When this year started it was decided that we – Chilipina, Chenility and myself – would go on another Tita adventure, one that would last three days this time. Last year’s Tita time in Talipanan was considered to be too short because we only stayed in Puerto Galera for a night. This time we vowed to take full advantage of a long weekend and do what Tita’s do best: lounge. We all filed leaves for the Friday following the EDSA anniversary and prayed that not a lot of people would go out of town that weekend.
At first we thought we’d go back to Talipanan again but Chipilina found this D’Farm and Park in her Facebook newsfeed and asked us to check it out. It looked pretty, clean and most important of all, quiet – perfect for three Tita souls who just want to relax and catch up with each other’s lives. Admittedly it was somewhat irresponsible of us to reserve an air-conditioned kubo without really researching on the specifics of how to get there first. In my defense, the rates were so affordable that it was pretty hard to pass up.
The staff responded pretty fast to my SMS inquiries and the 50% reservation fee was settled quickly. After that, we all but forgot about the place and only got back to actually researching a couple of days before our actual trip. All I knew was that it was somewhere up north and that we’d need at least one full tank of gas to get there and back.
The directions on the website started out simple enough but got progressively complicated so I figured that we’ll just Waze it. Big mistake. D’Farm Park wasn’t registered in Google Maps yet so it didn’t show up on Waze. Because I paid so little attention to the directions on their website we ended up taking the longer route. What would’ve been a nice relaxed four-hour drive turned into a six and a half hour monster. Okay, I’m exaggerating; it wasn’t that bad – the roads were smooth and traffic was very light so it wasn’t that big a deal, really. I quite enjoyed the scenery, actually. We were supposed to go through SBMA and drive for a couple of hours to Zambales but instead took the longer route of Tarlac – Pangasinan – Alaminos – Zambales.
We left Manila at around eight in the morning and got to D’Farm in Masinloc at almost three in the afternoon. After a very quick check-in (the staff was very polite and very, incredibly efficient), we had an early dinner-slash-late lunch and just chilled. There were a lot of day-trippers during that Thursday (it was a holiday, after all) but only a few people checked in for the night.
It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves that Friday; there were a few groups who were there for the day but we all minded our own business. D’Farm has three pools open to the public – two for adults and one for kids – but they have two private villas, which, if you rent it out, have private infinity pools you get all to yourselves. It also had a bunch of kubo’s and swings that are ideal for larger groups of people who go there for the day, but they ended up being places on rotation where we ate.
We didn’t bring any food with us but they have a functional restaurant that offers home cooked meals at very affordable prices. They also have a store that sells chips and water and soda and coffee, but be warned, because D’Farm is a bit far from the town proper, these items are a bit on the pricier side. The nice thing was the staff allowed us to eat at the unoccupied huts – we ordered the food in their kitchen and they delivered it to us (we took photos of the power plant while we waited).
We checked out Saturday morning and left D’Farm a little bit past nine. We followed the route to SBMA and entered NLEX at around two thirty in the afternoon. After that it felt like Manila welcoming us with its embrace since it was a literal crawl until I reached the Skyway.
It was a fun long weekend. It’s definitely the longest road trip I’ve ever taken and if anything, it just pumped me up for the future road trips up North.
Total damage: 2656 PHP inclusive of 5 kilos of Zambales mangoes for pasalubong.
