Wow Philippines 2006: Barkada beach trip

My high school (grade school even) barkada started taking annual beach trips in 2003. Our very first one was to a friend's place in Bagac, Bataan called "El Paradiso." It was a beautiful private beach, with nothing but a covered area for sleeping and eating, an outdoor kitchen, and some bathrooms--the bare necessities. Hmmm, I really miss that place. And hanging out with the cheerdancers!

I think it's an unspoken rule that the barkada would try to go to a different beach every trip. The following year, we went to Reese's tito's place in Anilao. The year after that, we went to Laiya and to Montemar. For 2006, we went to Coral View Resort in Morong, Bataan (coralviewmorong.com). Nice place, it just opened last December. It's got light sand and fairly clean water. The rooms we got each had two queen-sized beds (one was a pull-out), air-conditioning, cable, and a clean bathroom. I think there are bigger rooms with a sala. By the beach, there are these little huts where you can sit, protected from the sun, and also a couple of hammocks. Great for overnight trips.

The original plan was to leave Friday night so we could catch the meteor shower, but we left Saturday morning instead, so I missed out on making a few wishes. After lunch, Marns, Cris, and I challenged the two boys to a volleyball match--H was in Silang for work, Jiggy's still in Nepal covering the Everest climb. Mars (Maverick) and Mike (Iceman) got an ass-whooping. Ha! Well, ok, they won the first set. And it was 3-on-2. But it's always a great feeling winning over boys. Haha.

At sunset, we walked on the beach to Marns's family's soon-to-be-completed house nearby. It was nice having a bit of a heart-to-heart with Ching on the way and back; in fact, it was great being with the people I grew up with. It's when I'm with them that I realize how much I miss being around them. Later that night, while the boys played poker, Marns's Tito Jun brought out the Goldshlager. Thankfully, they let me off coz of my allergies (I'm more of a spectator when it comes to these things. And a cleaner-upper. Hehe), but the other girls had to finish the bottle. And we got to see vintage Reese in action. Haha. So much for our planned bonfire. I contented myself with munching on some unroasted marshmallows. Mmmm.

The others woke up pretty early Sunday morning, considering the night that they had. After breakfast, we made our way to the breakwater some meters from the shore, where we just talked--about mundane things like Gilmore Girls (I think, like Conan O'Brien's wife, half our barkada has a girl crush on Alexis Bledel. Haha. She is such a sweetheart!)--and looked at tiny fish. Took a few pics, including a 2006 version of the Batangas pic (which I wasn't part of. Boo! This year's version below), got a bit of sun, packed up, and reluctantly headed back to Manila.

"Don't you wish life were just an endless vacation?" I asked Ching. It must have been a few weeks' worth of stress talking. Some people I know often dream of a life of "LOI"--living on interest: having an obese bank account which makes work completely unnecessary. But even if I did have some trust fund, I don't think I'd have it in me to completely give up working. Give me a couple of months and I'll likely be itching to accomplish something. (What. A. Dork.) I just need the occasional trip to keep me sane. AMWSLAI, don't fail me now!