Anilao!

Disclaimer: This is a LONG read! Wrote this mainly for our travelogue and I wanted to be as detailed as possible, hence, the length. Read at your own risk. :)

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Just got back from our three-day vacation. For the first time in several months, I was able to erase all thoughts of weddings from my mind. That was a "matinong usapan" between Jojie and I when we first planned this vacation -- that we would enjoy the weekend and talks and thoughts about our jobs were definite no-no's! :)

Here is a detailed description of our oh-so-heavenly vacation. :)

THURSDAY

Our planned schedule was
Jojie - to be at the office all day; to go to Makati at around 7pm to meet up with me after my meeting
Me - to meet a client at 9:00am; to be at Megamall at 3:00 or 4:00pm to get some last-minute stuff for the beach; to get car from Jojie's office; to go to Makati for a 7pm meeting; to meet with Jojie afterwards (oh by the way, this is a normal day for me)

Jojie was able to follow his schedule, of course, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to follow mine. Met with my client at around 9:40am (Really nice couple, btw. The type you become friends with. :)). We went to Dapitan, Dangwa, and Divisoria. Everything was going smoothly except that we had to wait for Carolina's to get the cloth from their warehouse that it took us longer to get everything we wanted. Result was I got to Ortigas (My clients dropped me off, thanks guys! Mwah!) around 6pm. Instead of me going to Makati and Jojie just following, we both decided that we would go together and that I would go directly to my meeting while he would be the one to go to Landmark to get the stuff we need.

My meeting went smoothly and I met up with my gwapo husband around 9:30pm. Thankfully, he was able to buy everything we needed. Love you, baby ko! :) We got home around 11:00pm and I started packing my stuff. Jojie decided to just pack the next day since he's a light packer anyway and he doesn't take long. On the other hand, I tend to take hours packing for trips and I tend to take so many stuff (for example, for this trip, I took 3 sarongs, a bathing suit, a skirt, a pair of pants, a pair of pambahay shorts, 5 blouses, a pair of track suit, and nighties... hehehe!) that I knew that I had to pack that night or else, I won't be able to finish packing. Jojie and I slept at around 1:00 am.

FRIDAY

Really excited me woke up at 6:00am. I had to reply to emails of a few clients plus I had to make sure that things are in order before we go. Also, had to email all my clients about my weekend vacation and to give them Rhodora's number (Thanks, sis!) just in case they had questions or needed some assistance over the weekend. :)

Jojie woke up at 7:00am and he cooked breakfast while I was still in the PC. After a quick breakfast, he took off to have Arcy (our much-loved green Honda Civic) washed while I stayed to finish packing and to take a shower.

He came back around 8:30am and by 9:15am, we were in the car. We stopped by my parents' place first since I realized that all my sarongs were there plus I needed to get the tripod Papa gave me [Hehehe! Super kuripot me refused to buy a tripod (cost was P700.00) so I asked my dad to give me his since he's not using it anymore anyway.].

Being the very organized people that we are (at least nagpapanggap), we had set a schedule, of course, and I am proud to say that we were able to follow it! Yey! By 10:00am, we were on the road!!!

Armed with a map of the place and detailed directions in my Palm, we started for Eagle Point. Jojie was actually nervous about the fact that our guides were just in a PDA. He reasoned that it would have been better if we had a hard copy of the map and the directions but I reasoned that I wanted to use as less paper as possible because of the environment. Also, sayang ink eh! Hahaha! Yun talaga yun!

Anyway... we traversed the length of South Luzon Expressway looking forward (or, at least, I was looking forward, hehehe!) to lunch at Grace Sister of Rose Restaurant in Calamba, Laguna, a lutong-bahay restaurant just a few kilometers away from the Sto. Tomas, Batangas exit. We first discovered this place when Daddy (my father-in-law) asked us to buy bulalo for him from this restaurant. Since it had a very weird name (Why would someone name their restaurant "Grace Sister of Rose"??? Di ba weird?), our interests were piqued and we promised that we'd go back one day to try their fare since it was obvious that they had a large following. So we had a stop-over at Grace's place (Hahaha! Feeling close!) and had lunch there. I wanted to try their bulalo but Jojie said the serving was too big. He also reminded me that we were on a not-so-tipid mode but in a not-so-splurge mode either. I guess that means that I should not order food as if it's my last meal because I do tend to do this sometimes! Hahaha! :) Ito na ang nakakatawa... I ordered one dish, stuffed squid with some kind of sauce, and Jojie ordered lechon kawali. We had plain rice and bulalo soup with that. Halfway through our meal, ubos na ang lechon kawali! So Jojie ordered another serving of lechon kawali... whatever happened to the no "last meal syndrome"?!? Hahaha! We ended up paying much, much more than if we just ordered their gigantic order of bulalo in the first place. :)

