Bohol Vacation: Part III

After exploring the farm a bit we were off back to Tagbilaran, but instead of retracing our route we did a bit of a round about. We stopped by another peak where we could see more Chocolate Hills.

the route


more pics at peak


hehehe


Along the way we stopped by the Maribojoc Watchtower where they used to stand watch against Moro raiders.

where the goddamn raiders at?


ahoy there!


After getting back to Tagbilaran and having a sumptuous lunch, we headed off to Panglao Island to hang out at the beach and look for decent dive rates. Man, all their prices where tourist rates and in US dollars! We weren’t able to find a resort that we liked so we spent most of the afternoon hopping from one beach to another. Around sunset, we found a place that served some shakes… a perfect conclusion for the day.

beach!


sunset


candlelit

POW

I signed up for 15 days of one-on-one training with a personal trainer in my gym yesterday and he promised me to have significant gains in the next 2 weeks of hell on earth. I dunno what in the world I was thinking when I decided to go for it, but I may be having second thoughts about it right now. I’ve now had 2 days of torture.

My legs hurt like a mofo! We started off with squats for my glutes and hamstrings, and this really brought out a sweat. I was glad it was over and hoped to move on to the next exercise, but alas my trainer set me up for another variation of the squats. I damned near died! I started feeling light-headed after the second set, heard ringing in my ears, my vision started getting cloudy, and I knew my presence of mind was starting to slip away. I was ready to pass out anytime. I am such a wuss. In my defense though, I haven’t had lunch or any decent meal prior to heading to the gym as I was stuck inside the US embassy for 3 hours.

We were supposed to do 4 exercises per muscle group, with the legs and shoulders for this session, but I was too tired that we ended up with 2 exercises for the legs and 1 for biceps (he decided to put it in at the last minute given my condition).

And that was just for the first day! Good thing yesterday’s workout was a bit more rewarding. But my legs still hurt like a mofo! And we will be doing a 6 day workout week! God help me….

No second thoughts on my commitment though. With my personal trainer’s drive I know we are going to get results… I just hope I make it out alive.

troop morale

A friend of mine usually asks me if I am happy whenever we get a chance to talk. The answer would normally be a “I think so” or a “Sort of”. Personally, this kind of question demands a really honest answer, hence the indefinite response. We would play around with the idea behind it for a while, and I would just always say that I haven’t an idea what true happiness for me is. Although there is that lingering feeling that my life is not complete, I am satisfied with my life. I’m ok. As some of my friend put it, I’m a pretty steady guy when it comes to life. I just take it a day at a time.

If ever that question would be asked again, this time I would probably have a more definite answer. No.

There are a few things that’s been really bothering me these past few weeks, and upon further reflection started bubbling up a few months back. It’s quite difficult to explain, and to keep things short it’s quite bogging me down. I feel tired 24 hours a day, exhausted by everything. And it feels like I’m fighting a whole lot of shit off every second, trying to escape this dark cloud looming overhead.

Maybe I should just stop worrying about it and just go back to the laid back, steady old me. Not a care in the world, where everything’s cool…

Bohol Vacation: Part Deux

Ok, so I left off with our visit with the world famous tarsier now on with the show!

Our next destination was the Chocolate Hills of Bohol. But before that, we passed by the so called Man-made forest. It was part of a reforestation initiative way way before I was born. Thousands of Mahogany trees (this I later found out) line the road towards the Chocolate Hills. They where wirey, but stretch pretty high up, it kinda reminded me of a cathedral with the open space underneath the canopy.

Man-made forest


Finally the Chocolate Hills. No trip to Bohol would’ve been complete without seeing them. It was quite surreal actually. We were surrounded by hundreds of them, as far as you could see. Although they weren’t chocolate in color at this time of the year, it definitely screamed “Only in Bohol”.

chocolate hills!


I got your chocolate hill right here


We continued on until we finally arrived at the Lagunay Farm where we picked some pineapples for munchies. Man, those pineapples are hard to harvest! Just getting in to position to pick them off was quite difficult as the leaves of the plants were prickly. Then we had to break off the fruit from the stem, which was easier said than done. But all that hard work made it taste all the more better.

pineapple picking


Then came the barbecue. As I would think to be the norm, us guys did the cooking while the girls chatted and assisted us as much as they could. This is not a degradation or discrimination of women by any means, it’s just that men prefer the dirty work of barbecuing than women. Anyhoo, dinner was wonderful with tons of food, good company and fresh country air…

preparing our battle plan


fire in the hole


Here are some more pics of the Lagunay farm, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves otherwise this is gonna be another long-ass post.

welcome!


lovers in paradise


the chaperone/bodyguard


practicing some artistic shots


itsy bitsy spider

warrific day

I went to war yesterday after the longest time. At first I thought I would be sitting it out on the sidelines as the battery couldn't crank my newly upgraded gun. Luckily I was able to borrow an extra battery from one of the Apo guys so I was good to go.

