Galera 16.04.07

The beach, the babes and funky hairdos.






Puerto Galera: Round-trip ferry ticket: 340 pesos. Port fee: 10 pesos. Fruit shakes: 55-70 pesos. 50-minute massage: 200 pesos. Henna tattoo: 350 pesos. Grilled hotdog: 25 pesos.

Where I Went for Holy Week

Batangas. Stip, Emer, Geland and Jason Wall. Non-stop driving. Haunted bahay na pula. Banaue Viewpoint. Batad Terraces. Tapiyya Falls. 4060 stone steps. Great pictures. Ilob Riverside Inn. Sagada. Yoghurt House. Lumiang-Sumaguing caves. Spelunking. Hanging coffins. Echo Valley. St. Mary’s Church. Videoke. Emer’s birthday. San Mig Light. T-shirts. Halsema Highway. Highest point marker. Trinidad Valley. Baguio. Session Road. Nevada Square. Flu. Rest. Breakfast and taho. Dominican hill and the Diplomat hotel. Ghosts. Travel home.

BAHAY NA PULA


We departed from Batangas at two-thirty in the morning on Holy Thursday and six hours later we decided to show our American guest Jason one of the more famous haunted houses in Philippine lore -- the old red house in Bulacan. Almost covered in dense overgrowth, the bahay na pula still looked eerie despite the morning light. Based on oral accounts, the house at one time served as a brothel during the Japanese occupation of the country. Comfort women were brought here and locked inside where they were raped and tortured. Numerous TV features have been done depicting the house to be full of wandering and restless spirits.

We didn't have the chance to enter the house itself. But as one who gets to see ghosts since nursery school, I didn't enter the grounds. While taking these photos, I was hoping to catch some of them on 'film' but no success there for me. Looks like ghosts don't present themselves on digital media.


BANAUE

By three in the afternoon, our group arrived at Banaue. We got a decent room (and cheap!) at ILOB RIVERSIDE INN. After settling our luggage, we hailed two tricycles to bring us to Banaue viewpoint for our first glimpse of the rice terraces.

Dinner was at the People's Lodge and Restaurant. While waiting for our food, Gel experimented with the monochrome features of my camera.

Richard and Kath joined our group (they left Manila at midnight, arrived at Banaue at 730 am!) the following day. We chartered a jeepney the following day to bring us to Batad village where the postcard-perfect type terraces are located. It's a bumpy 90-minute ride to get to the jump-off point, followed by a relatively easy 40-minute hike to reach the village itself. The ride and the hike itself was worth the view of the amphitheater-shaped terraces.

The next 30 minutes of hiking challenged our leg strength and sense of balance since we have to walk along the ridges of the terraces and navigate through the stone steps in order to reach one of Banaue's secrets -- Tapiyya falls. We rested here for about 15 minutes while Jason took a swim to reach the falls. A group photo is in order.




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Climbing back up to our rented jeepney took us twice as long to complete. Emerson counted 2030 stone steps (that excludes straight paths) for us to reach our destination, one-way. Gel coined a good term for our Batad/Tapiyya trek -- it was an honorable sacrifice for us. The timing for this activity is good -- we trekked for four hours on almost-empty stomachs (we skipped breakfast and lunch). Christians contemplate on sacrifices and acts of penitence on Good Friday to share in the suffering of the Lord.

We left Banaue (and Richard and Kath) at 430pm. With aching legs, tired bodies but lots of pictures and a wonderful experience, we drove northwards. We need to be at Sagada before the town's curfew of 9 pm.

Trip details: Ilob Inn: 1000 pesos per night for a room with private toilet/bath. Room can sleep four (two double-sized beds). Jeepney rental to Batad: 1700 pesos round trip for the whole jeepney. Guide to Batad falls: 250 pesos for every group of 3. Food: budget for 100-120 Php/meal; the red rice is great.

SAGADA

Sagada is still charming, as charming as a certain woman I know. The cool mountain air, clean streets and magnificent location is pleasantly hypnotizing. Visiting Sagada reminded me of my day trip a year ago to Bowral, a small town in Australia famous for its cool weather and tulip gardens.

There are plenty of things to do in this laid-back town. Top on the list is to do caving at Sumaguing and Lumiang caves. Our group started at Lumiang cave -- cool, dark and damp. And you're greeted at the cave entrace with an array of stacked wooden coffins. For about three hours we descended the cave network, balancing on boulders, twisting through some manhole-sized crevices and wading across waist-deep pools of very cold water (guaranteed to shrink your balls :D). The natural rock formations and great cave 'halls' we came across were astounding.

