Sonya's Gardens and Anilao - Christmas Break

Sonya and us at her Gardens

On our way out to Sombrero Island to snorkel

Sombrero Island to snorkel

Pushing back from our hotel to go to Sombrero Island

Pool side picture at dusk - Vivere Azure

Poolside at Vivere Azure
Pool side
At the beach at Vivere Azure

All of us in the pool at Vivere Azure

The crew of our bangka

Breakfast at Vivere Azure

Breakfast at Vivere Azure Christmas Day 2010

Brad at poolside with his soda

Brad talking to Grandpa while he is sipping his limetine

Brad on Christmas day on our way out to snorkel

Beach at Vivere Azure
Beach at Vivere Azure
Looking back at the resort
This is a resort we stopped at before we got to Sonya's garden. The fireplace is decorated in Gingerbread and candy

Gingerbread fireplace

Lake Taal Christmas Eve

Christmas Tree inside lobby Taal View Hotel that we stopped at for a visit on our way out to Sonya's gardens

Lake Taal

Fish hatcheries on our way out to Tagaytay

Bamboo poles about 40 ft long

Lake Taal

In the evening at Sonya's with her Christmas Decorations
Beautiful flowers

Sonya's vegetable gardens

Flowers and shrubs

Awesome plant that is green and purple

Fountain and flowers

Dinner at Sonya

Breakfast at Sonya's

Our room at Sonya's

Our room at Sonya's

Entrance to the Gardens

Lunch at Sonya's gardens

Lunch at the restaurant. Notice the hand embroidered linins.

View from Brad's bathroom. He said it felt like he was in a jungle.

Brad's Bathroom

Sonya's cottages

Brad's bungalow at Sonya's garden

From the other side of Brad's room, showing the Bathroom

Walkway to the cottages

Front door to Brad's Bungalow room

With Brad here for just a few days we visited some beautiful Filipino resorts, one night each. One is Sonya's Secret Gardens in Tagaytay and Vivere Azure in Anilao, Batangas area. Sonya Gardens is owned by a lovely Filipine woman who loves beautiful flowers and organic food. When she retired from her career as a banker she bought the property and developed it into a wonderful bed and breakfast resort. She lives on the property and developed a wonderful restaurant which serves one meal only which includes a salad, with greens grown on her property, bread with assorted toppings served, some fruits, pasta with assorted toppings and a light dessert. The tablecloths are linins that are hand embroidered in Viet Nam. They are beautifully done. I bought one to add to my collection of table cloths. Her table service is fine bone china that do not match. In keeping with her beautiful gardens with a variety of flowers she does her table ware the same way. With a variety.

The cottages are well made and maintained. The one Elder B and I occupied was quite large with several beds. The cottage Brad occupied was for a single but it had two beds. All the bed linins are hand embroidered and the place is very clean. We stayed one night with dinner and breakfast served to us. The breakfast was wonderful also. We had our choice of continental or Filipino. We chose continental but it was a full out breakfast with cereal, omelet, bacon, potatoes and hot chocolate. We had assorted jams which included our favorite...mango jam. And yes they served fresh mango with the breakfast. The mango fruit here in the Philippines is outstanding. Sweet and non fibrous. The best ever. Brad was very impressed. And all of this for only $65 a night. Pretty sweet. It was a pleasant experience for all three of us.

Sonya also had her Christmas decorations and lights up. She had her help put a lighted design of a Christmas tree in a regular tree so at night we saw a Christmas tree high above us.

Next day was Christmas eve and we headed down to Vivere Azure a resort on the beach at Anilao. It is noted for snorkeling just off the beach. The hotel supplied the snorkel gear. They also had kayaks to use. Dinner was served, breakfast in the morning and we hired a small boat to take us out to a small island called Sombrero Island. It had a small beach and we snorkeled around it for about an hour.

I should mention this....we had it completely to ourselves. We had made our reservations a month in advance once we knew Brad was coming to visit. Once there we tried to check in and they said...the hotel is closed. We had our confirmation papers in hand and they called their reservation department and the reservationist neglected to tell them we were coming. We were the only guests there. So they gave us their largest accommodations, called the chef back and the manager and treated us like royalty. They felt bad that they were not told to expect us and did everything they could to make up for it. For our Christmas afternoon lunch the waiter said, "We are pleased to serve you...its Christmas." We had a wonderful time. Yes of course we remembered the Birth of the Savior with gratitude. We have been remembering it all month with various activities. With Brad here we just made it a family day together.