Dinner set up in one Amanpulo villa where author was chef for the night.
The eldest daughter’s Christmas message was too good to be true: Bring my nephews and nieces for a three-day staycation in a Makati hotel on a weekend, and let’s have a reunion.
That reunion will happen after three years of the pandemic. Of course, I said, we will all be there.
All my grandchildren in a Makati reunion after three years. (Contributed photo)
Katharina and cousin Emman in a Makati reunion.
But she was not done. After the Makati reunion, would you like to join your granddaughter Katharina for a week-long extended vacation in Amanpulo?
Amanpulo from the air. (Amanpulo Photo)
When I heard the word “Amanpulo,” I told myself my daughter must be kidding.
I associate that resort with the likes of Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, Robert di Niro, Brad Pitt and now ex-wife Angelina Jolie. According to the Daily Mail, Madonna stayed in Amanpulo for a month and left with a $6.2 million bill! One of my favorite pianists, Murray Perahia, also stayed in Amanpulo some years back.
Would I like to have an extended vacation in Amanpulo with my youngest granddaughter? “You’ve got to be kidding,” I told my daughter. She wasn’t.
After which, she asked for our (my and my wife’s) valid IDs, our vaccination cards with proof of booster shots.
We were advised to be ready to fly on a private plane three days after the Makati reunion with all my grandchildren.
Yes, not all can make it to Amanpulo. My grandson Emman and his cousins had classes after the weekend. We had to make the most of that initial three-day reunion.
My eldest granddaughter Keya could not make it to Manila as she couldn’t be absent from her Frankfurt school. (Nevertheless, we got in touch by video call from Makati to Amanpulo.)
That initial three-day reunion in Manila was, for the most part, touching. For one, I saw my youngest granddaughter Katharina (now four years old). She was only six months old when I last saw her in Singapore.
I recall babysitting her on the 56th floor of Marina Bay Sands and gamely posing with her cousins. Seeing her for the first time outside the Changi airport in 2019, I was stunned to see her asleep in her baby stroller. I had never seen a more angelic face in all my life! Of course, I have seen her in our frequent video calls. She has grown so fast!
Suddenly she is in kindergarten, taking ballet class on the side. She is also drawn to sketching, and now she can sing Brahms art songs and has taken to singing German folksongs like a pro.
My granddaughter Katharina can sing Brahms art songs and has taken to singing German folksongs like a pro
When I heard her for the first time in Manila, I just realized she has perfect pitch! (Which I cannot say for my vocal cords.)
My daughter Karenina knew exactly what to do to break the ice between a long-missed German cousin and her Antipolo and Pasig counterparts. In a Makati hotel where we stayed for three days, daughter introduced her nephew and nieces to German games and in less than an hour, they were all yelling and laughing together as though they had known each other for years.
I myself was at a loss as to how to get close to Katharina. The only German I know are titles of German operas and art songs and the names of German composers. I kept copying her German accent, and she would laugh at the way I pronounced them. Before long, we were laughing and giggling together. She is getting used to English. She understood English but could only respond in German. Every time she coughed, I would ask her, “Are you okay?” She would nod. Then she would do a lot of forced coughing just to hear me ask her, “Are you okay?”
That Greenbelt café was heaven sent for my grandchildren. We had one lunch there and discovered a play area. Cousins bonded once more and oh boy, they now looked like they had been together for years.
(We bumped into Chit Santos and Vergel Santos in this Greenbelt cafe and saw my Facebook-famous grandchildren, whome I called my Von Trapp family singers.)
Katharina met her cousin Emmanuel and gamely posed with him. Kalon (my daughter’s nickname) told her “celebrity” daughter that cousin Emmanuel has a rock band and has several well-reviewed compositions on Spotify. She looked excited to hear them.
On a Sunday evening after dinner, we had to part with other grandchildren as they had classes the following day (Emman is now an AB Math sophomore at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and two granddaughters attend schooling in Antipolo.)
Quick fond embraces at hotel rooms. Grandchildren Tyra and Teo were in tears. They said they would miss their hotel rooms.
The instructions in our last day in that Makati hotel: be ready to be picked up early in the afternoon for a one-hour flight to Amanpulo. I still couldn’t believe I was finally seeing that special island identified with the rich and famous.
We were taken to a private airport, served coffee and tea before takeoff.
Amanpulo’s name is derived from a Sanskrit word which means “peace.”
Its brochure says Aman has “enjoyed an organic evolution for over three decades to become one of the world’s most intuitive and pioneering resort, hotel, and residence brands.” Its main concern, the brochure says, is to provide “a level of service and a home-away-from home experience that is peerless in every way.”
From the air, you see islands all over and realize Amanpulo in Pamaican Island is part of the Cuyo Archipelage in northern Palawan.
(Amanpulo is some five hours away by boat from Cuyo town, where a film called Ploning was show in 2008, starring Judy Ann Santos, Gina Pareño, Mylene Dizon, and Joel Torre, among others. Directed by Nikko Garcia, the film was an entry to the Oscar’s Best Foreign Language category that year. It is based on the childhood memories of the director, who grew up in Cuyo town.
Fantasy really turned into reality when I heard the gentle thud of the 20-seater plane landing on the Amanpulo runway. We were assigned carts and driven to two villas—one for my daughter and her partner, and one for me and my wife. In our villa, we had a private pool, a chef, and a butler at our beck and call. And yes, a panoramic view of the Pamalican sea.
