For me, if you’ve read my blogs since then, I have always been a fan of going to beaches or resorts, aside from climbing mountains and journalism. I remember I started the month of June in a corner of one of the popular beaches in our town, reading an endless book and feeling the life I had in the present. Now, as I close it, I found myself in front of the water again—although a different place, I can feel that the water remembers me from afar, like not a stranger but the same visitor.
It was a rainy weather of June 29 when I visited Hisoler Beach Resort, without knowing how much reflection I could get after my arrival.
THE REFLECTION AND THE EXPERIENCE
Visiting this resort actually had a significant purpose, but I wouldn’t be dealing with it in this blog. I would want to write it separately, for both are important and sensitive to my words.
In this column, I will try to give you a peek at the inside beauty of Hisoler Beach Resort— located in Loverslane, Nailon, Bogo City, Cebu— and the reflection I have before June ends. I am not a master of wisdom when it comes to self-reflection, but I hope you can get the message and experience it as well through reading.
To be honest, the outside features of the resort are not that interesting and hooking to the eyes of the tourist. It is just a simple wall, not well-maintained physically, and a banner that says its name. No features new to our eyes. No good impression. Not inviting. Not promising.
But, in the words of philosophy, we were already taught not to judge a book by its cover. The inside is ours to discover. Where beauty lies is in the inside of every “thing” and not on the façade we can see.
It is also one of my reflections in June—that what I get to see is not always the complete truth. What might appear scary is not always that scary. As an adult in his first year of his 20s, doing something requires giving all the best you can, even if it trembles your knees and breaks your mind.
Eventually, I would learn that the thing I am afraid to do is not as scary as I see it. It is just a normal thing—an event, an occasion, and a skill that long resided in this universe generation to generation and persevered by many. For instance, I have been dealing with things nowadays that are far beyond my plans, especially entering the world of photojournalism without being equipped and trained.
Immersing myself with the camera and essentials, packed with a heavy-loaded bag, tripods, and lenses, is the scariest part of my job as a student journalist. But now, it is making sense to me gradually, that I am preparing myself for the so-called real world after college. This thing has something to do with my next blog, so I hope you catch a read of it soon with the other readers when published.
As I entered the resort, I dispelled a myth. It is beautiful inside, locked with grand features, filled with happy people, and bordered by blue waters. I was standing under a tree, found myself staring at the people and the place, grateful for where I have come in the present.
When you enter the resort, you would see the facilities first—like the event halls, check-in rooms, and waiting and parking areas (free parking). You are welcomed by a narrow path bordered by green grasses, and each of you with your hearts must follow where it leads to.
When you enter more, a lot of features can be observed, such as a rattan outdoor seating set with a patio umbrella and a tree overarching some parts of the ground. If there is one thing I liked when I entered it, it was the towering coconut trees of the resort standing with the other kinds of trees and plants. How can someone not love a resort that maintains the beauty of nature?
When you go down to their aisle-like way, you can see the ocean from an above view. A lot of facilities can be observed beside each other, like the rooms with outside balcony/terrace and are non-smoking for stayers.
In front would be a facility also, but I didn’t enter it. I believe that is a mini-restaurant since there are people outside having coffee while looking at the beach. It was actually a good place for me since it has what we call the “aesthetic,” which is different when it comes to everyone’s view.
Beside that facility is a viewing deck where you can have a panoramic view of the resort, such as the cottages, ground, and the swimming pool. Going downstairs is accompanied by flowers, like you are one of its landscape.
When you reach the bottom, a wide swimming pool splashes water in your face and a lot of kids and adults were already enjoying it. Well, some prefer to swim in a pool rather than in the beach even if the latter has wider coverage. The pool is still in touch with nature, bordered by the grasses and guarded by the trees as you can see in the picture.
If you go more to the bottom, that is where you can see the cottages and the beach. I didn’t go to the beach but still managed to know what’s behind the cottages. I saw kids running towards the water, jumping and diving and doing all water stunts that make the experience enjoyable.
There are people in the cottages also who are doing karaoke, shouting the loudest they can, making fun of each other’s voices, and leaving the place with sore throats.
I saw a tiny slope behind me that is filled with some flowers (but I couldn’t take a closer look at it since I left my camera in the hall). It is actually the best part of the resort—that lamp lights and a tree grounded together by very green grasses. I know it was not that cold that day, but the ambiance the area gives is giving me Baguio City (a well-known city in the Philippines).
It reminds me of my favorite mountain I climbed in Tabogon, which I visited five times. I visited it in all seasons I could get, and my most favorite season to visit the peak is the rainy season, for it fogs around the peak, like a cap for the mountain, and anytime the wind blows, a group of cold winds and fog slaps your face gently—frigid but lovely.
It was a time-freeze in that part of the resort, since I remembered everything I had for the last two years. Then I knew, I cannot completely run away from my past nor forget it. My body remembers everything my mind wouldn’t want to. There are places I did forget but find me in other places, there are people I lost connection with but who live in my heart for a long time, and there was a past me that still accompanies my present self. In simple reflection, I cannot easily get rid of what made me become who I am in the present.
When the event was starting near, I left the area and went back to the hall. I had to prepare myself before the event started. What was really happening that day why I visited the resort? You’ll know in my next blog. It was an important event, a milestone, and a start of a journey.
And before I welcome the new month, I’ll keep this day in my heart like a letter laid between a diary's pages. Just like blue beaches that visits the shore again and again, some days and memories would meet us somewhere in different places but same heart.
