Silangang Nayon - Weekend Snapshot

I found this restaurant/park/hotel in Backpacking Philippines while searching for a resort in Pagbilao on line. We left Makati a little before 6 am on Friday morning and arrived in Pagbilao, Quezon before 11 am. We originally planned to leave at 4 am to avoid the weekend traffic, but Franzia and April were still snoring at 4:30 am. We also got a little lost when we were in Pagbilao---we turned left instead of turning right. The designated navigator, moi, was floating out of her mind from lack of sleep.

After asking a couple of locals, we found the sign along the highway. It says, Silangan Nayon is 6.5 kilometer from the highway. Maybe because we were hungry and I was very sleepy, it felt like a long and winding 10 kilometers. Apparently, we were the first customers for lunch so we had the place to ourselves for a while.

There was a park for kids complete with seesaw, swings and mini-bikes. There was also an aviary; a couple of huts and a small hotel for overnight guests, and more huts along the slopes for diners. The restaurant is a cluster of huts approximately 10 meters from the shore---yes, it's on the water.

To reach the huts, we needed to cross a creaky bamboo stilt bridge. There was an oncoming typhoon that day so it was cloudy and windy. I could feel the stilt bridge swaying a little.

We placed our order before going down to the bamboo bridge. The kitchen was near the reception area on the "main land". The food was delivered to the huts using this ingenious zip line---a small wooden box that looks like an airplane.

there's our food inside the "plane" and the small hotel at the background

We enjoyed the grilled scallops for appetizer, sinigang na lapu-lapu, grilled squids, ginataang hipon and a bowl of steamed rice. The sea foods were fresh and delicious. Prices were almost the same as Manila's.

We were all ready to take a nap at those long bamboo benches after lunch. The fresh air and the hearty lunch made us all sleepy. But we still had a long way to go before reaching our final destination--- Padre Burgos, the first town in the Bondoc Peninsula.

Silangan Nayon was a unique dining experience, a great place to relax and bond with family and friends, although the beach was not very inviting. And by the way, there were no restrooms in the huts [which is good for the environment]---you need to cross the bridge to get to the restrooms [so don't wait until it's urgent!]. This is a place I'd like to return to when I'm in Pagbilao, Lucena or Tayabas...watch the sunset and maybe stay the night.

Posted for Weekend Snapshot