I ask the butler to help me open my laptop which I had not touched in over a year; at home I still prefer the desktop.
It is a writer’s dream to be transported to a special island, given a luxury villa with a private pool and a view of the wide, tranquil sea, which feels like a lake. I felt I could write there forever.
I didn’t go for the luxury, or for commissioned writing. I only wanted to be with my youngest granddaughter
Katharina hugging author before flight back to Frankfurt.
But I didn’t go for the luxury, or for commissioned writing. I only wanted to be with my youngest granddaughter before she flew to Frankfurt in a week’s time.
I knew Katharine was awake when I heard her coo outside the villa, raring to explore the beach. We had bonded so quickly in Manila, and she looked forward to “coughing” so I could ask her, “Are you okay?”
On the first day she was at the beach with her mother and grandmother, and we witnessed our first Amanpulo sunset. It was divine.
It was the same beach where all those celebrities frolicked, the same beach where Luis Manzano and future wife Jessy Mendiola celebrated their engagement before the formal wedding. It is also the favorite pictorial setting of Maja Salvador.
Katharina couldn’t have enough of the beach on the first day. At night, she asked her mother to give her a lamp. She wanted to scour the beach for crablets coming out during low tide.
Pablo Tariman and daughter Karenina kayaking.
On the second day, my daughter Karenina and I went kayaking. I felt my age catching up with me.
In the middle of the sea, I felt a sharp back pain and hurried back to the shore. But it was a good try. Being an islander myself, I still know how to steer the boat and go in the direction I want. It was the first time I bonded with my daughter after three years! It brought back memories of our early morning walks on the black volcanic sand of San Roque in Legazpi City.
My daughter also tried kayaking with Katharina. She is now a seasoned paddler. I couldn’t help remembering my late daughter Kerima as we paddled around an islet in my hometown while Pavarotti was singing O sole mio in my cassette tape recorder. It was a good memory of her youth. Now it all came back to me on another island in exotic Palawan!
Meals were served in our private dining area. But on some days, we tried the clubhouse where a staff remembered watching the shooting of Ploning in her native Cuyo town, some five hours away by boat from Amanpulo. She recalled being thrilled to see Judy Ann Santos in person.
Pablo Tariman as Amanpulo chef for the night.
On our last day, I thought of giving my daughter and family a culinary treat. I always cook her favorite clam soup and crabs with coconut milk and malunggay every time she visits my Pasig abode. I asked her permission to take over our official chef’s kitchen and cook her favorite island food.
I thought of giving my daughter and family a culinary: clam soup and crabs with coconut milk and ‘malunggay’
She had no time to visit our home province. Why not cook her favorite dishes right there in Amanpulo? (I planned to cook for Cecile Licad after our 2018 Roxas City outreach concert, but she changed her departure schedule. She had an urgent meeting with Gerard Salonga and had to fly ahead to Manila.)
I consulted with the chef for available ingredients. There was no fresh coconut milk, but they had the instant version in a can. That will do, I said. Fresh malunggay leaves were available from the Amanpulo garden.
Meanwhile, the only available fish was lapu-lapu, and I said that would do. My first choices are blue marlin and tanguigue. I would have wanted camote tops or kangkong to go with my island cocido (sinigang), but they only had the Vietnamese pechay. That’s fine, I said.
After an initial consultation with the chef, I suddenly got nervous. What if my island cooking got a bad review from my Frankfurt-based family?
Wearing the official Amanpulo chef’s apron, I supervised the preparation of ingredients and reminded my Amanpulo kitchen assistant: You only pour the kalamansi juice after the fish and vegetable are cooked. “I get it, Sir,” said the official Amanpulo chef, who had been temporarily designated as my assistant during our last dinner on the island.
Family dinner at Amanpulo
One hour before meals were served, I got nervous again. This is how I feel before my artists’ performance. I got more nervous when I saw the Amanpulo staff prepare a special dinner set-up as though it were a farewell dinner for APEC delegates.
I was given a special seat at the head table as chef for the night.
It is good, said my daughter. It is very good, said my daughter’s partner after tasting our island cocido. I resist doing a curtain call.
We had proper cocktails after dinner with recordings of Fritz Wunderlich, Marlene Dietrich, and Arthur Espiritu in the background.
We had proper cocktails after dinner with recordings of Fritz Wunderlich, Marlene Dietrich, and Arthur Espiritu in the background
I told Matti (my daughter’s partner) I saw Marlene Dietrich’s 1930s picture with President Quezon on FB.
But then all good things must pass. Katharina gave me a farewell hug after dinner and another round of embraces at the airport terminal in Manila.
I thank our hosts for this rare Amanpulo treat.
Pardon the presumption, but taking the Grab car back to my Pasig abode, I suddenly felt like I was already in the league of Mariah Carey, Madonna, Tom Cruise, and Murray Perahia, among others.
I managed to write a poem capturing the peace and quiet of Amanpulo:
To wake up
With the cold night air
Suddenly engulfed
By the nocturnal
View of the islands
And the stillness stuns
You are looking
At the big wide sea
And not a single hint
Of waves
It is stillness
At its best
Magnified by
The quiet breeze
Covering the island
Vegetation
You are
At the other side
Of the world
With your loved ones
A granddaughter
Braves the quiet night
Looking for sea creatures
On the long stretch of sand
And finds magnificence
This is perfect gift
Of solace
In your autumn years
When stillness
Becomes a bridge
To another life