Echo Park offers rock-wall climbing, or shouting at the ridges (for echoes), and an up-close-and-personal view of the Hanging Coffins. People who want to be creeped out can hang around at the local cemetery enroute to Echo Park.

Mass can be heard at St Mary's Church.

There are hiking trails all over Sagada leading to some falls and views of some minor rice terraces.

And of course, a Sagada tourist shouldn't leave without having a meal at the Yoghurt House, having a sip of their local mountain tea and getting a shirt which says "I got this shirt at Sagada."

Our American friend Jason found Sagada so charming that he declared that he's going back there in the future "for a month or so" and just relax.



Trip details: Rocky Valley Inn: 400 pesos/bed/night. Each bed can sleep two (a bit cramped though, so all of us got a bed each). Communal bathroom. Caving: 300 pesos per head, minimum group of 4. Comes with two guides. Meals: about 100 Php/meal, except at Yoghurt House (250 Php/meal).


Baguio: the Diplomat Hotel

The hordes of people at Baguio still mark it as the summer capital of the country. I've been making trips to Baguio with family and friends ever since I was a toddler, so I've seen it evolve from a charming urban town to a congested city. And it so happen that I came down with a case of flu, so I spent a good part of our stay there under two comforters and two blankets.

Before travelling back to Manila, Gel wanted to see the Dominican Hill. I wasn't sure what he was referring to but when we got to the site, I instantly knew that place. At the top of the Dominican Hill is the Diplomat Hotel, a condemned-slash-abandoned building which used to be a convent, then a hospital and finally a hotel afterwhich it got razed in a fire and further damaged by the 1990 earthquake. It now looks like a modern ruin, but its appeal to me is mainly because it's haunted.

As a ruin, the place is in good shape. Details of the stone masonry and wooden tiling can still be seen at some places. The bare corridors and rooms allows you to imagine several scenes of what the place could have looked like in the past. The stone fountains in the small courtyard at the center of the hotel add to the eerieness of the building. A 15-foot stone cross at the roof gives an excellent contrast to the hotel's gloom.


.......END

Challenging Faith

A couple of weeks ago I decided on a compulsive buy at Powerbooks --- The Templar Legacy (Steve Berry). I’ve had this fascination with the Templar Knights since I graduated from college after discovering its connection with De Molay (of which one of my ninongs tried to recruit me before, and my dad protested vocally against it) and early Christian history, specifically the Crusades.

Presented in a fictional format similar to Angels and Demons (Dan Brown), the novel embedded a lot of researched historical and forensic facts in its storyline which are hard to dismiss. And these elements challenged one’s understanding of his/her [Christian] faith.

The academic climax in the book made my ‘reading-for-entertainment’ into a ‘reading-for-reflection’. It pondered on the following:

Why do the four Gospels contradict each other and show high levels of inconsistencies when compared side-by-side?
”Why” and “how” did Christ resurrect?
If proof of Christ’s divinity/non-divinity was discovered, what becomes of Christianity?

Let’s take a step back.

Early civilizations didn’t have access to information as much as we do now.
Men before were content on being herded; they depend on others to convince them of their faith. There were consequences then for those who questioned what is preached.

Men now strive to learn.
Men now ask.
Men now challenge.

Last night when I finally put down the book I took a moment to reflect on what I’ve just read. I have a lot of arguments and counter-arguments in my head, taking both sides of the various issues at once. I would have written them here, but I wouldn’t want to spoil anyone’s future read of the book.

At the end of my self-imposed mental debate, I concluded that I will stand by my faith. Not because it’s convenient, but because I’ve molded my life around it. I’ve been taught that faith is composed of beliefs and religious teachings, but I’ve rationalized that faith steered me in the way I live life AND the way I live life steers my faith.

There must be some divine or cosmic force, or perhaps personal intuition, that compelled me to pick out that book. It's a timely read (for me) for the Holy Week.

SAGUIJO

Mac missed a lot when he skipped out on the SAGUIJO gimik with Emer and Jake. In what was supposed to be his birthday celebration, we decided to go ahead with the plan sans Mac and enjoyed the venue's line-up of bands and performers for the night.

The night's climax? See for yourself below. All the photos below were taken by me. (clap clap clap!)





Francis M still rocks. He's got the character, charisma and showmanship to sustain it.

Weekend Tidbits

Friday Night

Tinters and Buddy just got back from their Eurasian holiday, so we got together with MJ for dinner at Teriyaki Boy in Greenbelt. The funny thing about their trip is that Buddy bunks in a room with Tin's dad, while Tin bunks in with her mom. =)

They got me ref magnets from Egypt, Istanbul and Greece (great additions to my mom's collection!). The two of them were also sporting amulets bearing their names in hieroglyphics (ultra cool!).