We left the place sated and understanding why people kept coming in. And, oh yeah, Grace is the name of the owner of the restaurant (obvious ba?). Grace is, in turn, the daughter of the owner of the famous bulalo restaurant "Rose and Grace" (located in Sto. Tomas, Batangas). I guess, when Grace wanted to put up her own restaurant, she didn't want to use her mom's restaurant's name so she put just her name. But then, I guess she wanted to still incorporate "Rose" to draw crowds so she had "Grace Sister of Rose" as her restaurant's name. Very unusual eh? :)


Jojie and I proceeded with the trip. Super layo pala! Hahaha! It was about 80kilometers from the last SLEX toll exit. Am proud to say that we did good and didn't miss a turn. :) Follow lang talaga ng directions, tanong-tanong, and good old common sense (minsan kasi walang sense yung direction like... When you see Apolinario Mabini's statue, turn right left... duh!).

When we at last reached the private road to Eagle Point, super kami tuwa! But the road was narrow and steep and we were afraid that another car would be driving from the opposite direction. There was no way two vehicles could pass by there at the same time.

We breathed audible sighs of relief when we got to the parking lot. Yey! Andun na kami talaga!

The resort's guard was nice. He even helped us in lugging our stuff to the shuttle. More importantly, although he saw the drinks we were bringing in, he was okay with it. I was afraid that they won't allow us to bring in our drinks (Food and drinks are strictly not allowed.). Sayang naman kasi we brought a couple of bottles of our favorite Lipton Tea, ung green tea nila na super duper yummy. Buti na lang the guard just waved us through and said "Dalhin niyo po yung inumin niyo, Ma'am, importante yan." ;)

The trip to the resort's main core was scary. Now we understand why they don't allow private vehicles to go straight to the resort. The road was really steep and narrow, just enough for one vehicle. Kakatakot kasi meron pa na almost hairpin turn, about 270deg turn, na pababa.

The check-in process was a breeze. They gave us welcome drinks which effectively quenched our thirst. :) A bellboy then helped us with our luggage and led us to our nice room. :)

After unpacking, Jojie and I decided to... you guessed it! SLEEP!!! Hahaha! Akala niyo kung ano na no? ;) After travelling almost three hours to a far-away paradise, we slept! So typical! Mwahahaha!

After a couple of hours, we woke up and explored the place. The resort was nice. They had a game room which offered free use of all the games (oh well, the resort's rate per night is not exactly cheap anyway so they really have no right to charge their clilents for the use of the games) which included billiards, table tennis, and even a trampoline. The place also had an aviary which housed eagles found locally.

Since it was too late to go anywhere else, Jojie and I had a dip in their swimming pool. They had three pools - two swimming pools and one saltwater pool. Since it was Friday, I think there were only a couple of groups checked in at the resort, including us. Result was, the place was really tranquil and relaxing. We stayed in the pool side for an hour. Jojie stayed in the water the whole time while I took pictures, lounged by the poolside, and ate strawberries I bought in Dangwa the day before (5 styro packs for P100.00, winner di ba?). Hehehe!

The view from the pool was amazing. Oh well, I've always loved the ocean so I guess I would really love it there. The water was green near the shore, blue a little further on, and then dark blue up to the horizon. There were also boats passing by every so often.

We went back to our cottage afterwards to take showers and prepare for dinner. The resort's restaurant was nice. More importantly, the staff was very efficient and friendly. We decided to order bulalo and two servings of rice. Juice ko! Ang dami pala nun! Also, their rice was actually equivalent to one a half regular serving. Taste-wise, the food was just ordinary but then bulalo is bulalo, and unless the cook purposely ruins it, the soup almost always comes out the same -- very tasty and incredibly satisfying. Jojie was so full he couldn't even stand up after dinner. Kasi naman pinilit ubusin yung pagkain unlike me who stopped eating when I felt full na. :)

After dinner, instead of lounging in the pool some more, we decided to go back to the cottage. We were planning on spending the evening in the veranda, just talking and lounging and eating the chips that we brought but because of Jojie's condition (for lack of a better term... hehehe!) and probably because of tiredness as well, I decided to go to bed early. Jojie felt bad because he knew how much I wanted to just talk so he snuggled beside me and we just played a game of Questions while just lying down beside each other. Questions is a reallly lame game I invented. We just take turns asking each other a question. That's it! The questions can be about anyting and everything. It may sound really boring but its' a lot of fun because we try to come up with really creative questions and at the same time, we learn so many things about each other. :)

Friday night's Questions was really fun. Learned new things about my husband. Saya lang! :)

