De-Luscious Life: Our weekend getaway

Our 10^th wedding anniversary was coming up and I wanted to do something for Mike after the surprise he gave me for my birthday…

Both of us being employees in a very fast-paced business world, I decided for us to go to a spa to relax…

After browsing the net for nice weekend getaways, I chanced upon Valentino Resort and Spa in San Jose Batangas. Nestled in the lush greenery beside Mt. Makulot in Cuenca, it is a perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of the corporate life.

At first I looked for nice couple spas within Metro Manila, there were a few. Most are pretty expensive and for the same price, I could go overnight out of town. So that was it…

Valentino Resort

So, the preparations begin. I booked for an overnight stay in their De Luxe room for October 2 and told Mike not to have plans for that weekend.

On the weekend itself, we started the day with a breakfast that was supposed to be served on bed. But Mike woke up before I prepared it inside the room and just opted to have it outside (pampasira ng surprise.. :P). We started to prepare to leave at around 8AM, but as always the case with Mike, he is always late. It seems as though if he is not late, he gets sick or something… so instead of leaving at 8AM, we left the house around 10AM, bought some water and chips. Then brought Ethan to my sister’s place in Merville, where he will stay until we get back.

Bigg's Diner

Until now, Mike does not know where we are going. He knows we are going on an overnight in a spa resort somewhere. It is hard to keep secrets from him. For one thing, I do not know how to drive. So the idea of kidnapping him will not work. Second, I don’t know a thing about cars. All I know is that you have to have them checked before travelling far and according to some information I had from people, the resort is about 3 hours away from Manila. Next, my control-freak husband (he will kill me if he sees me defining him as a control freak, hahahah…) is not used to changing his routine. If it is disrupted, you’ll pay dearly for it. So it was hard to plan a surprise without letting him in on some details. At least I was able to pull it off, a bit. So, back to the story, we are now on our way to the resort which he has absolutely no idea where, I gave him instructions one at a time, just like a treasure hunt.

We arrived at the resort around 3pm after some stopover at SM Lipa for lunch. By the way, we went to this place, Bigg’s Diner. We don’t have this in Manila. The food was not expensive. I tried their baby back with Java rice for only P198.00. And Mike had the chicken and kebab for P120+. We also had large ice teas for P53 each. It was not a bad meal considering the price.

So when we arrived at the resort, I was quite happy that Mike liked it. You know how he is, he has an opinion on everything. And everything that his attention catches will always be criticized. Hahahaha…. So I was not only happy but thrilled that he liked it. It was very “sosyal” for the price we paid. The venue was very serene and sophisticated.

We decided to roam the grounds first and do some crazy pictures that depict a “Dodong and Inday” day off.

It was around 5 pm when we returned to the room and we decided to go for a swim at the pool and jacuzzi,

Infinity pool

which we had to ourselves. Hehehehe… Mike went to get his slippers which he left in the car. While he was gone, I fixed the Asti and the cibo spinach dip and crostini and flowers to surprise him. Then, tada! Happy Anniversary, honey! Hehehe… Unfortunately, part of the gift was some red light special.. hahaha… I was so ready for it as I was just back from Brazil (if you know what I mean…) but, the red flag was up so… back up plan instead… we headed for the jacuzzi and pool and just had a great time. At 6:30pm we had our appointment with the spa for a couple massage… After that, we ordered some late night dinner and planned to watch “Life is Beautiful” on the laptop to end the beautiful day we have spent together. A few minutes after………zzzzzzzzzzz…zzzzzzzz……