Team Building in Laiya, Batangas

In the office, our team, was planning a team outing for almost 6 mos and after 6 mos of deliberation to where the team outing should be held we finally ended going to Laiya, Batangas. Most of us wanted beach setting rather going to water park resorts and since one of our officemate have been to Laiya that's why we ended going there.

Some suggested to go to boracay island since most of us haven't been there yet, but majority don't want to go that far, since we just have the weekend for the trip.  So we filed our leaves, and left Manila Saturday morning.

Our intial budget for the team outing was 15,000 php for 10 persons. We already have a team fund worth 5,000 php, so we paid 1k each. One of our officemate have a van so we decided to just use it rather than bringing separate vehicles.  We paid a Total of 2500 for the gas expense and 326 php for the toll fees (192 php for Slex and 134 php STAR toll - back and forth).

Directions:

- We took the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) all the way to the second to the last exit (Exit 50 going to Batangas, Lucena and Legaspi).
- Drove approximately 6.5 km along this National Highway and turned right towards the Star Toll Way entrance.
- From Star Tollway, we drove all the way to Lipa City (approximately 20 kilometers) and took the Tambo/Lipa Exit at the end.

From Lipa City:
- After exiting the Star Tollway, we turned right and drive towards Lipa City where La Salle Lipa will be on your left while a Petron gas station will be on the right.
- You’ll come across a Y-intersection just before the McDonald’s restaurant, where you must veer right. This is C.M. Recto Avenue.
- We traversed C.M. Recto Ave. then turned right at the corner of the Mercury Drug store. This is P. Torres St. Drive 8.5 km towards Padre Garcia town.
- We made a left turn at the road sign pointing to Padre Garcia.
- Then turned right after passing the Padre Garcia town market.
- Drove approximately 4.5 km and merged with the road coming from Rosario. This road leads all the way to San Juan which is approximately 19 kms.
- When you see the main signage leading to the Batangas Racing Circuit veer left. This will lead you to the San Juan town proper.
Upon reaching the San Juan town proper:
- We drove past the Dunkin Donut and Park n’Go store (on your right) until you reach San Juan Municipal Hall.
- We immediately turned right after the San Juan Municipal Hall. This is the main road of Laiya. We followed the main road where you will find a lot of beach resorts along the way approximately 25 km (20 minutes) onwards.



We already have reservations made for a nipa hut with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, sala and toilet. The hut is located at the back of La Luz Beach resort property. We paid 5000 php  for 2D/1N. 5k seems reasonable coz there's 10 of us and the place is quite huge that can accomodate up to 15 persons. 

Nipa hut we rented

After we arrived and unpacked our things, we excitedly headed towards the beach at La Luz for free, no entrance fee for using the beach. The beach is not suitable for those who can't swim since a few meters from the shore line it will suddenly drop to 7 feet. Life vest are available in the resort or outside for 50 php each. 

La Luz Beach Resort

Life vest that we rented for 50php

You will enjoy snorkeling since fishes and corals are bountiful here. you just need to bring pieces of bread and after a few minutes fishes will start to gather around you. There's a floating platform 15 meters from the shore that we used to for resting after snorkeling. I even tried to to make the fishes follow me using the bread crumbs up to the beach shore line and the fishes actually followed. I was told by one of resort personnel that waters around the resort is a marine sanctuary and fishing is prohibited.

Floating platform 10-15 meters away from shore

Fishes have already ate half of the loaf we brought

There are also other activities you can enjoy like kayaking; Kayak is 200php per hour. You can also play volleyball; you can rent a ball for 50 php. La Luz resort can also arrange hiking at Mt. Daguldol for 350 php for day tour and 700 php for overnight camping. 

After a day of swimming at snorkeling we headed back to out hut to prepare our dinner. We cooked sinigang na baboy and grilled liempo. Yum yum.. then we started our drinking sessions until 3am in the morning. 

The next day we went back to the beach until 12 pm then packed our things then head home.

BUDGET: 15,000 php

EXPENSES:

Transportation cost:
- 2500 gas
- 652 for toll ( back and forth at SLEX and Star toll)

Accomodation:
- 5000 php 2d/1n

Food:
- 5000php for 10 pax ( including liquor)

Miscellaneous:
- life vest 50 each ( rented 3)

TOTAL : 13,302 php

We still have still have an excess of 1698 php that we can use for our next team building..