BatanGosh-So-Hot: A Day in Batangas' Stilts

- May 10, 2014, Saturday.

- For most people, summer is not complete without a trip to the beach. Since the Philippine summer has been melting everyone in the country despite the occasional (and the off-season) short rain showers, my high school friends planned to have a day trip to nearby Batangas to visit the sea. I personally do not going to the beach because I do not like how the sand grains stubbornly stick to my feet, and how the evaporated sea water on my skin leaves sea salt grains, and ultimately making my well-salted body suitable for roasting. I do like how the sea looks though, and I like looking at the sea, or smelling/breathing the ocean breeze, as long as I'm not in physical contact with the sand and water. I'm not a water person too, in general, because I hate getting wet, so I'm not really a good company in any activity that will involve me getting into the water (boat rides and ferries are fine - as long as they won't be like that heart-jumping and tidal supercat ride I had from Mykonos to Santorini) Yes, I do bathe everyday, if you're wondering about that right now; I like to bathe myself in this manner. Also, I do know how to swim - all four strokes - so I'm not afraid of the water too.  So why did I decide to go to Batangas? Well, other than the people I was with, some of them I rarely see nowadays, I felt it would be a nice change to visit the sea since it would be just for a day. I felt I needed a break from the Manila dust, and my thesis stress.

- I met my friends at 4:30am and went to Binondo to meet Karel's significant other AJ. As early as now (in this post that is,) my friends and I would like express our sincerest gratitude to AJ for being willing to drive the whole bunch to Batangas and back; we were supposed to hire a private van. We fetched Oliver somewhere in Buendia later on, and headed south to Calatagan, Batangas.

- We arrived at Stilts Calatagan Beach Resort around 8:30 in the morning, checked in, and went to our open hut by the beach. The resorts's name is such because there are some cottages that are above the sea, only supported by stilts, and accessible by a walkway. The resort has a lot of water activities like kayaking, snorkeling, and boat-riding, while non-water activities include ATV riding, horseback riding, biking, karaoke, and beach volleyball. For day trips (8am-6pm,) the entrance fee includes free beach and pool use; the huts were charged separately. Free wifi is only free at the restaurant or inside the cottages for in-house guests. (All other activities are not inclusive, and payment for each activity can be done on-site.)

So-so.

SWING!!

Walking near the shore.

"Stilts."

- To be honest, I wasn't impressed with Stilts' seashore, although I was told that Stilts' private beaches for in-house guests were far better and quieter than where our huts were stationed (and of course the price of staying in the cottages near those tranquil beaches would be quite hefty too.) The sea was quite shallow too (still knee-length until around 30-40 feet away from the shore,) and "grassy" according to my friends.

- My friends decided to swim in the swimming pool in the morning while I planned to do an hour of horseback riding. In the end, I just enjoyed a glass of sundae since it was too sunny for me to go horseback riding. The sun was glaring at us throughout the whole day, so I had to consistently look for shaded and well-fanned areas to be in.

With Oliver's splash effect.

I told you guys to jump, not drag yourselves into the water.

- We had a sumptuous Filipino lunch in our cottage, and most had a bit of siesta time after lunch; the sun was its strongest too. We had a chance to be kids again early in the afternoon, because my friends enjoyed hiding each other's things, like burying them in the sand, and letting the owner look for whatever thing the person owned. We were not playing a game, rather, it was just plain teasing each other.

Torturing Jessica.

ELSA????

Do you wanna build a snowman???? (Errr, a sand castle rather??)

LET IT GOOOO!!!! LET IT GOOO!!!!

The cold (heat??) neverb othered me anyway!!

I am one with the wind and skyyyy (sand and sea????) :)) :)) :)) :))

Sun block.

I CAME IN LIKE A WREEEECKING BALL!!!!

- Kayaking was next on their list of activities for the afternoon. I would have wanted to go kayaking too, but I feared that the kayak might turn over like what happened to me when I tried kayaking when I was 9 years old. Because I did not have extra clothes I did not want to risk that; the sun was still glaring at us, so I still chose to hide from the sun.

Huhuhuhu, if only it weren't so hotttt I would've wanted to!!

The brought me a "present": Protoreaster nodosus.

- After kayaking, they decided to swim a bit in the pool again to cool off, and planned what to do next. The ATV ride seemed interesting, but we felt it was a bit expensive for a 30-minute/1-hour ride. Finally, Bless, Oliver, and I decided to go for an hour of mountain-biking instead while the others went back to the hut and rested.

- I learned how to ride a bike (without training wheels) when I was a child, but I always forget how mountain bikes had bigger wheels, and pedals. (My bike before did not have big wheels, and I could sit upright, unlike when riding mountain bikes, when the body is supposed to be a bit slouched.) Also, I live in the city so I've only ridden my bike on paved cemented surfaces. This time, I had a rugged terrain to deal with too - the biking route was at the back of the resort where the ground wasn't made of sand. In short, I had to get used to a lot of different factors in less than enough time, other than the sun's heat heavily dehydrating me because I was biologically made to sweat the whole world's water supply (a very salty water supply that is.)

- True enough, I found myself falling down a couple of times and having some cuts on my legs that I only found out about after I came home and took a bath (ouch.) The worst thing that happened? I felt so dizzy from the heat, and I was greatly dehydrated that I had to sit on a bench when we found one. I just had to stop moving to get a lot of air, breathe, and drink plenty of water. (I don't normally tire easily - my friends would know how much I move and how I always get my butt going.) Thank goodness nature cooperated with the breeze, since it wasn't a breezy day. This alone validated my claim that I wasn't built for the tropics, adding to my knowledge of my body's high tolerance for the cold weather (I never wore my thermal clothing and barely wore my clothes layers during my Christmas trip to Korea with my family; it was snowing and even if it wasn't, the daily temperature was always a single digit, or that I never wore a jacket and wore stuff like I would in the Philippines during my recent vacation to Greece.)

- I felt well again after stocking myself with water, but I didn't think I could still hop on the bike again. Our time was almost up when that incident happened, so I didn't think my money flew out the window. My friends called for the staff so I could be assisted back to our hut. I left the bike near the bench, and the staff told us that they'll just get the bike later on, while I was escorted back via ATV. (So I got to have my ATV ride after all, for free, although I wasn't the one driving it. I would still prefer paying for an ATV ride without going through everything that happened in the biking incident.)

Since I didn't have photos of me on the mountain bike.

Trying to make a sand-castle-UFO-like structure.

Sunset.

Sunset "pangalay" dance.

HI!!

In case she grows.

- To end the day - or so we thought, we tried to play volleyball by the sea, but the sand kept going to our eyes, so we thought of doing dodge ball instead, until we had to check out.

- The quest to find dinner on the way back to Manila was an exodus by itself. Most restaurants in Tagaytay were full, so we just decided to have dinner in Mile-Hi Diner. We ended diner around 10 something at night, and to squeeze in the whole journey, we arrived home around 20 past midnight. One of my young life's longest days has not necessarily been the best day of my life, but it was definitely a day of experiences.