“It’s like a never ending swimming pool!” One of my friends exclaimed. With a tinge of green, the water, indeed, was unbelievably azure. We were still moving, our boatman steering the vessel towards the shore, but everyone on the boat can’t help but stand to admire the water surrounding us. Most of our companions work at Boracay, it was definitely something to be impressed by another beach, even with their home island’s beauty.

The weather wasn’t as sunny, it was actually drizzling, the morning we left Boracay Island to visit its neighbor, Romblon’s Carabao Island. From Ferra Hotel, it was just a few minute’s walk towards Bulabog Beach where a motorized outrigger boat from Boracay West Cove awaited us.

My ATV rumbled through the arid dirt track of the Tarlac Recreational Park. I sped past a dune buggy, my hands shaking wildly as the ATV bounced through a rough patch of the road. The sun was gloriously shining above, the wind whipping through my whole body, my camera dangling just below my neck. The only thing missing was an AC/DC song blasting through as soundtrack and everything would’ve been rock n’ roll perfect.

LAKAD PILIPINAS AT THE TARLAC RECREATIONAL PARK - PHOTO BY DANDI GALVEZ

The change from absolute calm to supreme mayhem couldn’t be more jarring.

Our group from Microtel Luisita’s Tara Quin Tarlac Tour has just visited the hilltop sanctuary of Monasterio de Tarlac before heading to the Tarlac Recreational Park. It is arguably the hub of sports activity this side of the province.

A thirty-foot statue of the Risen Christ towers over the rolling landscape of the Province of Tarlac. We were at the hillside retreat of Monasterio de Tarlac for Tara Quin Tarlac, a familiarization tour spearheaded by Microtel Luisita to open the floodgates of tourism in the region.

A MONK AT THE MONASTERIO DE TARLAC

A monk from the Servants of the Risen Christ Monastic Community approached us, welcoming us to the Mountain of Resurrection where the monastery is built on. We asked a few questions and he gamely answered, explaining the origins of their order and the monasterio itself.

►EXPLORE: TARLAC ITINERARY

It’s been less than a month since we visited Casa Rap Batangas and we’re back again in no time at all. And this time, we’ve got the whole gang in tow. It was drizzling as we navigated through the roads of San Jose, coming all the way from Taal. A jeepney transfer later and we were at KM90 of the National Highway.

THE RESTAURANT IS INSIDE A GREENHOUSE OF SORTS

QUAINT DECORS AT CASA RAP

I made three separate posts about this restaurant before; Casa Rap Restaurant’s interiors, the Casa Rap Prayer Room, and Casa Rap’s food. Do check the links so I won’t have to delve much into details about it again.

With no idea what Casa Rap’s bestsellers were, we went ahead and ordered the usual Filipino breakfast fares.

From their handwritten menu, we asked for longanisang hubad (Php130.00) and corned beef (Php130.00) breakfast meal. Both comes with fried rice, egg and a choice of coffee or hot choco; we settled for their hot choco. We added three sticks of barbeque (Php30.00/stick) just in case the serving size was not up to par with our grumbling tummies. For desserts, we ordered their famous halo-halo (Php80.00).

We originally wanted to try their fried chicken and fried lumpia but they were, unfortunately, by reservation only. This means customers should call ahead of time (like a day ahead) for these dishes.

It’s important to note that Casa Rap is not the usual heat and serve restaurant. It is as they called it, a slow food café. Food are cooked the traditional way as they are ordered, so be prepared for a long waiting time. Good thing the restaurant is so wonderfully pretty and vast (you can even trek down to the river at the ravine below and they even have a prayer room) that waiting won’t be no problem at all.

Some steps away from Casa Rap’s dining area is its Prayer Room.

Pass trees, a gravel path and a concrete bridge overlooking a ravine, the prayer room sits in isolation. It’s basically a small greenhouse-like structure; inside, two benches sit opposite each other and in the middle, a small stone table.

Not really a prayer room with statues and the works, it’s more like a place where one can have some peace and quiet. I guess Casa Rap’s owner, being a former nun, just named it as such.

Straight from a nine-hour graveyard shift, we traversed the south superhighway, sped through the Star Tollway and eventually ventured the highways of Batangas just to have breakfast at this obscure restaurant in San Jose known to us only by its funky name, Casa Rap.

There’s really not much we know about Casa Rap except the write-ups we read about it online. Two things led us here; its proximity to Lipa City, where I’m gonna score my Batangas Starbucks Mug, and it being part of the Viaje Del Sol (which probably means this would be a cool resto to check out, similar to Casa San Pablo in Laguna).