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Batangas Now™ is a public service site staffed by volunteers. It is here to serve as a portal, a one stop shop for the most important information about Batangas. Enjoy! Mabuhay! We welcome your feedback, reciprocal links and suggestions.
We are featuring Matabungkay beach resorts in Lian,Batangas. Only 2 hours south of Manila! A 2 Kilometer strip of white sand and clear waters. A good swimming beach or rent a bamboo raft and float on the bay for the day. It’s more of an Eco-tourist spot. The natives need help in understanding the meaning of recycling and the need to really preserve this beach. Matabungkay beach needs responsible tourists who will bring out as much trash as is possible, so as not to leave the beaches littered with modern day plastic trash!
Matabungkay unfortunately is loaded with Hockers/Agents. These are people who stand in your way to try to snag tourists to go to resorts that give them a 10% agents fee. If you know where you are going by having seen a resort on the internet, do not let them lead you astray or try to get money directly from you for showing you a resort of THEIR choice!
While at Matabungkay beach, don’t forget to stop off at the Matabungkay Beach Club which has been around for 25 years for all your modern comforts. Full room accommodations, bar, restaurant, hair and nail salon, a new video-ke bar, floating spa on a bamboo raft and beach activities. You can find them online at www.matabungkay.net
Alfresco Resort a native ancestral Filipino retreat with prime swimming - Matabungkay Beach - Lian, Batangas
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Beach at Al Fresco Resort,
Matabungkay beach, Lian Batangas |
For a true native Filipino beach adventure try Al Fresco Resort at Matabungkay beach, Lian, Batangas. A real ancestral family beach house upgraded with modern comforts. The resort was used by the Limjoco family originally from Lian, Batangas, as retreat from the heat and a great place to bring the children to play. Now the scions of the family have moved outside the area to the cities and use Al Fresco only as an occasional get away. When they are not around, they lease out the rooms, of which there are 8.
Go during the off season or week day to have the resort and beach, mostly to yourself (if you don’t count the friendly natives). Originally the beach was populated by the prominent families from the nearby cities and towns and a few fisher men and their families.
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| Sunset at Matabungkay beach |
The beach is still a fishing village, but now it is interspersed with mostly low end tourist resorts, ancestral homes, turned bed and breakfast, and nipa shanties. There are plenty of tourist goods to be bought on the beach as well as those selling native jewelry and the usual pearl necklaces.
The beach in front of Al Fresco is one of the best on the 2.km strand, with white sands and no corals to stub one’s toes on. We’ve been there last Oct. 27 till now, Jan. 2007, and enjoy a full array of weather; the water was a delightful 89F for evening dips in October! There are many spots to go on either side of Al Fresco for night time drinks or dinner.
There is a staff at Al Fresco resort who will muster up a meal if you bring your own food and pay a little extra cooking fee per meal. They do have a small native menu to choose from as well.
Most rooms are small but clean and comfortable, rooms now have hot on demand water showers with cable TV as well. They do have one large room with two double beds. We enjoy the fresh air off the dining balcony which overlooks the white sand beach. We very much enjoy our stays at Al Fresco. ccme when we are there! Guests have use of the cabanas, and the resort staff will call in for a massage therapist or manicurist for your pleasure. Call or text (from PI) 0916-484-0820-Mention this review.
Batangas City, among the Top 5 in the Philippine Cities' competitive ranking project 2003
Batangas City has significantly improved its rating in the Philippine Cities' Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP) 2003 as compared to last year. The City Competitiveness Program (CCP) of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center was established in 1997 with the end goal of helping Philippine urban centers cultivate competitive industries, promote healthy communities and maximize the competitiveness potential of the Philippine cities. From its ranking of No.8 in 2002, the city has now been included in the Top 5 of the PCCRP 2003 rating indicating its dynamic potential in terms of promoting an improved investment climate. full story
 Want to do something helpful on your vacation? Join Gawad Kalinga. They are making a difference for our  impoverishedbrethren. Come And Join Us Build A Slum Free Nation. They even have a contact inBatangas..go to this page, locate southern Luzon and scroll toBatangas.
GK is transformation before your very eyes! From slums tocleancommunities! From violence to peace! From despair to hope! We’re building a nation, for the Filipino, by the Filipino, one community at a time! |
LINKS
Batangas Emergency Services
MyPontefino.com
Batangas is famous for...
Batangas Mountain Bikers
http://members.tripod.com/batangascity - Good site for links to shops in Batangas
Photos of Batangas - by Gary Cruz on thepinoy.com province. It would have been nice to see some captions telling us
where exactly they were taken so we’d know what we were looking at, but a pleasant photo essay anyway.
The Hotel Pontefino
- A premiere business hotel in Batangas City. It comes fully equipped with state-of the-art amenities to suit the needs of every guest. With a total of sixty well-appointed rooms, complete with business amenities and function halls for corporate seminars and social gatherings, Hotel PonteFino is set to surpass all expectations in service, elegance and style.
The Batangas Barako coffee or Philippine liberica plant is in a decline! Up until 1986, the Philippines was earning at least US$150 million a year in coffee exports. Coffee had always been one of our biggest dollar earners -- up until 10 years ago. Now there is a consortium of coffee farmers in Cavite, who are doing something about it. Help save the Batangas Barako coffee! Visit this site for more information: Savethebarako.org/barako.htm
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| A Batangueno, Col (ret.) Ramon Arguelles Limjoco, 88 years old, receives Balisong Plaque of acknowledgement from Secretary of National Defense, Secretary Hermogenes Ebdame, for being the oldest living PAF Alumnus. read more.. |
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Diana Limjoco and Dave Dewbre at Al Fresco Resort, Matabungkay beach, Lian, Batangas. Jan. 2007
Publishers reviews! January 2007 update! The dynamic duo have recently been visiting various resorts in Batangas. Click here to read the reviews! |
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