How My Brain Works…

I was deprived of the beach as a child.  The number of times I’d been to one can barely be counted with a hand.  The reasons…my mom can’t swim (neither can I) and she’s sure as hell afraid of the sun, but that’s just vanity talking and nothing else.  So anyway, now that I’m allowed to do a bit of exploring on my own (and it’s about time, don’t you think?!), I try to grab every chance I get to be able to go to the beach.

I got lucky last weekend.  Barely just a month after going to Subic, there I was again, heading off to the open road that would lead me to the sea, but this time, it’s much much farther…all the way to Pangasinan!  That’s one hell of a road trip baby!

When this adventure was just in its planning and conceptualization stage, a lot of people wanted to join.  But then in the end, only three of us pushed through, namely Jam, Mike, and moi.  Jam was Mike’s friend back in college.   I’ve met her on several occasions, exchanged a few niceties with each other, and that’s about it.  That’s why I had a few doubts in having her as a company.  We didn’t really know each other that well, and I was afraid we won’t hit it off.  But during the trip, I had a chance to get reacquainted with Jam.  I learned quite a lot about her, actually.  How can’t I when she voluntarily shared most of her deeds and escapades without any apprehensions?  I liked that about her.  I’m glad she’s not like someone I know who acts all meek and shy when she’s around me but once she’s not, she sheds off the sheep’s clothing and turns into the slithering biyatch that she is (a fact that she admits though she said she’s like that only at night.  Bull!!!  She’s a Biyatch with a capital "B" all day round!).  I really hate that!  Anyway, bottom line is, I’m glad we had her with us on this trip.

Travel time took about 5-6 hours.  Normally, it would only take 4 hours to get there but shamefully, we got lost several times along the way.  But hey, that’s alright.  It’s part of the adventure anyway…hehehe!!!  We arrived in Bolinao around 1:30 a.m.  Since we could not look for a place to stay during that ungodly hour, we went straight to Patar White Beach, and that’s where we spent the night.  The place was so dark and quiet.  It would have been so scary had it not for the dozens of shooting stars racing across the sky.  The vision was really spectacular and I was so overwhelmed by it!  Jam got cozy at the back of the car and she was able to have a 4-hour sleep.  I still don’t know how she managed to do that, but she did.  As for me, I was able to take a few short naps, but Mike was the strongest of our lot.  He just stood by the car, acting like a responsible security guard of the night.  Tsk..tsk…tsk…Poor honey.

At 6:00 a.m., we started looking for a place to stay, and our search led us to Coco’s Beach Resort.  The price was reasonable and the view was breathtaking.  We slept ’til 2 in the afternoon.  When we woke up, we decided to go to the rock in the middle of the sea.  Do you know how you can get there?  You walk!  Yup, you read it right.  We took a 30-minute walk from the shore towards the sea before we reached the rock.  And all throughout that walk, the water was just knee-deep high.  Unbelievable?  I have pictures to prove it…

That’s the rock…

Notice how deep the water is from where we’re standing…

That’s us on the rock…

On the way back to shore…

Wasn’t that amazing?  Anyway, after that long but worthwhile walk,  we decided to go look for something to eat.  We travelled all the way to Alaminos to do just that, but not again before getting lost along the way.  Hehehe!!!  We got pizza and lots of beers to feast on.  We had our little picnic by the beach and stayed there ’til 2 a.m.

This was were the stories were told and revelations were done, through the help of Mudslide and several cans of beer…

We woke up early the next day, Sunday.  Here are the things we did:

This is the Bolinao Lighthouse.  Too bad we weren’t able to climb up and enjoy a much better view.

Patar White Beach.  Can you believe that you’re looking at a public beach?!  ‘Cuz I sure as hell can’t! 

Jam and I inside Cindy’s cave

That’s the view on the way back to the resort.  Takes your breath away, doesn’t it?

After all these, we checked out from the resort and headed straight to Alaminos to visit the Hundred Islands.  Here was were all the great pictures were taken.

Presenting the Hundred Islands of Pangasinan

First stop…Governor’s Island

Home of the 4 finalists of Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition in Governor’s Island

Marcos Island.  That’s were we got our first dip on the beach

Fooling around in Quezon Island

My favorite picture of all…perfection captured at Cuenco Padi Island

I had fun the whole time.  Even with just the three of us, everything was a blast.  You could say, "the more, the merrier", but I really had the best time with them that I wouldn’t trade their company or that moment for the world.  I’m glad that I was able to go to a place I’ve never been before, but much more so because it was Mike who brought me to that place…that’s what made it a whole lot more meaningful to me.  They say you could never have enough friends, and I’m thankful that I had an opportunity to add Jam on my list.

It’s been a week since that Pangasinan trip but up ’til now, I still have traces of hangover from it.  That was really one hell of an experience, and we will definitely do it again.  Our next stop, a weekend in Batangas…and that would be in two weeks time!  Yup, I’ve become addicted.  I feel jittery just thinking about it.  I can hardly wait…