This is just one of the things that make me so lucky having friends who have political bloodlines, who are filthy rich, money loaded and so much more. Once again, I was lucky enough to go to an overnight stay on Isla Reta, at Talikud Island Samal Davao City. And it was all expenses paid, dude! (Well, except for the transportation and food.) So make that 50 % expenses paid. I went there with some of my close friends Camilla (the island owner), Wing, Franz and Stuart and Manong Ading our chaperone (courtesy of Camilla again.).

Misadventures Part 1

The call time was 8:30, but knowing myself, I went out of the house late – AGAIN. So when I arrived at Sta. Ana Port, Camilla said that the first boat that we were supposed to ride on left before us because I was late and they didn't want to leave me behind. We were supposed to travel at exactly 10 am, but because I was late, we were able to leave Davao City at 12:30 lunch time – a very critical time, because in that time, stomachs are burbling for food. (Oops, my bad.) But it wasn't really all my fault. Mom had a part of it, too. Because she was so concentrated and rigorous on exercising her butt, facing the TV, dancing and sweating all over the living room, (man, don't let me go into the details) the pocket money that I needed wasn't given to me at likely time. It was so time-consuming that I was able to go out of the house late. When I arrived at the boat (in Davao we call it the Lantsa, pronounced as lan-cha), I apologized for acting so selfish, not thinking of them waiting, while I was moving at a snail's pace. After everything that was said, we called it quits and decided not to start that way for vacation. They weren't actually angry at me, they just wanted to shoot me dead, wrap me in a black garbage bag and throw me into the sea so that the sharks can freely eat me. Kidding.

Upon arriving….

After almost 2 extensive and partly boring hours of waiting for the lansta to instigate, and roughly an hour and a half of journeying on the surface of the sea, finally, we arrived at our destination, TALIKUD ISLAND. Talikud Island, as I imagined in my mind was a mountain-ey, coconut-ey, sort of isolated place but much to my surprise, the place was a developed suburb, but in a simpler and humble approach compared to that of Davao City. The resort was only a walk away now that we've arrived at the island. Under the heat of the scourging sun, we walked, in the company of large bags at our back, sleeping bags on the right hand and guitar on the left. Because we were so pretty and sexy at that time, EHEM-EHEM, we overheard locals speaking "Taga ABS-CBN man yan sila". Hey dude, Kapuso ako. Nyahaha. Funny though, because while walking a very unusual event that we usually see on local TV, especially on the movies (how ironic) happened to us. Men carrying a white coffin were approaching us! Seriously. Everyone started to freak out. "Hulugan niyo ng Piso, hulugan niyo!" I kept on saying to them. I don't know if you heard of the superstitious belief that every time the dead happen to pass by you, one should throw a coin at them so as to drive death away from you. I don't know how factual the belief is, but because I was freaked out, I believed in it anyway. When the coffin was REALLY coming close to us, Mang Ading led us to a small alley where some of his friends were hiding from the coffin (see, even grown-ups get scared of coffins.) After some grueling minutes of waiting for it to pass, at last it was out of our way.

Misadventures Part 2

And FINALLY (eto na talaga) we took our first step inside the gates of ISLA RETA. Friends, its one small step for men, and a big leap for the future. My first impression? Well, picture this:

When I entered it, the first thing that caught my attention was the tall, booming heights of the pine trees and the green Bermuda grass. A few steps away from our cottage, are some kiosks where you can just chill around and eat eat eat – all the way. We also caught glimpse of animals walking around like we never existed. Dogs, lambs, chickens, cats, name them. And some few steps from the kiosks are, GASP, (this is really it) THE WHITE SAND AND THE PEACEFUL CRYSTAL-CLEAR WATERS of the BEACH. As soon as I saw the beach, suddenly the heat of the sun disappeared (it was already 2:00 p.m that time). Even when I was only watching it, I can already feel the cooling sensation of the sea. We couldn't just watch the beach without taking a picture! This was one hell of a "kodakan" moment. Afterwards, Mang Ading called us for some late lunch.
After fulfilling our tummy-needs, Mang Ading and Camilla offered to tour us around the resort. We went to some rocky portions near the shore. The water there was the clearest and the coolest. We explored and climbed the rocks and, of course, took some pictures. I found some shards of charcoal atop the border of the resort and vandaled my name on it.

Mang Ading also took us hiking, where it acquired us to climb a mountain that fortunately led us to a small cave. We were already sweating like pigs, but we didn't mind it. We were there for some fun. I was so excited to enter the cave, because it was my first time to enter one. Mang Ading told us that the cave was probably used as a shelter from the World War II decades ago.