We slept around 12midnight (spent about 3 hours playing questions) and the best thing was we actually slept cuddling and facing each other that night [Haaay! Long explanation... At home, Jojie sleeps on the right side of the bed so he can be nearer the door, you know, just in case something happens, and since I have to sleep on my left (to ease my breathing), I sleep facing the wall and my back to him. What I do is just make sure that a part of my body is touching a part of his (like linked legs or something).] But because of the bed arrangement in the cottage, Jojie had to sleep in the left side of the bed so we sleot facing each other.] I slept soundly that night although I was half aware of the sounds of the waves crashing. It was a really good night. :)

SATURDAY

We woke up earlier than we expected. We set the alarm at 7:00am but we woke up around 6:00am. The view from the veranda was simply amazing. I dream of waking up every morning to a view such as this one. I dream of having a house overlooking the sea. I dream of being able to walk the shores every morning and being able to smell the salt in the air. I remember there was a few times my parents wanted to migrate our whole family to the province but then we couldn't leave the hustle and bustle and the comforts of Manila and plans just fell through. Honestly speaking, I'm also not sure if I can actually live a very placid way of life but being able to wake up and see the ocean outside your window... wow, ang ganda lang talaga!

When we were fully awake, we packed our bags and readied ourselves for breakfast and our day at Sepok Island (read: packed all our chips and the last pack of strawberries, hehehe!). We went to the the restaurant and had breakfast. This was included with the resort's package eh so no choice kami here but it was okay so no complaints there. I had daing na bangus with mango juice and Jojie had beef tapa with coffee. Breakfast was yummy. Filling, too.

We proceeded to the dive shop to rent snorkeling gears. We were supposed to rent a mask and a snorkel each pero syempre umandar ang pagiging matipid ng asawa ko kasi may goggles naman daw siya so wag na lang. Haaaaay!

We then boarded the boat which would take us to Sepok Island. Nakakahiya but I'm really super scared of falling into the water (And I love the beach for crying out loud! Hahaha!) that I kept on screaming while I was boarding the boat. All I had to do was step from the bamboo bridge I was standing on, to the bow of the boat which, by the way, I must say, was bobbing up and down because it was, of course, already in the water. I was so scared. I kept thinking that I might slip and fell that I held on to the boatmen so hard.

Sepok Island, Eagle Point's private island, was 15 minutes away. A bit far actually but the boat ride was enjoyable. The boat was pretty fast (mga 18 knots daw sabi ng asawa ko) and the wind felt refreshing on my face. Also, of all the pictures we took during the trip, it was the pics that we took while on the boat that I liked most. It captured how carefree we were. :)

When we got to Sepok, surprise, surprise, it indeed had white sand! The sand on the beach was like the sand in Bora... the worst part of Bora but still, Bora! Mwahahaha!

We got off the boat and put our stuff in one of the tables. Eagle Point has a roofed place with tables and chairs and lots of duyans for afternoon naps. :) We went snorkeling right away. Since it was my first time to snorkel in a long time, I was panicking at first. All I could hear underwater was my breathing! After a while, got used to it and started to really enjoy the view underwater! :)

I love the ocean! Was amazed with the multi-colored fish and the differently-shaped corals. Ang ganda-ganda!

Jojie was a bit disappointed though because there were lots of dead corals. :( Nakaka-sad. We swam over a particular place with just dead corals and it felt like we were in a cemetery. :(

Since I was pretty confident, I wanted to swim further but Jojie did not want to. He said it was dangerous because it was just the two of us. I reasoned that I was wearing a life vest so there was no need to worry but he was adamant. In the end, I told him that I'll just swim a little further out. I knew he was getting irritated but I can be really stubborn sometimes. So I swam again and just enjoyed the view of the ocean floor. When I resurfaced, I was so far from him and from the beach. I told Jojie (shouted, actually, so he can hear me) that I'll swim towards him. I knew he was galit na kasi he just said "Bumalik ka na." I started to swim towards him but the current kept me from moving. That was the time I started to panic. I realized how dangerous it really was to be in the open sea (okay, okay, exagg kasi we were not in the open sea but still). I closed my eyes and prayed to the Lord to help me swim back to Jojie. Natakot talaga ako kasi I don't even know how to swim. After several minutes, I finally reached him. That was when I realized malayo pa rin pala kami sa beach. It was easier though because we were swimming together. I prayed again kasi my legs were starting to tire. After another several minutes, we were able to reach the beach. *sigh of relief*

We stayed in the common area and claimed one duyan as our own. Aside from us, there were two or three other families. The place was peaceful and the facilities were okay. Not amazing but okay. We passed time eating strawberries (with melted chocolate), pringles, and the other chicheria we brought. :)

We had our lunch prepared around 1pm. We ordered grilled chicken and pork. The meal supposed to come with rice and buttered vegetables but we were served rice and pancit canton instead. No complains there. :) Food was okay. Jojie liked their gravy. Since dun din iniihaw yung pork and chicken, mainit pa. At first, I was tempted to get their P500/person inihaw package (comes with inihaw pork, chicken, fish, and prawns plus rice and pancit canton) but after what happened to Jojie, we decided to just get one order of pork inihaw and one order of chicken inihaw. Malaki naman pala yung servings so we had a hard time finishing the food. Buti na lang hindi umandar yung last-meal syndrome ko! Hahaha!

