Sayona-lah

bye folks, i'm off to visit marlon in lah lah land (read: singapore) next week. it's my first vacation leave since i started working (to think some people save up their years and years' worth of leaves -- gross!) so i'm pretty excited. i've lined up a whole gamut of thrill-a-minute things to do, like

- wake up at 2pm every day
- play final fantasy x and whatever new japanese horror games marlon has for his PS2
- window shop
- do some actual shopping
- swim and bake at the award-winning trellis tower poolside
- pick up marlon from work

you get the drift. i figure i need the sloth after all the harrowing things i did to get a flight AND get my passport renewed. the latter experience made me glad that you only have to renew your passport once every five years.

so, wish me luck in completing the last leg of my pre-departure preparations -- packing, picking up my new passport, and actually making it to the flight on time.

have a great week!

The adventures of Snorkelstrumpet

no underwater pictures, sorry (my beloved k700i has its limitations). just a few quick takes of a perfect day -- baby jellyfish notwithstanding :-)

guess who was really happy that the lifevest made him look broad-chested and manly? snorkelstrumpet plays the kilig accessory, complete with hand on swelling chest.

an interesting experience: makiangkas sa bangka (for a fifty bucks per head).

Viva Italia!

a little slice of italy on the beach. i gave marlon major grief about hunting for this pizzeria, which is owned by the father (bald guy in blue) of the former arco baleno proprietor. the first bite of this sumptuous, thin-crunchy-and-flour-dusted pizza certainly justified the hunt.

i wonder if these guys are in hiding from the mafia or something.

Foam party

this flood of pictures is from two minibreaks. yes, two weekends in a row -- i'm such a beach glutton. nakakabitin, eh.

the second weekend actually had pretty bad weather. cloud cover was extremely thick, and it rained for most of the second day. (i'm not even going to talk about the boat ride back to the mainland.) being a hard-core sun worshipper, i was crushed.

fortunately, the universe has a way of making up for these things. thus this series of pictures, and these beautiful memories:

... the sea in a soft, sparkling shade of turquoise that i'd never seen before (me, beach glutton since the age of three)
... three to four foot-high waves that positively thundered
... meters and meters of white sea foam kissing my toes
... sitting at the shoreline just to get pummeled by wave after wave (now i know from experience what 'the pounding surf' really means). not just pummeled, but log-rolled, tossed, and that onomatopoeic tagalog word: semplang
... swimming out past the breakers and letting the giant waves gently carry me back to shore

me: god, look at that clear turquoise swell. it's like a curl of glass.

marlon: eeeeaaaghhh!

he thoroughly enjoyed this. trust me.

look at that ocean. LOOK AT IT!!!!!!!

whenever i see sea foam, by the way, i think of the original little mermaid story. she dies and turns into sea foam. sad no? during this weekend, though, the sea foam was more like the unicorns in the last unicorn. they were really galloping. whoever thought of showing the trapped unicorns as cresting waves was absolutely brilliant.

i have to show one flattering picture of me to make up for this next one.

the expression on my face should tell you all you need to know about the waves that day.

bubble bath, anyone?

ok fine. i may be a lazy beach slug, but i have to admit: i really enjoyed this.

my new suit is care of the enterprising beach bums at gypsy swimwear. it has to be the most flattering suit i've ever owned. it was sold to me in less than ten minutes flat. get thee to the mall! quick!

Camwhorage on the high seas

desperate sun worshipper + instant golden-browner
bookworm/beach slug + hyper aquasport buff
chip nibbler and pizza hunter + coke-and-inihaw fan
deepa + marlon

Hello there, little boys and girls

wonder what they find so fascinating down there

hagis boys at the pier

oriental mindoro's very own prepubescent 'mean girls'

"but i don't WANT to go home, mommy!" (i hear ya, kid. i hear ya.)

Tequila sunsets -- drink up!

my favorite shot is the one with the young dad and his baby girl (alam mo naman, ganyan talaga kaming mga fatherless). i will never tire of taking photos of glorious philippine sunsets. when i look at these, i feel so blessed to live in this country. this is way out in the province, so there's very little pollution around to give these sunsets that 'angry' red color you see in manila.

brownie points if you can guess which one was taken on a different day. :-)

Bara-bara couple gets just rewards

the only freaking time marlon and i got up early for any sort of tourist activity (like i said, we are the couple who was late to the night safari), the fates stamp down their collective foot. "thou shalt not be early!"

naturally, the bus breaks down. it didn't get that we were supposed to succumb to the delicious summer heat, not it.

this is the face of someone who gets up at 4am to be at the beach by nine, and is sorely disappointed by the all-too-human limitations of a totally not human object. irate beachgoers waiting for the next bus to happen along (which it did in about ten minute, thank goodness. otherwise it would have been a perfectly sunny, cloudless sky gone to potty). then, of course, the boat that we're supposed to get on breaks down before we even hop in. right. absolutely late to a good time through no more fault of our own, eyebags growing and sprits dangerously close to singing, what else were we to do? nothing but play photographer and generally be bangag. the "hagis" kids at the port. they dive for coins, food, and anything of value tossed to them by passengers on the pier. marlon and i tossed them our pack of skyflakes, because they definitely needed it more than we did.