After walking and hiking s'more, we were determined to hit the B-E-A-C-H! We were swimming and snorkeling, we swam s'more and snorkeled s'more. We caught some starfishes and placed one on top of the other. Yeaaaahhhh…. Yes we did. And if you’re scientific enough, I’m sure you’ll understand us. Ssh, it’s a secret. Sa mga bisaya, kasabot mo ani bah. Grabe kayo ang starfish. Sa gi ingun pa ni Franz, na-utgan jud daw ug maayo ang starfish bah. Oh, karon nakasabot namo? Sa mga hindi bisaya, pasensya na po. Stuart was also brave enough to catch some "bat". I don’t know what is the English term for this creature but it's the one with long, straight bodies and it somewhat resembles an eel, an intestine and a sea snake. It's green, brown or sandy-white. And its icky – that is for me, of course. But we had fun playing with these creatures and I hope they had fun playing with us, too. Hehe.

Misadventures Part 3

Nighttime came; the place was dark because there were only few lamp posts around. After everyone took their turns in taking a bath and cleaning themselves, we ate dinner and got our sleeping bags, ran towards the shore with food, flashlights, candles in our hands and had what we so-called a "night picnic" or our "ritual" We were fighting against our will that it will begin to rain, because of the typhoon Caloy and Davao City was experiencing rain. How did we know? The thunder and the lightning happening in Davao were amazingly visible on the shore. It was like watching a tragedy movie, like Twister, on a very large screen – The skies. Fortunately Mother Nature was celebrating with us that time, and thank goodness, it didn't rain on the island. We felt some droplets of rain (very small) but it didn't bother us. Hence, on with the fiesta! We sang songs from the Eraserheads and Parokya Ni Edgar, I played it on the guitar, and the rest sang with the tune. We jammed and got nostalgic. They did Kitkat. Stuart dared us not to sleep until morning, and so we tried. We pigged out, ate junk food, green mangoes with bagoong, singuelas, and water. What a good combination. Still they did Kitkat. "Have a break, have a kitkat". Hehe. We played Ice Breaker 2. Everyone took turns in selecting questions, reading them aloud to the gang and answering them with all their hearts. I still remembered one card that I chose from the large selection:

"What advice will you give in achieving your dreams?"

Ill-fatedly, my eyes wouldn't want to cooperate, and so were the eyes of my companions. One by one we started to close our eyes. Camilla starting it first, followed by Franz, and then me. We slept for about 1 hour and then because then Stuart and Joanna were beginning to be bummed being the only two who survived, they intentionally set their cell phones into Loud Mode. How immoral. What wickedness. What evil. Unfortunately for us and fortunately for them, we were awakened by such iniquity. So that our sleepness-ness (if there is such a word) will vanish, Stuart read our kapalaran, our future, with his handy-dandy Tarot Cards. However, that didn't actually do the job; we still fell asleep after a few hours. Even Stuart, an insomniatic, fell asleep, but just for a few minutes. We were awakened by the rays of the sun. Just in time for the sun to rise. Everybody woke up as they felt the heat of the sun streaked onto their bodies. It was a sight to see. Just across the shore were mountains of the island in the front, and as the sun rose, rays of light came out streaking from the back of the mountains, just like those on the movies. You cannot miss to give out a smile when you see it. Although we lack sleep and were hungry at the same time, seeing the sun rise gave us a feeling of relief. Its beauty helped us to be able to release all the negative feelings inside. Even a million of CD's couldn’t replace the beauty of it. It was, beyond description, Beautiful.

Misadventures Part 4

After being spellbinded by the beauty of the sunrise, we fixed our things, slowly and surely. Mang Ading offered us hot chocolate before we indulged again into the water. Once we were finished wallowing under water, we ate breakfast and then cleaned ourselves. I don't know what actually happened but everyone was knocked-out to sleep. I guess we were asleep for about 3 hours because when we woke up, Mang Ading made us eat our lunch. The lantsa that we were supposed to ride on back home was scheduled to leave at 3pm, so after eating, we packed our stuff back and walked again in the barrio and sat on the most relaxing position upon arriving the lantsa because for all you know, traveling back home is the most gruesome part of vacation. The overnight stay was a blast. I surely had fun and it’s good that I was able to come with my friends because I got to know them much better and bonded with them to the core. It was 2 days of fun, 2 days of memories, and 2 days of summer loving.

more pictures at soundandsynergy.multiply.com