where: pandan island, sablayan, occidental mindoro

the following are the things i never would've dared to do on normal days but for the sake of our ultimate summer getaway and of course, peechurs-peechurs-peechurs, i endured the following unforgettable experiences. in fairness, i didn't whine that much.... daba chrissy, jem and mark d?!?! hehehe!

april 29, 2006

i. two-and-a-half-hour (non-airconditioned) mini-bus ride

• from abra de ilog pier to buenavista, sablayan, occidental mindoro

• the mini-bus was so cramped. fortunately, i was surrounded by varieties of orchids instead, which were over-protected by the masungit na manang who sat beside jem. apparently, the orchids were shipped all the way from quezon and the manang, along with her mother, will be selling them somewhere in sablyan.

• manong driver must've been delusional that day. he was driving like crazy at what must’ve been 150 km/h on cement, asphalt, mud, gravel, dirt road, potholes and river bed (yes!!! we passed through a shallow river. it was supposedly a shortcut from pag-asa to buenavista, sablayan, which was half an hour off our travel time.) manong, your mini-bus is not an atv noh!!! good luck sa suspensions and chassis ng mini-bus mo!

• jem and i were sitting at the rearmost seats of the mini-bus so we could really feel the bumps and potholes. boy, was it definitely a butt-aching bumpy ride!

• can you imagine how dusty the trip was??? god! skin hazard ito! especially when the mini-bus stops to pick-up passengers; ay, sand storm na ito! thanks to tork (official paper towel of our ultimate summer getway), i had something to cover my face with. so my face had about half an inch of dust for foundation lang naman siguro when we arrived buenavista, sablayan. hahaha!

• jem and i saw a mangyan. not the primitive type that wears loin cloth though, he was actually wearing shirt and jeans naman. but my gosh! how red his teeth are ha?!?!

ii. salt water for bath

• around an hour after we arrived in pandan island, we started snorkeling. when we got tired, we decided to take a bath and rest before we explore the island. after mark d finished his bath, he informed us that the water coming out of the faucet is salt water!!! apparently, fresh water is delivered from the mainland everyday and the resort ran out of supply that day!

• after we had our bath, our skin still felt sticky, sandy and salty. harsh! fortunately, there was a delivery of fresh water the next day.

iii. jungle trekking / rock climbing

• we had to do this to get to the spanish nose and the wild lagoon

• as in, it felt like we were in the tv series “lost.” i was even leading the trail half of the time. so i was like jack (walang kokontra!), mark d was like locke (kasi naman ang daming alam sa flora and fauna!), chrissy was like sun (kasi gusto raw niya sa garden lang para less effort. hahaha!), and jem was like one of those people in the background. hehehe! no, he was like hurley (kasi siya pinakamataba satin). ay, he can be michael or eko din pala (kasi siya pinakamaitim). hahaha! joke lang jem! luvyah! you can be sayid (pasok sa color tas ikaw naman ata may pinakamataas na cumulative qpi ata sating apat. hehehe!)

• we first went to the spanish nose. at first, we were thinking, “what the heck is the spanish nose???” for some weird reasons, we even thought that the spanish nose is a very old, gigantic tree. it turned out though that the spanish nose is a rock formation resembling a spanish man with an aquiline nose. there, mark d and i climbed up on rock formations with jagged edges, which are supposedly fossilized corals.

• then we went to the wild lagoon. we don’t know why they call it wild when it seems to be serene instead. again, we climbed up on rock formations – this time though, it was all four of us.

to be continued....