We finally arrived in Cagban, hailed a tryc to take us to our hotel and agreed to the 100peso fare. With only a week of preparation we booked our hotel based on availability as most of the popular mid-priced hotels are already full. The reviews in Trip advisor aren’t the best, but we decided we’ll take a chance. Nevermind the bad reviews, it met our top three requirements for this trip, 1.beachfront, 2.aircon, 3.with wi-fi so we should be good. If all else fails, we’ll be out enjoying the sun and sand most of the time anyways.
The tryc dropped us off at the end of the alley to Station 3, he gave us some instructions – “kaliwa ka dyan sa beach.” My mistake for assuming that the hotel will already be there when I “turn” left. Well it wasn’t, not yet. So we walked, and trekked. We’ve been to station 3 before and I don’t remember the resorts that we are passing, so I called Reception and told them we might be lost, described the resort in front of me and she assured me that we just need to go straight. Two resorts later, there it was – Arwana Hotel and Restaurant, yey!
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| photo from MyBoracayGuide |
So far, so good. The hotel matches the on-line photos, the restaurant looks promising. They served us welcome drinks and escorted us to our room. Hmm.. they said the hotel was just a couple of years old. Parang hindi. It does have potential, from outside it looks like a modern boutique hotel. They just need to invest more on maintenance.
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| our welcome drinks -- Gone in 60 seconds =p |
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| the restaurant |
There are two small foam pillows, and the blanket. There’s enough closet space, and this is actually the first time I stayed in a hotel where there are more than 10 hangers, dami! Lots of power outlets , so charging of cameras, cellphones and laptops won’t be a problem. It’s got good air-conditioning, and good wi-fi signal even while inside the room.
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| there's no wood door =( |
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| the closet space |
The bathroom, haaay, the bathroom. This one definitely needs to be visited by the plumber soon. Housekeeping needs to do a better job cleaning the tiles. There’s a long and thick cobweb from the ceiling down to the towel rod, they just can’t tell me that they don’t see it. They just can’t! The faucet was leaking, the shower was broken, and the floor gets flooded because there were no shower curtains. They do have hot shower though, yey! for that.
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| haaaay... |
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| double haaaaay.... |
Our stay comes with breakfast and dinner. We tried to ask if the dinner can be moved to lunch instead but they refused. It’s a good thing na rin, we saved money because of this. All the in-house meals we tried were tasty and sulit so we are satisfied with that.
The beach in front of the hotel was also nice and clean. Not too many people like how it was in the other stations, probably this is where its far location helped.
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| the beachfront view from the terrace |
If you do plan to stay here in Station 3 but can’t let go of the comforts of station 2, you can ride the tryc and get off at D’mall. To do this, go back to the alley, walk to the corner up to the main road. If you can get a tryc as soon as you get to the alley, good for you. It’s more expensive since you need to pay for the whole trip (60pesos as opposed to 10pesos/pax if you hail the tryc from the main road), BUT there’s a flooded drainage near the corner that seems to be multiplying in size every time I see it, so the extra pesos you are paying becomes worth it, especially if you are with friends.
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| so ito ka pala Station 3, not bad at all =) |
To help you out further to research for your trip, browse through the Trip Advisor Reviews, just click here!
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