Pangasinan Trip Day 1 - El Puerto Marina Beach Resort & Spa

The Lingayen Gulf

It was almost a year when me and my friends went to Hundred Islands, Pangasinan. We always wanted to go to the town of Alaminos since one of our friends is from that town, but he is currently based in Hongkong. Since our patience is not that long enough to wait for him to come back in the Philippines, we decided to go to Pangasinan in May last year.

Our destination is Lingayen, Pangasinan, where our resort is located. Although the Hundred Islands is in Alaminos, we decided to have a stay in Lingayen because most resorts in Alaminos are expensive and are already fully booked. Luckily our resort has a beach front of the Lingayen Gulf.

Based from a past experience, travel time from Cubao to Alaminos is eight to nine hours. So we decided to leave early to avoid the traffic. We left at five in the morning and we reached Lingayen, Pangasinan at around eleven. We had our lunch first at the town proper before going to our resort. We did not indulge ourselves with something special to eat, as we just headed to the nearby Chowking.

After having our lunch we then ride a tricycle to reach the resort. Although there was a company team building ongoing at the resort, it is still not crowded as compared to other resorts. The resort’s amenities include a swimming pool, catering service, and tour to Hundred Islands.

After unpacking our things, we headed to the beach or the Lingayen Gulf. The sand is dark but it was so fine. We walked barefooted along the shoreline. It was a sunny afternoon but the breeze coming from the gulf is relaxing. As I look around, I noticed that the Gulf was untouched by the resort. There were huts and cabanas at the shore to accommodate the guests but aside from those there are no other structures. The water is also clean as you cannot find any trash floating around.

the cottages at the beach

enjoying the sand, beach and the waves on her birthday

The resort’s swimming pool is just small but because we are the only ones at the resort other than the company busy doing their team building activities, we have the pool for our group. One thing that we noticed about the pool is that it is salty. We stayed at the pool whole afternoon. We left the pool when the caretaker told us to leave the pool because of the thunder and the lightning.

the pool

another view of the pool

the seafood chopsuey

We had an afternoon snack at the resort of pansit and halo-halo for my friends while have a cup of coffee. After the snack, we then confined ourselves to our room since we can still hear the thunder. Luckily every room has a television with cable. But due to tiredness, some of us fell asleep including me. We woke up at dinner time already.

Since it was already seven we decided to have dinner at the resort. We would like to eat outside the resort because we find the foods that they offer are quite expensive. We ordered for a bulalo and seafood chopsuey.

the bulalo

We stayed a little while at the restaurant of the resort since the view is great there before going back to the pool. Good thing the thunder already stopped, we can again enjoy the pool. We did not stay that late for we have to wake up early tomorrow to go Alaminos for the Hundred Island Tour.