), Pinangat (imagine a chicken nugget but instead of chicken replace it with laing instead), and puttanesca.

The food were not bad but not something I would salivate for. It's quite expensive though for those who are in a budget. The least expensive food costs P130 (laing, bicol express) excluding rice and drinks. The beer is affordable though - 40 for San Mig Light and 45 for San Mig Strong Ice.

The photo above is another swimming pool near the wakeboarding area. This pool can be used by guests for a fee or free of charge when you wakeboard. The water was cold when we took a swim. I wished they had a heater on. It would have taken much prodding from my teammates for me to get off the pool.

The huts on the left side of the pool are for rent. One can have the food ordered at the restaurant delivered there. This is a relaxing way to eat your meal while watching wakeboarding stunts.

The huts on the right side are for those who want to get a massage. One can choose to have the massage done in their rooms.


For lunch, we went to the city courtesy of CWC's shuttle which drives their guests to the commercial area thrice a day free of charge. We didn't know where the best places to eat and it was drizzling so we took a chance and ate at this carinderia - Bolofer's. It was 3pm then and we were very hungry. I ordered tapsilog and kinalas, a local delicacy. The food was not bad.

This is a shot I took of the wakeboarding area after we got back from the city in the early evening of our first day in Naga. It's quite a huge place. The water is much cleaner than Lago de Oro's wakeboarding site.

After taking a few more photos we went to our cabanas to eat dinner (we ordered to go from the city) and called it a day. Sunday would be a hectic day - we'll be going to Legazpi City to see Mt. Mayon up close. And more wakeboarding.

I'll blog about the Legazpi trip within the week. For the meantime, I leave you with some photos I took:

One can bring his laptop and surf. Wifi is free all-over CWC.

I wish I could own one of these really cool wakeboards.

I wish I could wakeboard like this...

and this...

and this.

And I wish I could have a tattoo like this.

11 comments:

Skron said...

Man, sounds like a fun trip. Though I don't want to go wake boarding. I don't know how to swim. The best I can do is skim boarding.

Visual Velocity said...

Swear to god, that Cebu Pacific thingiemajig looks scary as hell. I don't know if it's the color or those quaint propellers that's making me nervous.

How was the plane ride?

gillboard said...

astig nung tattoo nung sa huling litrato...

The Scud said...

skron > the trip was fun! di rin naman ako marunong lumangoy. my life vest naman kaya malakas loob ko. hehe...

andy > you should have seen the front photo that I took. the plane looked like a frog. hehe... the plane ride was smooth. not scary at all. :-)


gillboard > astig d b? meron pa yan sa harap. one side lang din.

Anonymous said...

Very nice place. Nice cabins but you're right in that it's a bit pricey.

Aside from wakeboarding, are there other places to see outside of the resort?

The Scud said...

hometownboy > merong eco-village pero di namin pinuntahan. aside from that wala na. pwede ka gumala sa legazpi city where mayon volcano can be seen up close.

escape said...

cool photos scud! are you using a new camera?

i really enjoyed my time there. not sure if ill be going there this year. im still thinking.

doing kneeboarding was exciting! what more when ill try wakeboarding.

The Scud said...

dong > it's still the old one. point and shoot pa rin. hehe...

gusto na nga nila bumalik sa naga. ang gastos! sa lago de oro lang. day trip.

The Gasoline Dude™ said...

Hindi ako pwede sa wakeboarding dahil hindi ako marunong lumangoy. Huhuhu. = C

Ely said...

Ako, never been to the south...nasa Cebu mga friends ko last month pero di rin ako nakasama :(

The Scud said...

gasoline dude > pwede yan! basta may life jacket. the deepest part in CWC is 7ft. sa lago de oro naman is 5ft lang.

ely > ill be going back to cebu next month. wohooo! beach lang naman maganda sa cebu. tingin ko ha. hehe.