Haven’t had this much fun with travel gears for a long time. Taking the Sony Cybershot DSC-T900 was the right choice as it’s small and lightweight, plus it can take HD videos at 720p. See a video tour of the Misibis Bay Raintree at Cagraray Island in Albay below.

They say pictures tell a thousand words so these videos should be enough to describe the place.

I originally wanted to bring my dSLR with me as this is a trip I thought I should never miss but I gave the point-and-shoot Sony Cybershot a chance (it was a huge risk). I thought as long as there was enough sunlight, I should be able to get decent pictures.

The HD video recording is also a big come-on as I will be able to take footages my other cameras could not do at that resolution.

The Sony Cybershot TSC-T900 comes with a Marine Pack which you can use to take photos and videos underwater. I went snorkeling one afternoon to test it out in the sea but the water to too cloudy so I couldn’t see anything underwater. Fortunately, the swimming pool is open almost 24 hours a day and we were able to play with the camera even at night.

Participants of our Synergy trip (members of the media from print and TV) volunteered to do this little experiment — shooting a video underwater at night. It did not disappoint and everyone had a fun time.

The Misibis Bay RainTree is a newly developed resort found in the island of Cagraray, Albay province. The whole island is about 480 hectares and about 60% of it will be developed into an eco-park, hotel and resort.

The island is about 60 minutes away from Legazpi Airport via land and just 30 minutes via fastcraft which is operated by the resort. There are daily flights via Cebu Pacific from Manila.

The hotel-resort is maintained by Discovery Suites and features over 3 dozen separate bungalow to 2 and 3-story condos surrounded by a sprawling 4-feet swimming pool. There are more guest houses being constructed during this soft launch.

There are a lot of activities to do within the beach resort alone. There’s an entertainment room, a game room with billiards and table tennis, and even a playground for kids. If you like the outdoors, they have all-terrain vehicles (ATV) you can use to go around the island.

Water-sports are aplenty as well — big water floats (similar to the ones in CamSur), kayaking, jetski, wakeboarding and snorkeling or diving.

Accommodations are top notch — each guest house has one big master bedroom, and 2 single beds that serves as the living room. The houses are walled in glass all around with just draperies you can pull down if you want privacy. There are two 32″ LCD TVs, a ref and a huge bath tub.

Most of the guest houses are accessible to the pool. Hotel service is an A+ with options for a butler service and plenty of attendants going around attending to guests’ needs — apple juice and assorted nuts at the front desk, ice cold water and cookies at the pool, mango-flavored ice candy at the beach, and cold face towel and face spray in the afternoon sun.

And best of all, there is free and fast WiFi all over the resort — from the rooms to the recreation areas and even as far as the beach-front. Of course, the place does not come cheap either. Daily accommodations start at a whooping $385.

I originally wanted to bring my dSLR for this trip because I heard the place is great. However, I decided to just bring along the new Sony Cybershot TSC-T900 which is way lighter but takes pretty good pictures as well (all the photos here were taken with it). It also has an HD video recording capability so that’s an added bonus.

Here’s sample 360-degree footage of the beach resort I took with the Sony Cybershot TSC-T900: