Ramblings of a Travel Bug

omai. I wouldn't call myself that.  It's been a recent discovery, that i could travel the whole philippines if i wanted to. The trip to bohol has urged my dormant love for travel to manifest. For the past days, i have busied myself planning itineraries, reading travel blogs, looking up online hotel rates, and BOOKING PROMO FARES. I thank the commercial airlines for reconsidering the working class who need to save up for trips and watch out for online promos that they could afford. Because of cebupac's piso fare and airphil's 100-peso fares, i am set for travel almost every month till october of this year. On my list are Cagayan de Oro, Dumaguete, Zamboanga, and Puerto Princesa.

 I have realized that you don't have to be filthy rich to be able to do this. You could do so on a tight budget. you could go with big groups to be able to divide an otherwise large sum. you could opt for traveler's inns or lodges or dorm-type accommodation and splurge more on the activities. you can skip the tour packages and plan for yourself, taking separate bookings for the hotel, the adventure parks, the city tours.

I have realized that now is the time to start traveling, and not after retirement. Travel lets you educate yourself, lets you experience CULTURE. To say otherwise connotes ignorance.

Piso Fare and Travel Plans

I was able to book a flight for me and H on Cebupac with their (still on-going, as of writing) Piso Fare promo. Oh boy, too many page errors, a lot of refresh clicks, and 2 hours later, I successfully got my itinerary. Oh yeah! 4 pesos for 2 roundtrip tickets Manila-Dumaguete plus web admin charge (PHP200) plus VAT (PHP 52.08) and Aviation Security Fee (PHP 30.00) charged me a measly PHP310 pesos. My hardwork and patience paid off, after all. Now all I needed is a travel itinerary. I've heard the dive spots are world class at Apo Island, and Casaroro Falls is breathtaking, and the Mabinay Caves are equally spellbinding. Can't wait! Can't wait! From now on, I will consider every vacation leave as a great travel opportunity. 2 weeks ago, I went to Iloilo for the Dinagyang Festival and went home satisfied gastronomically, socially, and visually. Next vacation, the plan's all set for Bohol. It's gonna be legen-wait for it-DARY (as Barney Stinson says it)! :) And a couple of months after that, Dumaguete! 

Photos from Baguio

The photos from my previous posts were corrupted so I had to upload these again. My D60 is barely a month old but I've used it too many times already and it's a real handy pal in my strolls. More photos to come! :)

artsy fancy weapon of choice

string of beads of colors and textures. of seashells and wood. of circles and globes.

grilled dried squid for the hungry tourists.

anito anita

Guardian of the mighty barrel men

abundance of reds

dreamcatchers. never really had a test run.

poor frog. rich frog. keeper of wealth. guardian of coins.

I know I wore these during kindergarten graduation rites. 

gagambang ekis. In english, St. Andrew's Cross spider

"There is strength in numbers", these trees must have thought.

... and the good 'ol shepherd, seeing man's demise, created jars and jars of joy-inducing purple ambrosia.

lost in foliage

Solitude seems most apt.

And now I will stand and launch these paper planes in flight.

Baguio Baby

 

 

 

 

T(went)eenage Dream

I want to be a hippie,hitch-hike across Europe, get a tat, be a junkie. I want to live (er, deconstruct my life). haha. I think I'm too young to be working. I want to be outdoorsy and get my skin burnt (as if it's not). Go backpacking across Indochina, island-hopping in Palawan, zipping in Bora. haha. I want to hit the beach again! I want ink on my back, running down my spine area (like Tuesday's). haaay haaay. Frustrations of a 6-6er, (yes folks, 9-5ers are so last century).


Yes. Very high-fashion hippie at that!

Photo credit:  http://rookielle.blogspot.com/2010/09/hppie-day.html

Longest Hour

      The longest hour in your life comes when you become stuck in a nauseating non-airconditioned bus, on the edge of your sanity, on the verge of pissing and pooping, and on the thin line drawn between wishing to just die there and then, and actually dying.

       Yesterday, I was on the bus for a 5-hour trip from Alaminos, Pangasinan to Manila. Thirty minutes passed and I felt like I was shivering. Cold sweat trickled down my face and then there it was… That tingling sensation in my guts… Fucking shit and a half!!! Why now?!?

       I thought I’d have control over it. Like an innocent stranger in some torture chamber, I mustered all my strength to endure this fucked-up state for another 30 minutes. I crouched forward and leaned my head on the seat in front , tucked my stomach in, closed my eyes, pretended to be asleep, and cursed under my breath… P.I.!!!