The first game came and went with a lot of nothing. I saw an enemy just before the game expired. The second and third games however, got me killed pretty quickly. I have a pretty nasty hit on my head from the 2nd game.

Finally on the last game, I had my first confirmed kill. I was guarding the left flank near the wall, when one of my teammates got hit. I knew there where troops right in front of me. I carefully moved about to get a visual and have a good ambush spot. I heard a couple of them exchange a few words, before one of them darted out towards one of our positions. I hosed him down, missed, and he hit the ground. I adjusted my fire and fired a burst. I heards "HIT! HIT! HIT!" as he raised his arms and weapons. Tango down! Boy did that feel good. I was barely 10 meters away.

I knew his buddies where close as they fired to suppress me as they inched closer. I knew there where probably 2 of them out there so I made a tactical withdrawal, hoping to meet up with a friendly and set-up a better ambush. But alas, time ran out and the game was over.

It was good to be back in action, especially coming out of it with a kill. Hehehe

visa woes

I just came back from the US embassy. I was not given the L1 visa for 2 reasons, 1) my passport picture is kind of falling off and 2) they require a letter explaining why I had to go to Pakistan. Freakin-a! That Pakistan trip is really being a pain! I had a minor issue with the immigration desk in Singapore, and now this!

Well, at least it wasn't an outright refusal of entry to the US. And I needed to renew my passport within 8 months anyway, so it's like hitting two birds with one stone. It's just a bit of a hassle, I just hope there are no more dramas when I go back to the embassy.

Bohol Vacation: Part I

Finally I got all the pictures and the itinerary of my recent Bohol trip and I can now write a long overdue entry about it. So here goes:

The night before the flight was a bit of a mess for me. I was already feeling sick for a couple of days so I decided to hitch a ride with an officemate, but he was out watching a movie. To make the long story short, we left for home later than I preferred and got home at around 1am. Time was of the essence since I had to be at Ven’s place to hitch a ride to the airport, but I still haven’t packed my stuff and I desperately needed rest. Miraculously, I packed my bag in record time and I think I got a couple of hours of sleep before taking a cab to Ven’s.

We had a quick breakfast and headed off to the airport. Despite being relatively early, there was a long queue to get in. We trudged along until we were finally in the waiting lounge. I think I kinda looked like an idiot wearing jeans, 2 shirts, a jacket and a cap knowing that we were going on a vacation that spells “sun and surf”. But I had to retain my body heat and “force” my body back to health, I was taking no chances. I took in as much time as I could to rest, overdosing on Vitamin C and drinking a whole lot of fluids. Luckily(?), the plane was delayed due to a couple of passengers being late. I didn’t really care, it gave me 30 more minutes of sleep.

The bad news was that because of the delayed flight, we were not able to get on the boat to Bohol from Cebu as our initial plan. So we had to wait at the pier for the next scheduled trip. We passed the time playing scrabble and watching a couple of movies, but I was itching to get the traveling over with and get some “real” rest.

Fortunately, we had no more delays and got to Tagbilaran, Bohol by 3pm. When we got to Nobs’ place, we had merienda, some chit-chat with Nobs’s parents and stashed our bags.

first night in Bohol


The following day was supposed to be the first day of sight seeing, as we planned to pass by some tourist places on our way to the Lagunay farm where we would be spending the night. We stopped by the Blood Compact site, said to be the site of the first pact between the locals and the Spanish explorers when they arrive a long long time ago, then off to Baclayon Church, the oldest stone church in the Philippines.

fooling around


Baclayon Church bell tower


Then we had lunch on the Loboc River cruise where we also saw the very unique tarsier. Man, those animals rock! They’re the cutest little things you will ever see, and we were up close and personal with the animals. To bad we weren’t allowed to touch them.

Loboc river


tarsier!


watcha lookin' at bitch?


This is getting too long. Another entry is in order...