SUMMER GROOVE AT LAIYA COCO GROVE

Here I am again on another summer adventure!  This time my wandering feet brings me to the last frontier of the Batangas coastline right before crossing over to Quezon provinve.  Well folks, welcome to Laiya, San Juan!  Let me share with you on a brief tour of the Laiya Coco Grove Resort

This resort is one of the high end resort in the Barangay Laiya.  Laiya is known for its white sand beaches.  It was once a haven for private resort owners who have the luxury of enjoying the serenity of white sand beach in the privacy of their own resorts. But as the years went by, the owners eventually opened their private paradise to the public to the delight of many wishing to venture in areas not much exploited by human development.

I was ushered into one of the rooms.  It was airconditioned with 2 queen-sized beds  and its own bathroom.  I said that I think this is too big for me.  So we started to look at the other rooms scattered around the resort.

The resort is already fully developed with paved walkways, planted trees and apparently undergone landscaping works while it was still new.  The summer heat had probably wilted much of the plants so basically the resort lacks the green ambiance it should have.

There are several cottages of different sizes  depending on the number of guests.  I noticed that the resort is more customer oriented and somehow lacks the touch of nature.  Much of the infrastructure has completely transformed the once rugged landscape of Laiya into an artificial landscape that is more intended to satisfy the visitor than try to conserve nature while attending to the needs of the tourist.

In the concept of ecotourism, I think that a resort should have more touch of nature and should be designed to make the tourist feel like he is part of the natural landscape to make him more environmentally aware of his surroundings.  If a place was made to satisfy the visitor alone, the immediate behavior of the tourist is to exploit the place to its fullest with the least of care because he feels that he has to spent his money's worth in the place, and if it means deteriorating the place until he is satisfied then for the tourist, it is money well spent.