Beating the Summer Heat at Club Manila East

I was just reading the newspaper early this morning when I chanced upon a news item saying that May is the hottest month as reported by PAGASA. Well, I will not argue with this report as it was indeed blazing hot yesterday, the 1st of May and the first day of supposedly the hottest month of the year. Lucky me, I joined my wife's swimming outing with some of her officemates at Club Manila East in Taytay. It was perfect timing to beat the heat of May by dipping in the refreshing water of CME.

Club Manila East is located just a few kilometers away from our home in Cainta. My wife and I have been planning to go back there to see what's new in the place after spending a summer outing there in 2003. And with those 5 years that have passed, I knew a lot of changes might have happened in the resort. And indeed, a lot of new things came about in CME.

First, the resort has doubled or maybe tripled its size. Back then, the place only boasts of 3 water facilities which include the kiddie pool with water falls and fountains, the adult pool with giant 3-looped slides and the boating area for kayaking. After 5 years, more water facilities were added which include the lap pool where swimmers can do their lap, a bean-shaped pool that is 5 ft deep, and the 19,000 square foot giant wave pool where most visitors stay to experience a beach-like swim. It's indeed fascinating to enjoy beach waves right at the middle of the city.

More cabanas and cottages were also built around the resort to accomodate more people. Hotels and villas were also constructed to house visitors who are staying overnight. Fast food stalls were also stationed inside the resort like Jolibee and Pizza Hut but the number of food stall was not enough to provide quick service to hungry stomach specially during lunch. In our case, we had to line up for 20 minutes just to grab our food for lunch. Other new things inside the resort are the Team Building Outdoor facility, various function rooms and halls for special events, souvenir shop and others.

Overall, CME is one good resort that is just within the boundary of Metro Manila. A lot of constructions are still ongoing which means the management is still trying to improve the place to offer visitors other exciting facilities. A bit of reminder though, the management has to be particularly attentive in keeping the resort clean all the time which has been noticeably filthy due to the volume of people who are throwing waste everywhere. The cabana that we rented was in fact dirty and a stack of food boxes with leftovers were piled inside the cabinet that produced bad odor. We had to call a maintenance personnel just to request to clean the place which I believe should have been done before the resort opened. Good customer service seems to lack also from some of the resort's maintenance personnel. But other than those observation, the resort is good enough to spend a day of swimming and having fun with friends and family.