how could i forget!

we had crepe when we went up Gulugod Baboy...

Peach ones, smothered in chocolate syrup...yum yum yum. Thanks to Ian for bringing dessert, and to Allan for the photo below.

wander list

All this wandering off to places out of the city has brought back my dream to travel around my country. While its nice to keep adding stamps and marks on my passport to show that I've been to other exotic nations, I feel it's shameful to admit to other people and to myself, that there are more places within our own shores that I have never visited.

So I am builing my wander list. A list of 4 areas I HAVE to visit in the NEAR FUTURE. Once I've crossed off two from this, then I can add more, cautious I know, but seeing how fast time flies and how big the possibility of foreign assignments are, I have to be realistic....

1. Palawan
2. Batanes
3. Sagada / Mountain Province
4. Siargao


In ANY order.

another weekend, another mountain

Two months into the year and I'm still at it. I'm still spending most of my weekends out of town.

This past weekend we went to Mabini,Batangas to trek to the peak of Gulugod Baboy. Unknown to me, the skies were cloudy that Saturday morning and I was too busy thinking of what to bring, I completely forgot to take note of the weather. I left my jacket home along with warmer clothes and opted for a lightweight long sleeve shirt instead (as opposed to the sweater AND jacket I brought to our Subic trip where, consequently, it didn't rain at all!).

On the road I was praying for clear skies and no rain at least for the duration of the trek because if it did, I would end up with a garbage bag over my head which is totally unacceptable! I chose to be vain because, based on the photos from Subic, I looked like a guy and I refuse to let that happen to me again. I figured if it rains at the peak, I'll stay inside the tent.

And it did. Rain when we got there. Worse, the fog was so thick, we couldn't see any of the 'breathtaking views'. So I put on my longsleeved shirt which brought about the question 'San gimik mo socs?' and ended up in one of my officemates me loaning me his jacket. I'd like to stress though, that while I had the jacket on and he was walking around in his shorts and sando, I kept asking him if it was okay. And he kept saying yes....

After our sinigang and adobo dinner, crepe dessert and shots of vodka later, I couldn't stop shivering. So I relented and against my better judgment, decided to curl up inside our nice warm tent,covered in my nice warm sleeping bag. Such a contrast to what I really wanted to do, which was to hang out with the rest of the almost-drunk (and eventually officially-drunk) crowd outside the tents, standing in the rain and battling the strong winds. Yes I know. I'm such a spoilsport.

The morning after I got up early, having been disappointed at missing the sunset the night before (because we didn't reach the peak in time and because the fog was so thick we wouldn't have seen it anyway, I was looking forward to a glorious sunrise. Outside the tent, what greeted me was a sleepy Good Morning from another early riser, and fog. Lots of it. No sunrise.

So I stayed quiet. Not really knowing what to do except wait for breakfast. Until the sky started to clear. That was when I hurriedly dug into my backpack for Buddy.

We headed off to the higher peak (we were camped not at the top since there wasnt room there, duh!) and I started shooting in between bouts of fog and clear skies. The sun was out for less than half and hour I think, but it was enough for me to take a few photos and to take in the views that we missed the day before.






Once the clouds came back, we were having breakfast. Soon after it was time to head back down. Goodbye mountain, hello beach! Right off our jump off point was a beach resort where we had a quick dip in the cold water, lunch and took our showers. Cleansed and content, it was time to head home.

More photos posted on my gallery here.