Antulang Peninsula

How to get there?

From Dumaguete City, take the Ceres bus liner to Zamboangita (14 pesos), then take the habal-habal (150 pesos) to either kookoo's nest or Antulang Beach Resort. Travel time is approximately an hour.

Where to stay?

Kookoo's nest

Cottage rates range from 450-800 a night.

For contact details, visit http://kookoosnest.com.ph

Antulang Beach Resort

Standard rooms are for 800 pesos a night.
Deluxe rooms and Family suites ranges from 3500-5000 pesos a night.
Pool Villas are 13,000++ pesos per night depending on the season. During peak season it could reach up to 15,000++.

For contact details, visit http://antulang.com

What to do?

In kookoo's nest, one can have a very relaxing time in the beach or in the cottage enjoying the picture perfect view of the beach. The beach isn't the best place to swin as there are quite a lot of seagrass and sharp stones. It is best though for sunbathing as the water is calm and the sand is powder-like. The place is very calm and quiet. It's the best place to be pensive. Best for loners who wants wants to soul search as there would not be any distractions. At the end of the day, it would be nice to watch the sunset.

In Antulang beach resort, the place is great for the family. They have an infinity pool, kiddie pool, tennis courts, mini-zoo, a bar, a restaurant and etc. It's also perfect for those who love snorkeling. A short trek down the rocks, fishes and corals can already be sighted. Start the day right by watching the sunrise. Spend the afternoon in a cruise. Then watch the sunset while horsebackriding. There are so many things to do in this resort. You'll never get bored.

The Antulang Peninsula is definitely a great place to go to while in Negros Oriental. Each resorts have their own uniqueness. If you're a sunset lover then you definitely have to check out kookoo's nest. If you love the sunrise then Antulang beach resort is the place for you. Whatever your heart's desires you'd find it at the Antulang Peninsula.

Sailing on dreamland

I am sitting at a corner table of a bar, looking at the ocean through a line of steel railings. I can hear the sound of the waves as I take a swig of my afternoon drink. To my right, I see kids playing with their parents in the salt-water infinity pool. Beside the pool are two ladies chatting while trying to get some tan. Beneath them is a view deck with more lounge chairs for sunbathing. I feel like I’m in a luxurious cruise ship, and I couldn’t resist dreaming that I am somewhere in the Carribean or heading to the Greek isles.

In reality I have just crossed the fork that separates the two resorts in the Antulang Peninsula to get to the other side of the bay, not by boat but via a habal-habal. Ron and I are now staying at the Antulang Beach Resort, which apart from the magnificent view of the ocean and the hotel services’ standard cut-off time at 10pm, bears a stark contrast to the resort on the other side.

The rooms here, for one, are more expensive than the cottages at Kookoo’s Nest. The standard cabana, where we are presently staying, costs almost as much as the most expensive cottage at the other resort. And while there we had a big bamboo cottage with a loft that could accommodate four to five people, here the room’s just big enough for a double bed and a bathroom. The tiny cabana is concrete with a wooden interior wall and is airconditioned.





Ron and I would have loved to stay in one of the resort’s pool villas that has its own swimming pool and Jacuzzi, a big bed, cable television, and a VCR. But its steep price could already pay for our month-long trip.







The thing is we didn’t really plan to stay here. We had only wanted to check the place out to see if it indeed deserves the overwhelming recommendations we heard among the Negenses. And besides it seemed to us then that we have already left our hearts in Kookoo’s Nest. But the grand view of the ocean from the restaurant, the interesting concrete trail surrounding the resort, and its beautiful three-basin infinity pool instantly erased all our preconceived notions of exaggerations in the statements of the Negros locals. And that was enough to make us stay for at least one night.



The resort stands on top of a cliff, which gives one the impression of being on board a ship. Lounge chairs are scattered around the area at well-positioned viewing decks. A staircase leads to the concrete trail around the resort and towards small packets of white sand. But the water current is quite strong and not really conducive for swimming.

Antulang Beach Resort, however, deserves extra points for its friendly staff. After a very quiet stay on the other side of the bay, with its very reserved attendants and equally reserved guests, the jovial greetings of the Antulang staff becomes such a welcome treat.

Most of the guests here are families from either Bacolod or Dumaguete, with one or two balikbayans in their group. Still, this could be linked to the resort’s highly rising reputation as Negros’ premiere tourist destination. I would probably take a balikbayan relative here as well, should my area code ever becomes 035.

The thing is there is really nothing much to do in this place for people like us, who have very minimal dough to spare. Their long line of resort activities—from snorkelling to diving, rapelling to horseback riding, to tours of Apo Island and Tambobo Bay—are only for those who can afford their steep prices. This is why I am here right now, doing the only thing any one with very little money could afford to do in any expensive place—enjoy the magnificent view, drink the cheapest beer, and dream away.

The quiet art of sitting still

It’s ten in the evening and everything is quiet except for the sound of crickets, the intermittent cries of a tree lizard, the busy whir of a stand fan, and a page being flipped by a guest who is just waiting for the spell of sleep to fall on him. Everything appears so calm in this tiny cove tucked in one of Negros Oriental’s remote coastal areas.

From the deck in my cottage, I look at the sea, which in its stillness seems to me like a lake merely masquerading as an ocean. There is no sound of waves and there’s not even a sign of one coming. Even the wind seems to have gone on a break for the leaves and the trees stand motionless. It’s as if they’re only purpose in being here is to frame the view of the body of water before them.







The place is a static photograph, a landscape painting. I look at it and it draws me to its calmness. I couldn’t do anything but stare. I sit and stare and feel surprisingly as relaxed as the place itself.

Kookoo’s nest is one of the only two resorts operating in the Antulang Peninsula. It only has four guest cottages that are strategically laid out far enough from each other. If not for the wooden curtain that doesn’t completely close in the outdoor bathroom, I would’ve been 100 per cent satisfied in its attempt to let the guests enjoy their privacy.

There are six other tourists enjoying this private moment with us, and the only interaction we had with them has been sharing lighters. We almost walk on tiptoes and our voice tuners are now set on low, very careful not to disturb the other visitors basking on their solitude. The three French ladies seem all too content chatting among themselves in their native language. The Kenyan guy from Canada prefers the quiet nook among the stone hedges at the far end of the resort to read a book about India. The couple, who may be in their honeymoon, almost never leave their cottage.





Ron has bathed all alone under the hot sun, minutes after we got here. He then went on a trance taking pictures of the landscape and catching the best shot of the sunset. While I play with a strange dog and observe a local boy picking shells from the seabed and his father walking his kid brother along the shore. In a place like this, socialization could easily mean intrusion. They seem to value their solitude so much, and Ron and I would rather not cross it for fear of other people crossing ours.





It’s now past midnight. The sea remains calm. The leaves remain motionless. My body stays relaxed without any memory of fatigue. And I am writing without a dent of depression, sadness, anger, bitterness, or longing in my spirit. In this very moment, my mind does not know anything outside this place and my heart is silenced by a rare sense of serenity for it to make way for other feelings.

I just discovered that people go to Kookoo’s Nest for the peace and quiet. I didn’t, but I just realized that it’s everything I never thought I ever wanted.





The Sputniks at Kookoo's Nest
04 June 2007