| our escape to batangas. | for badz's contacts |
Escapism is a beautiful thing. More than a year ago, I went on a 3-day
silent retreat (no talking / cellphone for 3 days) to Tagaytay. It was a
peaceful experience, and I terribly miss it. Last weekend, we went on
an intro-dive-day-trip turned
intro-dive-full-dive-with-fish-feeding-overnight-trip. And I swear, it
was one of the most relaxing, exciting and fun weekends I’ve had in a
while. =) And just like how I felt after my Tagaytay retreat, I wish I
could go back there.
Saturday, April 19. I woke up at 4am, since Kri told me we’d be meeting her officemate Jun2x at SLEX at 530.
5:10am. After 30+ missed calls, I finally managed to wake Kri2x up when I called her landline.
6am. Left Makati for SLEX.
Bought breakfast.
Left for Batangas, with Jun2x driving.
5:10am. After 30+ missed calls, I finally managed to wake Kri2x up when I called her landline.
6am. Left Makati for SLEX.
Bought breakfast.
Left for Batangas, with Jun2x driving.
We
arrived at the parking area before lunch time, and had to take a boat
to Dive and Trek, the resort. When we arrived at the resort, Alex, the
resort manager, ‘lent’ us a room where we can store our things, since we
were planning to just go on a day trip. After the briefing, we had
lunch. Myo’s friend Eric joined us at our table. When lunch was done, it
was time to get ready and head for the pool!
We
were the last batch to have pool training, so we decided to go for a
short swim at the beach. I scraped my foot on one of the submerged rocks
and it bled a little. But it was no biggie.
Myo
did her pool training first, then Kri, me and lastly, Eric. When we
were ready, we were given the go ahead to go on the 15-minute dive.
Since we had no professional certification, our dive master/instructor
has to hold our tanks at all times under the water.
My
dive master was Rusley, and we had slow start because I was still
learning to equalize the pressure on my ears. But eventually I got the
hang of it. =) The other instructors later commented that hinihila ko daw si Rusley
towards the corals. He said I kept on touching everything. Haha. I
didn’t see the turtle that the others saw though. =( booo. But we were
able to go around 29ft below the surface. We surfaced at the other side
of the resort and walked back to where we started, which was where the
others surfaced.
After our first dive, Myo, Kri and I just sort of walked around and watched the sunset and had merienda
and thought about whether to stay for the night or not. Anyway, we
finally decided to stay and got really good discounts, plus they were
gonna take us on a full dive and fish feeding the next day. =)
After
showering, we had dinner and inuman with our instructors and their
group. It was really fun. Dong quizzing us on Mr. X and locker room
mischiefs, and then debriefed us. Rommel and Bel throwing jokes at each
other’s expense. Rommel’s very-gentleman move. Bel’s girl-magnet powers.
The humihiling (did I get that right?) Japanese girl. Jun-jun
never growing up. Sharon’s hair. Kri’s alleged bisexuality. Myo and I’s
NBSB status. Never say never. I had a pyro moment. Haha. And when I
finally decided to blow out my candle, Rusley replaced it. Weird. But
anyway. Mr. X was memorable and I saw 2 shooting stars, but didn’t make a
wish until the next day. I had one San Mig Light, and Bogart the really
cute and adorable, but a-bit-smelly-coz-of-swimming-in-sea-water,
Labrador followed us to our rooms when we decided to call it a night
before midnight. We had to get up early tomorrow!
The next day, Junjun woke us up before 7am. Then, we had breakfast and got ready for our dive. We got bread (pagkain ni nemo)
from Alex for our fish feeding. We had the same dive master/instructor
partners that we had the day before, and Junjun joined us for our dive. I
really had a hard time with my balance, especially when we had to kneel
down on the sea floor to feed the fish. Colorful fishees. =)
After
feeding the fish, we toured the reef in front of the resort. A sort of
take 2 of Saturday’s dive. It was fun fun fun. I teased the clams and
the anemones and watched the fishes (Finding Nemo is accurate, dude.
Haha) and watched a sea slug crawl on Bel and Myo’s hand (it wouldn’t go
on mine. Booo). I got a few scrapes from going too near the corals and
the rocks, but it was worth it damnit! Haha. We went as deep as 40ft
below the surface.
After our dive, the certified divers went on another dive. 2 dive sites, one dive. We snorkelled near Sombrero Island
because we didn’t have the skills to master the current. And it was too
deep for us, anyway. While snorkelling, we watched not only fishes, but
a group of divers (party of four) as well. We waved to them, and Myo
made a bit of chit-chat with some of them when they surfaced. We also
got stung by jellyfish, bummer.
On the way back to the resort, they saw dolphins, but I didn’t. booo again. Damnit.
We had lunch and left around 430pm. Traffic was bad at first, but it got better as we got nearer the city. Arrived at my building around 8pm. =)
We had lunch and left around 430pm. Traffic was bad at first, but it got better as we got nearer the city. Arrived at my building around 8pm. =)
*phew narration. Hehe.
It felt so good to get away and try something new. =)
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