We stumbled upon Club Balai Isabel in Batangas. And browsing through the photos, it was really beautiful. Without much debacle, we hit the road the next morning. The trip, however, was unbearable. The town where the said resort was located seemed to have its fiesta on the day of our travel. We arrived at the resort still an hour early of our schedule, though. The photos online were real. Because the place truly was a pleasure to the eyes. But here comes the real struggle.
Thirty minutes before we checked-in, there was already a problem with our room. The people who reserved it (before us) lost the key. To hear such stupidity really ruins the vacation mode person in me. We gave the management time to resolve the awful situation. We first had our late lunch in the resort's only restaurant. To our dismay, the services also sucked. It took them almost an hour to actually serve our food. The food was good, though. Or maybe, we were just starved. We also took our time to enjoy the view and took photos. Sadly, when we came back to the reception, the room was still not ready. And the key, still nowhere to be found (or so they told us). I did go maldita after an hour. It was really unprofessional of them. Not even a single person apologized for the hassle and trouble. No one also seemed to acknowledge their fault. It was a vacation, for god's sake. And their making it hell.
We were finally able to checked-in our room after two hours, but without the key. The room was clean, cozy, and had simple, calming interior. The management, of course, had a spare key. Yet, they kept telling us lies about the whole scenario. It was really frustrating. We just rested in our room the whole afternoon to calm down our senses.
At night, we went out for a walk. The resort was pretty big. They offer many amenities for guests to enjoy. But since it was already getting dark, we decided to grab an early dinner. Unfortunately for us, there was only one restaurant—which meant we would have to deal with their disappointing service again. True enough, as we searched for a table to dine, there were already many people anxious to have their orders taken. Alas! No waiter seemed to be paying attention to customers. So there were celebrities being served. But that was no excuse to disregard the rest of the guests. People around were obviously starting to get pissed as well. We did not want to go through all the stress from earlier, so we ordered straight to the kitchen. We told them we would pick up the food after an hour or so, but gave them our room number, just in case. To avoid further anxiety, since all of us were also exhausted, we just headed back to our room. We fell asleep fast. A knock on the door woke us up. It was our food that we forgot to pick up. Nonetheless, the disappointment continued. There was nothing more saddening than waking up from a nap, only to be fed dull, and tasteless food. We went back to sleep full of regrets.
The next morning, we still wanted to give the resort a chance, and our vacation, hope. We took a swim at one of their largest pools. It was the one near the restaurant so we could have our breakfast at the same time. Surprisingly, the food was okay. We enjoyed touring a portion of the resort. And we had a good swim.
I was glad that nothing stupid happened that morning. Because we were about to check out that afternoon. We did not lose the key. We had our brains with us.
Overall, the place was glorious. It was a beautiful destination where you get to enjoy nature. Sadly though, it was not enough to outwit the unbearable service they offer. Will most likely never come back. Two stars out of five.
PHOTOS: iPhone, GoPro
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