the legends in flesh :-)

complaints about my knee pains should be over. after all i’m feeling better with the relief of pain for days. and with a guaranteed opportunity of seeing the tennis legends on an exhibition match, woootwoot!….man?! i must be a fool to still stay cranky.

yessss! i scored tickets for the federer-sampras match! never mind if macao tickets were sold out just a couple of days after it’s available online that almost gave me a heart attack…never mind if i wont be able to get in the venetian and see the game from there cos it would be my only chance to see the splendor of such hotel…and that i won’t be able to do some side trips to its outlying islands after i saw the match like i first planned when i first sat foot on the once portuguese colony…

i got the sweeter deal when i saw the match in malaysia is still selling tickets! :-)

you wouldn’t really grab how crazy i am to see this game until you find out,i was even willing to see it alone. cos unfortunately none of my friends are interested on tennis. so imagine how difficult it’s for me to convince my constant travel buddies to go with me all the way to KL to see them play 3 games! no amount of bribery would make them go with me. arrrrg! but thank goodness, S, thought about going to KL and Sg in one trip, so she said yes to me :-) plus the fact that she likes not tennis…but sampras, it only took me a call to convince her! haha! (i’m ok with that though, as long as she’s going with me!)

so to all my running buddies, thanks for checking on me;-) knee is getting better, would only be a matter of time and we’d run again in marathons…and hope to be able to join our VRs, our night runs and even your trail runs too…i know i’m missing it badly. really.

to my colleagues, inner circle peeps, strangers and near strangers who’ve been victims of my being too grumpy…believe me, it’s the absence of running for days in my routine. if there’s one saving grace though…it’s i’ve been doing some laps on the pool lately. at least in swimming i can workout without putting my weight on my knees. and thus, improved my finning when we dove last weekend.

and to all the peeps out there seeing this match of the tennis’ legends, cheers to us! yay! sana marami akong makitang pinoy sa malawati stadium! :-)

day 2 of the leg

at the white island, with mt. hibokhibok as our backdrop and the richness of the turquoise water that embraces us, even with the grey clouds above us in the early part of the day…we are happy and shiny people :-)

we stormed the waters and took the very bumpy boat ride to the cross. 2 of the girls are already cussing us but when we reached the cross marker, they were relieved when they were confronted with the history and the mystery of the sunken cemetery.

 

in here we attempted to ascend to the 14th station atop the hill.

then the ruins

 

i’ve got so many stories to tell about our adventure in this island of 5 towns with 7 volcanoes and with a very gorgeous white sand bar to boot. but that will be an attempt to chronicle even the mundane, when the photos itself reveal so much of the delight we chalahs all had for two days :-)

 

knowing the rustic island more

have not packed my stuff and im still out in rockwell with my grad school friends at 3am. got a 530 flight but i was in no hurry. until i received a call from S, asking if i’m already up. d-oh?! i haven’t even slept yet! what is she talkin’ about? had more bevy until H, sms, ‘asan ka na? tuloy pa ba tayo?” geeez! it made sense to my head…in the next hour, i’m taking the first flight to cdo, i’m not ready worse i’m a bit piss.

headed home packed my stuff (i wasn’t sure what i put inside my bag) and took a super quicky shower. 10minutes to 5am, was on queue for the terminal fee. wooopee! i made it! that’s another adreanalin rush for me!:p sure i can hear banggigay reprimanding herself again and as she mkes another promise never to repeat the last minute run for her flight.

we’re all seven, minus S and M. waaah we miss M! he is now in oz, and we miss his OCness! now we know his value to our group (peace M!)…he does all our itineraries and does all the bookings whenever chalahs would go for a trip.

so there, we hit the balingoan pier 8ish, but ferry trips were limited due to the low pressure disturbance thus we got onboard 10ish.. haaay. please give us sunshine this weekend was all i uttered.

It took us more than an hour and a half to reach benoni wharf, where the resort’s driver would pick us up. we’re booked not in paras, but in a resort in mambajao (actually i forgot its name :p it was S who did M’s work to prepare itinerary and do bookings). it’s a so so resort i must say but i have no real complaints :p clean restrooms, clean beddings, cabanas with AC, beach front…to me it’s already sweeet!:-)

we just dropped our stuff and headed to our first stop, the underground cemetery (sunken cemetery). unfortunately, there was a landslide the day before thus passing-thru the shortest route to the cemetery was impossible. loose earth and boulders are blocking the highway. arrrg!

next stop, phivolcs. hmmm. ok, it’s a geeky attempt at first to see volcanoes activity, seismic movement etc etc..but when we explored the area, woah! the office is just atop the hill and overlooking the entire camiguin. the skies is grey and the afternoon breeze that brushes your face signals an unfriendly weather…but the sight of the sea and the very green island is enough to claim a promise of a better afternoon sky.

couple of minutes, we’re at katibawasan falls. woah! the falls reminded me of the man-made falls at jurong bird park at singapore. it’s not as majestic as that of tappiya at batad, mt.province or as mystical as that of magdapio falls (pagsanjan falls) of cavinti, but its 250 ft water cascade would make its visitors admire its unpretentious beauty. too bad we don’t have a wide angle camera to have a nice shot of the falls. (hop here instead for far better shots)

clock’s inching to 6pm already but we requested the driver to take us to enigmata. if baguio has tam-awan, camiguin has enigmata. inside this resort around a tree (locally called a tree house), from the interiors to the furniture even to the ambient music playing whilst we’re there, everything is an expression of a true blue bohemian. i was so impressed with the place that i said to J, “we should have booked here for the night instead“. i would always choose a homey and cosy place over a grand yet alienating resort.

stopped near camiguin’s famous bakeshop, to try local sinugbang lapu lapu and tingol (?). and guess who we saw there inside vjandep??? angel aquino :p locals said she visits the place frequently. hehehee. ok that’s showbiz of me :p

10ish we called it a night. was all knackered i failed to do a 5k dash. (resort is right beside a local airport runway. i thought of jogging there cos i saw earlier there were peeps who jog there too. i later found out, there are only MWF flights. inbetween that runway is use as an ordinary highway. haha!)

day 2, it’s the white island and second attempt to see the sunken cemetery. two places S and i have been (last year), but i must admit its novelty has not lessen a bit. i’m a real beach bum and i particularly luv the white island :-)

camiguin and cdo revisited

 

had the longest 2 weeks. with my work (couple of tight deadlines and instant commitments) delivered and my run over (my very first 10k) i feel like rewarding myself :p hahahha! (actually i’m just trying to find an excuse for yet another escapade this weekend).

oh allow me to give you a glimpse what’s in store for the extended chalah adventure:

camiguin:

                       – white island chill out

                       – sight-seeing across the town

                       – night bazaar at divisoria chuchu

cagayan de oro:

– macahambus

rappelling, zipline, white water rafting,

                        – katibawasan falls, volcanovia, springs etc

all these in 3 rockin’ and rolling days!!! wootwoot! :-)

i wont be towing my notebook, weroam and floorplans for review.

just my a-vah-yah-nas, swim wears, board shorts, coconut scent sunscreens, digicams, my la rouge sofia, aviator glasses hmmm what else…oh yeah my moleskine too. she’d be my medium to eternalize FANTASTIC moments like this (ello mi amiga nikkita!) hahahah!

S & I been there last year, but wasn’t able to explore really the place. was just there for like a little over 15 hours…but this time around…we’d make sure we’ll cover everything:-)

as they say, this time, it’s gonna be sweeter!:-)

and sa mga ka-berks ko, hope you guys would have a great weekend too!:p