       I was actually considering the fact of just dropping off somewhere and finding some “place of comfort”. But when I turned my head to face the window, all I could see is green! Shit! There is no way I’m gonna drop shit in these wastelands!

I returned to my crouched state and the next time I opened my eyes, SIBILISASYON! Mangataren, Pangasinan. I told Kuya to pull over and clearly without hesitation, I told him, “Najejebs na po ako eh!”… He got to the compartment and lowered my backpack. I left it beside some unknowing candy vendor and asked him where I could poop. God was truly hearing me out. There I saw public restrooms painted green and found myself sighing with relief.

       Tissues! I needed tissues! And whadyaknow, toiletry products were sold outside the restroom. I grabbed a handful of neatly folded ones when Ate blurted out, “Miss, piso isa nyan!” I was thinking at that moment, “Ate, even if you sell those for a hundred apiece, I’d still buy BECAUSE I BADLY NEED THEM!”

       I finally let it all out with ever shaking knees and friggin’ relief. I got out and paid for the tissues and the additional fee for pooping and splashed on some alcohol. I went back to the candy vendor to find out that my bag wasn’t with him anymore!

And then I saw the bus… My bus… And I saw my bag!

       Kuya, I love you na! You’ve waited for some lady to finish pooping. What a heroic act!

       First thing I need to do when I get back to manila is to have a monument built after you…

       

       P.S. When the bus pulled over for a stop at Tarlac, I hurriedly got out and searched for a store to buy some Loperamide and a bottle of Gatorade. And then when I was about to pay… 97 pesos?! For a teeny weeny capsule and some Gatorade?! Fuck! But I’m left with no choice other than paying for the stuff and cursing the store owner under my breath…

ABUSO NA!

Bolinao Express

I'm in pangasinan right now. Yup. My who-the-hell-cares attitude and my thick amphibious skin got me here in the first place. Imagine, we went to Bolinao which is almost 2 hours away from where we're (Cesar and I) staying and all I got with me is Cesar's blue body bag containing sunblock, a change of underwear, deo, my phone and my wallet. I was already clad in a bikini beneath my purple top and black shorts for time-saving purposes... XD

We got on the bus, not knowing where and when to tell manong driver to pull over and drop us off.. When Ces asked me where the fuck we were, I told him with an irritated look in my eyes- "NOWHERE. WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE." The travel was tough. I had a big box of unknown stuff between my legs (care of the dorky girl beside me) and had a pineapple sprite float profusely wetting my left hand.

Taken from our EVER interesting conversation on the bus:

CES: "Haggard na ba?" MOI: "Super haggard! Zigzag* EVER!"

CES: "Kadiri mga ktabi ko... eeeewww... Malagkit ung skin. EVER."
MOI: "For friggin' Pete's sake, stop being a sissy!"

(*- referring to the scarily one-slightly-wrong-turn-and-we're-dead zigzag road en route to bolinao...)

And so when we saw the "Welcome to Bolinao" signboard, we got off the bus with that bewildered look on our faces and really got a "warm" welcome from the tricycle drivers pushing each other aside to take us as passengers. Shit. Just pure haggardness. We got on the tryk with the driver who had the lowest bid (yup, 30 pesos) and had him decide on where to drop us off. Yeah we were daredevils. Living life on the edge and entrusting it to a manong driver.. Good luck..)

We got off at some "Rock Garden Beach Resort" and all our efforts were paid off. The beach was okay but what topped it off were the exotic animals in their mini-zoo.. There was a wide variety of fowls that had nothing more to say than a well-practiced "PANGET!" and "PANGET KA!". Yeah, just the thing we need after a life-threatening and exhausting travel. But what the hell?!? It's not everyday that I get to do this stuff.

I took of my shirt and swam while cesar had a chat with a long lost friend. Of all the places he could meet up with Noreen (whom he hasn't seen and lost contact for almost 2 years since their botany class), why Bolinao? And why on Rock Garden Resort? Freakin' amazing , right?!

After some "bastusan" encounters with some tambays, after a long wait at the bus stop, and after some gastrocnemius-enlargening long distance walking, we finally reached Cesar's house. I already called it a day but to our surprise, cesar's mom and Honey were still not home. If I call our Bolinao trip EXTREME, theirs was an even more extreme trip. XD

P.S. Tita and Honey went home at 12 midnight. WTF?!? (We played "PARENTS" that night and actually had our minds preoccupied with worry. Add to that so much stress from that freakin' trip.)

P.P.S. This stupid computer (in this stupid hole-in-the-wall net shop) is fuckin' slow!! Snail-paced!! Gonna post the photos soon...XD)