Most people in the country associate beaches with golden sunsets since a lot of the nicer shorelines in the Philippines are located in the western seaboard. This, however, is not true in Dumaguete City as it faces the east where mornings are greeted by the rising sun.

So it was that during our five-day stay in Sta. Monica Beach Club, I struggled everyday to get up the early hours of the morning to catch the colors of the sunrise.

The sand this side of Central Visayas is not as creamy and white as its more famous counterparts up north. But what it lacks in finesse, it makes up in its morning colors. The tide was at its lowest during my first morning at the beach and ripples made by the ebbing tide were clearly silhouetted by the rising light.

Local fisher folks, living at a village right beside Sta. Monica were already up and about preparing their small dinghy stranded by the low water for the incoming tide. Their background canvas, the rolling clouds painted in warm hues by the incoming sun, painting-like in their soft pastel colors.

A few were picking crabs along the shallow banks of the sea. I approached one of them and asked if they were intending to sell it. It’s for our own family’s consumption, he said. There are apparently not enough of them to gather to sell at the market.

The same subtle pastel colors show up at the shoreline of Sta. Monica Beach Club day after day. The only thing that I really didn’t like was the getting up part. It was so easy to simply let the soft beds of the resort lull you back into sleep and forget about the sunrise.

But it’s not everyday that you get to wake up to a scene as golden as these. So I ignore my blanket, I ignore the soft bed, I ignore the hangover from the previous night’s alcohol binge. I picked up my camera every single day I was in Sta. Monica Beach Club and walked every break of dawn to the beach, eagerly awaiting the rising of the morning sun.

Sta. Monica Beach Club
Address: Brgy Banilad, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental
Contact Number: (02) 553-9549 Manila
(035) 400-9399 | (0906) 478-9018 Dumaguete
Room Rates: See article above
Website: Click Here
Email: inquiries@stamonicabeachclub.com

GPS Coordinates: 9° 16' 39.86", 123° 18' 8.83"
View Location on Google Maps: Click Here