Letting My Feet Decide: 2011 Trips (Part 1)

It started sometime last year. I don’t know how it happened, and why. I just know that, one day, I decided to go to Palawan for my mom’s death anniversary. (No, it wasn’t out of vanity or because I wanted to go soul searching or whatever. My mom was buried in NARRA, Palawan, a few hours away from Puerto Princesa. It’s quite famous for Estrella falls now. I am proud to say that I have gone and experienced picnicking there even before it was trendy.) Besides, my younger sister still lived in Puerto Princesa during that time and I thought Hey, two birds with one stone!

Those were all just excuses, of course. I know wanderlust got me bad. I just didn’t want to admit it during that time. I knew I wanted it – wanted it so bad. I have written about touring the Philippines a gazillion times. True enough, four months after, I found my bags packed for another trip to Anawangin, Zambales with a high school friend.

After that trip, I knew I couldn’t kid myself anymore. This year, I have visited three more very beautiful places in the Philippines (more about those in the near future). I will visit two or three more before the year ends. It’s not as many as I want it to be. True blue lakwacheros and byaheros might scoff at the number. But, hey, it's a start, isn’t it?

I never got the chance to write about any of these trips. Who says it’s too late to start now? :)

July 2011: PALAWAN

I remember cursing myself for wearing high heels on the way to the airport and putting my trusty slippers at the very bottom of my suitcase. But, as I trudged along, praying to God that I don’t slip or trip or make a fool out of myself in front of all those tourists, I felt nostalgic and peaceful. Palawan has always felt like home.

City tour

My sister (my local guide) and I visited the usual spots around Puerto Princesa:

Binuatan Creations

My "local guide" poses for the camera. :)

Some of their finished products.
Colorfully beautiful!

Highlight: Weaving is an art that needs discipline and patience to master. Learn all about it here. It’s amazing how long pieces of thread and rattan end up as bags, tissue holders, bookmarks, etc. I bought pasalubong for some most of my friends here.

Lowlight: Not-so friendly weavers. Well, at least not to us. :( There was one, though, who was really friendly. She even taught me how to weave. Yay! :)

Crocodile Farm

Them crocodiles. Waaaah!

 The skeleton head of one big BIG crocodile. Haha!

Highlights: The skeleton of the biggest crocodile in the Philippines (I think) never fails to amaze. The live ones are also fascinating, albeit a bit scary. You need to cross this sort of runway to the other side. The bridge is sturdy but it's surrounded by crocodiles on both sides. Not for the fainthearted. Definitely not for people with very active imaginations, either.

The nature park is a must-see, too, if you like animals. Say hello to Palawan hornbills and parrots and bearcats!

These are the hats. :(

Another lowlight:I wanted to eat 
crocodile sisig. My sister didn't! 
Good thing a friend of mine brought 
me some last March. Yay!

Lowlights: The souvenirs were quite expensive. (I have expected that. It's just, I really wanted this fabulous hat but, as I was on a budget, I wasn’t able to buy it. Sad sad sad.) The park isn't that well-maintained and there were a lot of mosquitoes to prove that. (Note: we got bitten by 'quitoes inside the souvenir shop in the middle of the park. Weird.) The reptile house only had one, well, reptile and it looked deserted. You’d feel like you’re about to star in a remake of Anaconda. Shudder. Scary.

      

Baker’s Hill

Very scenic, yes?

Highlights: This is the perfect place to lounge around and chill. Take a look at the peacocks while you’re at it. The orchids are also very beautiful. Pose with one of the many statues around the place.

This male peacock (middle) just got lucky with two females fighting for his attention! 

We had lunch at the Baker’s Kitchen and Restaurant. It was very cozy and the decor suited the ambiance they wanted to, er,  exude. I ordered grilled prawns with cucumber salad and mango juice. My sister ordered (surprise, surprise) fried chicken and sago't gulaman. The food was good. The service, even better. :)

Lowlight: 


Baker’s Hill is not only popular to tourists but also to locals. The ambience is quite relaxing, but you should expect a lot of people at around 4PM. It may be disturbing for you, if you’re the type who equates R & R to silence.

 To be continued…

Rainy Days and Sundays

I said I’ll be blogging more often but I end up breaking that promise I made to myself. Ha. It’s so me, it’s…annoying.

So, here I am two months after my first post. With nothing but one (one!) write-up on…writing. Amazing. As in, amazingly lazy. I have been amazingly lazy. :))

I asked my younger sister what I should write about today. She said I should write about the weather, about the rain. And so, I shall.

You know how the story goes. Clouds absorb water vapor, condense this vapor and, when they forget that they’re made of water, too, and feel like they’ve had too much, they – well – spit them back to the ground (sort of like when you drink too many orange-flavored cocktails…but, that’s a different story). 

We’re all like clouds sometimes. We absorb these bits and pieces of problems other people have around us. We analyze them and we think of what to do with them. We try to help them because we love them or we care for them or we have no choice…whatever, we have our reasons. At times, we forget that we, too, have problems. We feel like we are carrying too much load on our shoulders and so we cry. Or mope. Others do their own version of spitting and spit nails, shouting their anger out.

It’s not fair to be angry with the world but you can’t help it sometimes. You feel injustice, yet there is no one to blame. You feel injustice because there is no one to blame. You know that, in a way, everyone is just a victim of his or her own cruel fate. Yet, for some weird twisted reason, you blame the world. You shout and are angry because of the small things when you want to be angry for the bigger, more complex things. You are angry because your dreams didn’t come true, because you don’t have enough money or because he didn’t love you enough to stay. You’re angry because you screwed up. You’re angry because you didn’t want to screw up, but you did. You’re angry because you’ve never felt this angry before and it just keeps on flowing out – you keep on spitting it out – like there’s no tomorrow.   

And, when you have finally spit it all out, people will react differently. Some will marvel at the beauty of how intense you can feel and draw inspiration from it. They will write, paint, burst out singing because of it. But these are people who probably see things from afar; people who are protected by their roofs during the thunderstorm, wrapped in thick blankets and looking out their windows, observing how much more water the rain can produce. Some, the ones in the same situation as those who felt inspired by your ranting, will yawn and sleep. Some will get really shocked then really mad; those who, without umbrellas or raincoats, got wet and inconvenienced because they didn’t expect that such downpour could happen without much notice. Of course, there will always be those who would shrug, get their umbrellas from their bags, open them and walk away.

I think you should walk away, too. We should walk away, too. Walk away from all the pain and the anger and the hurt, especially if the rain is gone. Instead, look for your rainbow (if there is one. They’re very rare nowadays, rainbows) and be thankful. You’ve survived the storm.

On this day of your life, [we believe] God wants you to know that faith in yourself will see you through. You are strong and can deal with anything that life throws at you. Take a deep breath and be filled with the knowledge that you can deal with all things.