“The amount of happiness that you
have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
I’m a plage-aholic. And a plage temptation is hard to resist… especially if the one waiting has a beautiful white cottage right by the sea, with ornamental vines and bougainvillea crawling wildly up to its side. The place seems anachronistic for a town known as a go-to place of hard-core surfers and backpackers. It defies action. It appears to be a sanctuary for those who want to take a break or test their courage to let go of things they can never change.
Urbiz Garden Plage has been around for almost a decade in Urbiztondo, La Union, the surfing capital of the North. A plage, by the way, is a French term for the beach. And the cottage is right smack in the middle of a lush and sprawling garden by the beach.
I was too early for my 2 pm check-in. But the staff allowed me to rest in one of their native huts to wait. Waiting gave me ample time to reflect. Whoever said that “good things come to those who wait” - sorry but it’s not true all the time. Waiting has limits and I’ve reached mine. I think my new mantra should be “hope but never expect, look forward but never wait.”
I really love how nature embraces the cottage. The place is surrounded with a lush sea of green and pink and beautiful river rocks.
The butaca chairs, daybeds with woven mats and soft cushions, driftwood furniture, woodworks, gives the lanai a laidback-feel. Even the cat, Armida Siguion-Reyna and I felt at home. I’m not a fan of Armida but I admire her advocacy for free expression and her belief that the most obscene thing in the world is censorship.
When I finally get to see my room, all I wanted to do was sleep all day.
Feeling rejuvenated I woke up the next day to new possibilities and a hearty breakfast of fried garlic rice, danggit, and lonnganisa.
It was a perfect day to hit the beach.
I sat by the shore and watched young surfers gliding by and through the majestic waves of the West Philippine Sea. Even the best fall down sometimes.
Bumped into a new friend perhaps I will never meet again.
And patiently waited for my most favorite time of the day.
Now,
I’ve come to embrace impermanence and accept that the changes I don’t want are sometimes
the changes I need to grow.
Urbiz
Garden Plage
#134
Beachfront Urbiztondo
San
Juan, La Union
Tel.
No.: 0917-5908256
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