Originally, we were planning to go at a bar after dinner, but I guess the heat (and MJ's excitement over her new K800i cellphone) got to them and decided to call the night early. We adjourned at around 930pm.

One of my friends from college txted me at around 10pm, asking if I'm free to join their group for a badminton game at POWERSMASH in Makati. Since I'm still hyper at that time, I went for it.

It was a great session (we played until 1230am!), and I was able to improve a bit on my defense.

The bad part about the evening is that when we trooped back to the locker room, we were burglarized! My cellphone was missing (with 4 others), and another 2 lost their wallets.

Bad trip. I loved that SLVRL7 phone. Huhuhu...

Saturday

Spent the most part of the day filing a police report at Makati over our lost items from the previous night, and having my SIM card barred and availing of SIM card replacement. Tiring!

Late afternoon, I was shopping for baptismal gifts for a friend of mine.

In the evening, I met up with Emerson and Jake to check out the scene at SAGUIJO. See my separate post on it!


Sunday

I was asleep for most of the day. In the afternoon I had some of my photos printed for my photobook project and shopped for some groceries. Played badminton in the evening with Chito, Geland, Gel, Julius, Alvin and Bai. By 9 pm, I was cooking dinner for myself (I had a craving for my own-cooked sinigang na baboy at baka, hehehe...)

Fifth

Afternoon wind of March
blowing your dress
and the sun striking your face
is an image I'll regret.

It's an image I'll never forget.

Like a Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Picture this: formal dinner at the Tower Club boardroom (33rd Floor, Philamlife Building, Makati). Five senior managers of the company, 2 senior consultants, 1 senior strategic planner, 3 members of the company's board of directors, our company's Country Chairman and myself (the low-corporate-lifeform-among-them).

When everyone took their seats, I found myself being seated at the head of the table. Jokingly, the Country Chairman remarked that he gives me financial authority for dinner.

It was an opportunity of a lifetime -- to be at a pedestal identified with authority and power -- even if it was just a gag for our group.

Just my day's two cents.

Fourth

Last night, it rained. I've been waiting the whole week to rain. I've been uneasy the past week, thinking of so many things in my head. Plenty of why's, what-ifs and hows.

And then it rained, and it seemed to me that time stopped:
Water drizzling on my hair,
raindrops tickling my shoulders,
fine mist touching my face,
and I found myself smiling.

That short summer drizzle reminded me that I love the rain.
And I kissed the rain goodnight.

Cathartic

My inclinations on how to celebrate my birthday parties has evolved over the years. Years back, I had loud-bam-music parties at popular nightspots with 30 or more guests. A couple of years later, I'd plan my celebration on an eat-drink-chat concept at well-hidden bars for 20-30 guests. This year, I changed it (again): formal dinner in a relaxed setting with a dozen well-selected friends.

Thinking in retrospect, I've been becoming more reserved (or mature? hehehe...). I don't crave anymore for the loud music or the bititty beats that make my shoulders hop to the rhythm. I'm now just contented, no let's change that... I'm happy with spending some 'quiet' time in the company of friends, for a change.

I did something for the first time again. I gave my first formal speech on my birthday, towards the end of dinner, with the Makati evening skyline as my backdrop: "I am truly grateful for everyone here. Each and everyone of your presence, in more ways than one, is a testament to who I am now, what I want to become, and who I will be. This is the main reason why I look forward to celebrating my birthday with friends and peers every year. Thanks, and happy birthday to me!"



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Best gift so far: an apron. :D Yup, and it says "Kiss the Cook" on it.

Invitations

MARCH 14, Wednesday
the core

Top of the Citi, Citibank Tower (Makati)
Terrace area
7 pm sharp
Attire: Business Casual


MARCH 15, Thursday
the bachelors

Shell Housing Compound
tba
830 pm
Attire: come as you are


MARCH 16, Friday
the gang

MIOS
One Serendra, Taguig
1000 pm
Attire: smart casual


March 17, Sunday
the family

Hawaiian Barbeque
The Boutique, Tagaytay
lunch

third

... too many to mention. =)

second

... chicken isaw for me, atay for you at UP's famous isawan
... jogging around the Acad Oval while exchanging stories and songs
... giving me a crash course on the buildings and colleges around the oval
... introducing me up close and personal to Uble,
... cutting through the Lagoon.
... going back to your place for me to cook for you,
and you complimenting me on my cooking skills
because I got it right the first time,
while your girlfriends had a blast with the cupcakes I brought for you.
... having coffee with my friends, and laughing with them.

We did a lot for this second one, and we both had fun. =)