After lunch, what else but rest again??? Hehehe! As Kat, one of our dearest friends, would say, buhay baboy! Hehehe! We played tong-its and pusoy [won more times than lost! mwehehehe! :)] and basically just lazed around.

Fell asleep on the duyan after playing cards. Jojie took a very unbecoming picture of me while sleeping which I won't let anyone see! Salbaheng asawa ko!

We tried snorkeling again around 4pm but after 15 minutes decided to just go back to the resort to try snorkeling there instead.

We boarded the boat again (This time, wasn't so scared anymore. :)) When we got back, we brought all our stuff to our cottage and then proceeded to the salt-water pool because Jojie wanted to swim with the resort's black-tipped sharks (baby sharks lang naman! :)) Ang funny dito, when I first told Jojie about the salt-water pool (back when I first reserved our rooms), he was nonchalant about it. When we first saw the pool, sabi niya "Yan na yan? Yan na yang excited ka na pool?! Yan na yung pinagmamalaki nila? Sus!" Grrrr! Kaines talaga! He was trying to annoy me and well, he succeeded. Kaya laking tawa ko na lang nung mas excited pa siyang lumangoy dun sa salt-water pool kasama yung baby sharks. Ayoko ngang patulan yun "swim with the sharks" ek-ek pero siya, talaga naman!! Hahaha! He donned complete snorkeling gear (he borrowed my mask and snorkel. hehe!) and even a life vest so he can just float quietly so as not to disturb the sharks. I think he enjoyed it so much he almost forgot that I was on the edge of the pool waiting for him. Tuwang-tuwa ang bata! :)

When he got out of the pool, he realized how comfortable it is to have a snorkel and a mask (not goggles) so we went to the dive shop to rent a set for him (Hay! If only he listened to me in the first place. A good wife, however, never says 'I told you so'... she just smirks! Hahaha!)

We snorkeled for almost an hour until I saw the sun setting. Friday pa lang, I told myself I would take a picture of a perfect sunset while we were there so I couldn't let the opportunity pass. We swam back to the dock and climb up the pier (shortest way) to go back to the resort. I almost ran back to the room to get the camera. Buti na lang umabot ako and I was able to get a perfect sunset shot from our veranda. :)

Saturday night was our date night so we dressed up for dinner. Jojie wore a polo and the slacks we bought in Thailand and I wore a skirt and a tank top. :) We had pizza for dinner. I thought kulang sa amin kasi parang 9" lang pero sobra pa pala. After dinner we went to the game room and played tabe tennis. We both didn't know how to play so we just hit the ball back and forth. It was fun! Para kaming mga bata, we would count the number of times we hit the ball tapos excited kami pag matagal yung balikan nung bola! :) After a while, a family entered the game room to play pool and we decided to just go back to our cottage. :)
We were both tired from snorkeling so we decided to go to bed early but not before we were able to make tambay at the veranda, drinking our favorite Lipton green tea and munching on chips. A perfect buhay-baboy way of ending another beautiful day. Mwehehe!!!

SUNDAY

We woke up around 8am. We took baths and since this was our check-out day :(, we started packing our stuff. We had breakfast at the restaurant. This time we both ordered tapa. Mas yummy kasi yung tapa eh than the bangus. Obviously I do not like taking risks when it comes to food.

We walked around after breakfast. Took lots of pictures. Then Jojie had this wild idea of going down to the rocky part of the shore while I stay at the restaurant's veranda to take pictures of him. Hay naku! At yang lagay na yan, ako daw ang mahilig magpa-picture ha! Hahaha! So anyway, he went down and I was able to take several pictures of him. Joined him a while later and we choreographed some shots. Saya ng may tripod kasi you don't have to make pakiusap to other people to take your picture.

As usual, after Jojie's trek, napagod na siya so we both decided to go back to our room. We rested for a while then proceeded to fully pack our stuff. We checked out just before noon. This was where our three-day vacation ends. A real honeymoon, it was. :)

My newest Starbucks passion

Passion iced tea... simply relaxing!