Chateau Royale: Cornucopia of cultures

The minute you step inside Chateau Royale, a nature park and convention resort in Nasugbu, Batangas, is the moment you discover a cornucopia of cultures. Your senses are happily displaced in the beginning — what with the burst of colors, the mix-matched furniture. Yet, as you navigate around the 14-hectare property, your discovery slowly grows on you. Then you find bliss amid many appealing contradictions.

European-styled couches lounge easily with Asian vats at the resort’s main lobby. A purple velvet divan has a Chinese jar for its company. And the way it looks, it is a happy, harmonious company.

Life-size pieces of stone sculpture depicting the stages of happiness of Buddha line the walkway leading to the innermost sanctum of the resort. A humongous Buddhist goddess seems to float in a pond filled with koi. Across it, as if piercing this Asian aesthetic sensibility, are Swiss chalets, which are gleaming in their immaculateness as they form a long, long line of log cabins in white. The Batulao forest that seals the resort helps in giving that sweet nippy breeze; and if you are staying in a log cabin feeling chilly, you can’t help but almost imagine the Alps even if you are in the tropics.

Truth is, accommodations at Chateau Royale can either be at the log cabins, for that mountain resort feel; the Ever Crest Gulod, for that condotel feel with its own swimming pool and basketball court;  or at the Skylight Suite, a five-level suite rooms of 68 units where great life awaits. The Presidential Suite of Skylight is already a continent in size. But that’s a hyperbole you ought to experience for yourself.

“We give our guests a dose of excitement without necessarily becoming exaggerated about it. Our service is devoid of pretense. We keep our sincerity all the time,” says Roberto “Bobby” Montemar, resident manager of Chateau Royale. He mentions that the resort is witness already to many weddings and coming-of-age parties. Watch Bobby become excited as he tours you to the Grand Ballroom. Well, the ballroom is already a sub-continent in configuration that a thousand guests can tango, twist, turn or even twerk without stepping on each other’s dancing feet.

“If may I add, we are known also for providing suitable venue for corporate events and team-building sessions,” Bobby says. Guests will enjoy a myriad of activities at Chateau Royale — rock climbing, ziplining, fishing in a mini-man-made lake, horseback riding, even harvesting vegetables at the resort’s greenhouses. Taking laps at the white sand-edged swimming pool is reinvigorating. The sun is friendly the whole day by the poolside. It helps if you drink the signature icy calumpit juice of Chateau Royale to quench your thirst. There is also a conversation-piece heated  pool inside the spa. A must-try.

On nights when the moon is low, a stay at the Forest Bar becomes almost enchanting. It must be the moon that causes this feeling — you know, the pull of gravity. It could be the relaxing music. Perhaps it’s the beer. 

The resort also has a 126-seater mini-theater, which is upholstered in flaming red, ready to welcome all the Norma Desmonds for a show.  (I tried my luck, went up the stage and sang As If We Never Said Goodbye. The beautiful acoustics of the theater rewarded me with the echoes of my own applause.)

This early, Bobby informs, Chateau Royale is preparing for the New Year’s Eve countdown as the resort is a favorite spot of guests to watch the fireworks display. Aside from the fireworks, the resort is known for its holiday food.

In fact, a cultural cornucopia is also seen in the menu of the resort. Spanish cuisine simmers in the kitchen of quaint Veranda Café, the main dining of the resort. You gorge on a tender and sumptuous dish of callos. Not your authentic Madrileño callos because it has no olives; but hey, it is so good one serving is not enough. Burger and fries are available the whole day. A small bowl of bulalo with sweet corn is adequate to keep you warm. The café serves the elusive maliputo when it is in season. The crispy tawilis is the perfect partner of sinangag and tsokolate-eh for breakfast. Oh, breakfast, lunch or dinner is never complete without the famed Batangas kapeng barako. Dining at Veranda Café is never second best.

When your stay at Chateau Royale is over, the mix-matched furniture and the motley aesthetic of the place will still be there to happily bid you adieu. But the dividing line between them and your own sense of style is blurred because your heart only remembers a happy stay that concomitantly creates happy memories.

(Chateau Royale is located at Km. 72, Batulao, Nasugbu, Batangas. For inquiries, call 02-742-8016 to 17 or e-mail groupsales@batulaoresorts.com. You may also visit www.chateauroyalebatangas.com.)

(E-mail the author at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Twitter@bum_tenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)