Puerto Galera Trip

May 18 - Friday


I got home after shift and didn't have the time to catch some sleep. I wanna watch "Shrek 3" with my Ma and sis. The movie was funny as expected. Good thing I have already packed up almost all of my stuff the day before. We watched the movie in a nearby mall and I met with my friends after that. I kissed my Ma and sis goodbye and went with my friends to buy some groceries we needed for the trip. We had our first dinner together after a long time. We had difficulty catching a cab and my body was already aching due to my heavy baggage and lack of sleep. We arrived at Joan's place really late that night. We were tired but excited. We cleaned up, shared stories and slept there. We were expected to wake up early the next day.


May 19 - Saturday


Woke up about 5AM. I still needed sleep but my excitement took over. We were in the hotel to catch the bus ride at 7AM. The bus left at 8. We encountered some traffic along the highway and were late. We got in the ferry in Batangas Pier after 3 hours or so and we were the last people to board it. The seats we got were uncomfortable. Ferry ride was about 1 hour. The view was superb and the ride was smoother than I expected. The ferry's first dock was at Sabang and we remained in the ferry til we reached Puerto Galera. A couple of men waited for us in the pier and provided us transportation to the resort. The van ride was about 20 minutes to the resort. They took us to White Beach, another part of Puerto Galera where there are resorts near the beach.





We arrived at the resort. It was smaller than I expected but it was cozy and quiet. It was a few meters away from the hustle and bustle of the beach where almost all the resorts and inns were concentrated. The room was cool and comfortable. After we placed our stuff, we were up and about after arriving. We got into our summer get-up and strolled along the beach. It was soo hot but people were still milling around and swimming. We were hungry and ate a really late lunch. We looked for ukay-ukay stands and bought shirts, bracelets and necklaces for our pasalubong. I found one that reminded me of Boone's necklace from "Lost".





We got back to our room and changed to swim clothes. We went back to the beach and looked for masseuses walking along the beach. We looked for a spot with a few people and had our whole body massage right there on the sand while listening to the waves. It was soo relaxing! I wanted to experience that everyday if only it's possible. After a while we had a short dip in the sea but since it was getting dark, we went to the resort's pool instead and continued our swim there. We went back to the beach and looked for a place to eat dinner. Since it was late dinner, we also checked out the night scenery by the beach. too bad the moon wasn't full but lights and music were all over the place. We sat by a bar and tasted the local Mindoro Sling and Island Sling. We were able to coax Laurice to drinking alcohol and our goal was to get her drunk. Haha! We're bad, I know. I haven't been drunk myself and I wasn't planning on getting drunk in a foreign place. I stopped taking shots when I felt tipsy. We got back nearly drunk but quite satisfied with our first day.





May 20 - Sunday


We planned to wake up really early for another swim but since we were too tired, we ended up having breakfast at about 7:30AM. After that, we just stayed in the room and hung out. We talked about a lot of things to get ourselves updated with our lives. We haven't been out of town and this was the first time. We haven't been together for more than 5 years. I was happy just being there. Lunch time made us leave the comfy room to go out in the heat. We looked for a place to get our henna tattooes. I got The Dark Mark on my left forearm like a Voldemort's Deatheater and the DNA strand on my right lower leg from "Heroes".





We went back to take recluse in our air-conditioned room. We slept that early afternoon and woke up at about 4PM and changed again to swim clothes. We went back to the beach for a banana boat ride. It was oh-so-fun minus the attempts to go back to the boat. My upper body was aching and I realized we should have gotten the massage after the banana boat ride. Haha! We swam again in the sea for a while and in the pool after that. We took some pics by the pool using Laurice's digital cam. The sun was already setting. That's why I didn't get much tan. I was having allergy attacks because of the vodka the night before (until now I am still scratching myself to death!). We got up the rooftop and took some wacky shots again using Laurice's digicam.


May 21- Monday


Wake up call was 5:30AM. Had breakfast at 6:30AM. We gathered our stuff. Joy and Joan bought some more stuff to bring home. The van left at 7:30AM. A part of me wanted to go home and another part wanted to stay on vacation mode forever. We were in the ferry at about 8AM. There was stop-over again at Sabang to gather more passengers (mostly foreigners). The sea was calm but became really choppy as we neared Batangas Pier. We were on land again soon after that. We arrived in Manila a little after lunch and ate again in the mall. I don't want that to be our last trip together. I wanna think of it as a beginning of a tradition we're going to do until we all grow old. I'm never going to forget this. :)


[Pictures here.]