Escapism..Part II

OFF TO VISIT THE NEXT TOWN



after a night of excessive indulgence with alcohol.. two bottles of red wine, one litre tequila, 8 bottles of beer, 3/4 bottle of tapoy (local rice wine)..laughter and dares, and several games of pusoy dos where i emerged the winner, we finally called it a night..

highlight of the evening was when za dared nette... nettte didn't have any money anymore because she thought there was an ATM in Banaue..(just like she thought that there were bars in batad!!) ohhhh hot mama, the girl was wearing glittery low cut blouse with makeup and shawl..stuck in batad with four gamblers and alcoholics with no bar in sight!

so the dare was for her to EAT one sachet of nescafe 3 in 1 and za will pay her Php250 bucks...man, the things people do just to get a good breakfast in the morning!!! hahahaha we were up in stitches at nette's antics and axel upped the ante to 500 bucks if she will eat two.. nette stuck to the original deal of 250 for 1 sachet plus 30bucks that james, axel and i threw in.. after grimacing and gagging and swallowing hard..nette won the dare! she was happy enough to be able to buy breakfast in the morning! whew, what a night...

ALL TRAILS LEAD TO SIMON'S PLACE


the morning after found us sluggish and bleary-eyed.. but all of us decided that we will be going to cambulo at 10am and be there by lunch time. axel will be staying there for the night and taking kinakin the morning after.. whereas the four of us will head back to batad by 3pm and bangaan the morning after..

as we started trekking, axel fell behind and nette had a perfect excuse to stay behind owing to the fact that she did not want to leave her NFF behind!! wheeee... hahaha. the view from this high up was even more beautiful... an hour after, i felt my right arm going numb and tingly from time to time.. and when i looked down it was getting bigger actually.. same thing happened to me while i was in kibungan.. the altitude affects my right arm only.. but i didn't mind it too much.. but i did wonder how i would fare with higher altitudes..

after the dizzying trek along the terrace's wall, we made it to cambulo right on schedule.. lunch and a little nap inside the country cabin made the world so right!

the place was filled with art and crafts and a fireplace. it was so comforting.. james talked to the local teacher in cambulo (it had something to do with book donations to their school) but after a few sentences in their dialect i was lost.. so i drifted off to sleep once again and dreaming of steam bath, jacuzzi and swedish massage...

by three pm we were ready to go... we left nette's NFF in cambulo and we mercilessly teased nette to stay behind and provide axel with her company.. to which she replied "eh, wala naman akong gamit noh" aha!!! we couldn't resist teasing her some more.. so what if she had her things with her (not to mention her "bar clothes" ) will she stay behind??!! hahahaha

james being james.. chose another trail, and then another one and then another one in coming back.. these were all ascents.. i think he was trying to look for the highest point.. or just wanted to torture us or something.. but it was fun though.. for i believe that every trail there leads to mang simon's place.. it truly appeared that way..

the trail that james chose lead us to batad view point and this clearing in the mountain.. it elicited another round of wowww from me and za and we told nette to hurry down so she could appreciate the view as well..


LIQUOR BAN

that night after taking a bath and dinner.. we were sitting around wondering what to drink.. i didn't want beer..and besides it costs too much 40 bucks per bottle.. i would need at least 6 to get a buzz.. we now missed the wine and the tequila..

nette, even if her legs were hurting.. and even though she had a lot of scratches in her arms and legs (from falling down several times on the trail), and even if she didn't have enough money.. went out in search of gin..

she came back to tell us that there was actually a liquor ban in batad due to the fact that some locals create disturbance when they had too much to drink.. it's no wonder since they can afford to buy gin after guiding tourists around batad.. but she had good news though.. gras! (as the local pronounced it) is for sale and abundant.. we all had a laugh and teased her once more in her penchant for getting NFFs..

with no liquor in hand... i finally finished my book that za brought.. we had a quiet night.. and we woke up early to start trekking to bangaan. we were told by mang simon that bangaan will be a 3hour trek by us lowlanders.. there would be a jeep in bangaan leaving for banaue at 11am.. not wanting to take a chance, we decided to start trekking at 7am giving us enough time to be there before the jeep leaves..

RACE WITH THE LOLAs

half of bangaan trail offered us magnificent views.. by this time my batteries had run out in my camera so i relied on james' shots (hopefully i would get copies of it before i get all wrinkly and old!)

an hour and 30 minutes after, we saw two old women beside a stream.. one was preparing moma and the other taking a bath.. we passed them just before coming up to the main road.. we were happy enough that we beat manong simon's timeframe.. so we celebrated it by stopping for a bit under a shade... james,za,and i sat under a tree while waiting for nette.. when she came up we saw the two lola's as well..

when they were near us, james talked to them asking them how far bangaan was from where we were standing.. the ladies answered him, and to our benefit they spoke in english.. :) they told us that there was a shortcut and we should follow them.. i thought these ladies were slow.. but damn they were steady even going uphill...

the shortcut was a cut across two roads where one was elevated... going up steep steps once more..the first old lady lead the way and she and james arrived on top almost at the same time.. i was following james and za was following me.. the second lola was right behind za.. and she was gaining on us!! i gritted my teeth and continued climbing through labored breathing and all!.. damn, i will not let lola gain on me.. hahahha that became my motivating factor..

nette on the other hand said, " i'm okay you guys, i'll just follow lola".. it so happened that lola way way ahead of her.. again we teased her that she was eating lola's dust!!

OF CHANCE ENCOUNTERS

I was surprised to hear james speaking in tagalog right after he came up those steps.. i hurried along to see what's going on.. and lo and behold!! jet and company were on top of a jeepney on their way to mayoyao town... yipee... we rode along with them and i stayed on top as well...

it was a good thing that we chanced upon them since apparently there was no jeep in bangaan for the day.. so our trip got more interesting since we were able to go farther than we planned.. i guess i can say that it's the best way to cap the day.. riding along a winding trail..looking down on the verdant valleys below... seeing the changing hues and patterns as light hit the trees and mountains..

every now and then we stopped to take photos... these girls were also very interested in photography and james took excellent photos.. never did the mountains and the rivers seem more alive in color..

PAUPERS ON THE WAY HOME
there is no other way to say it... but we were sooo poor after batad.. since nette did not withdraw and since we ran up a bill of 3k+ at simon's place all of us were left with barely enough money to pay for taxi in manila, not to mention to buy pasalubongs...

we were laughing so much with our predicament!! i only had 175, james 50 and za found another 150 on her pocket while nette, having the least money ended up with the most!! she still had that 280 bucks that we gave her by eating coffee!! we were in stitches when we realized it..

so we were still able to eat a very decent dinner in batad... but we couldn't afford to buy those word carvings!! awwww.. and i so wanted to buy those stools.. za was the only one who bought something... for 20 bucks, she got a woven belt!!