Supertrip

Got home from our trip yesterday. We were supposed to head home the day before, but due to the many places (there was Naga, Legaspi, and Donsol) to see plus the little time we had, dad decided to extend our stay by a day.

The trip was average: I had many fun moments, but it was equal if not overriden by annoying happenings caused by some of my annoying relatives (particularly by the grown-ups who are miserably single). -_-

I won't be giving a blow-by-blow account of the trip (really?), that'd be too boring and time-consuming. Anyway!

I. On the way

The trip takes eight hours by car, so in order to prevent traffic we had to leave at 4 AM. We met up with our relatives in some gasoline station an hour later.

I've always known that Kyle, my younger brother, is a super-smart kid, and in this trip he again made me aware of how he may be smarter than me. -_- Here's how the conversation went in the car:

(*My family talks about my armpits, which is really annoying*)
Me: Bryan, you forgot to wax my armpits last night.
Bryan: Oh, yeah! I told you I should've waxed it earlier.
Me: It's okay, I waxed them off myself.
Dad: It's really hard, isn't it, having a forest for an armpit.
Me: -_- ...
Mom: (*Defending me*) Kring'll laser her armpits one day.
Kring: Yeah! That I will. Laser.
Kyle: (*Defining laser*) Light amplification by stimulation; emission of radiation.
Everyone: (*Silence, then blood trickles from my nose*)

...

When I was 12 I didn't talk about such things!

What's up with that!

Aren't the eldest children supposed to be the ones to get all the brains their parents have!

So we later found out that he got that definition from the club he joined two years ago, the Book Lovers Club. When did books start to have definitions of lasers? -_-

Moving on...

There have been many breathtaking sites on the way to Bicol. But my favorite was the Lamon Bay in Gumaca.


I swear, the bay looks amazing. This picture doesn't do it justice.

So, after a grueling nine-and-a-half hours, we finally made it to Camsur Watersports Complex, or CWC, the resort we stayed at in Bicol.

II. CWC

A brief introduction: CWC is reputed to be the best cable wake park in Asia.

We stayed in the Villa del Ray Villas, which is the most expensive villa in CWC. We had no choice, by the way, coz the other villas were full. We got two rooms, since one room isn't enough for all of us (there were 12 of us).

And have I told you of how we cheat our way to these types of things? Sneaky, I know. And we actually already got banned from some resorts. -_-V Anyway, what we always do is: 1. Not tell the truth of how many we really are and 2. Bring a rice cooker, water heater, food, etc even if it's not allowed. Money is important, people. Must save as much as we can.

Anyway, the villa is so nice! So cozy: the bed and pillows are soft, plus the comfort room and bath room are so appealing to use. Hehe. Plus there's also an outdoor jacuzzi, and the TV has cable, too! Love.♥ I actually thought to myself, when I get a job, I'm going to have a house like this. Bigger, of course, but like this.

There I am, trying out the jacuzzi.

III. Second day: CWC + Mount Mayon

Since CWC is the best cable wake park in Asia, we shouldn't miss on trying wakeboarding ourselves. Though I'm not sure whether we wakeboarded or kneeboarded... whatever.

It was quarter to nine when we went to the man-made lake to go wakeboarding. I kinda expected that the grown-ups would just be watching and not joining us to go wakeboarding, and I thought right. It was just me with my brothers and my two cousins.

From left: Kyle, Bryan, me, Drex, and Ryan

Wakeboarding/Kneeboarding/Whatever we did there wasn't so bad when we got the hang of it. At first it was hard to hold on to the cable, I didn't expect it to be that fast. Plus my arms and hands hurt from holding on. But later on I got hooked, although I didn't last longer than one whole round, and then I'd fall to the water.

By the way, Tita Rose was sooo embarrassing. When I got back from my first round at the lake, she saw that I was full of sand, thus she called me "Miss Earth" After that, whenever I'd go wakeboarding again, she would shout at the top of her lungs, "GO MISS EARTH!!!" and people (which included LOTS of foreigners) would go look around, saying, huh, there's a Miss Earth candidate here? And when they see me they're all, oh, so it was a joke, after all. So embarrassing!

After lunch we went to Legaspi, a good one and a half hour from CWC, to see the Mayon Volcano (or as my Tita Rose called it, Mount Volcano) from the Cagsawa Ruins. When we got there we were disappointed as Mayon was covered by the clouds. Turns out, the Mayon Volcano seldom shows itself in its full glory, because clouds always envelope it.

With my brothers at the submerged tower

With mom at the submerged church ruins

Apparently, mom is trying to make me look vain.

It was here that dad found us a tourist guide, Kuya Jules. He would be with us on the next day of our trip.

By this time I was already worrying about whether or not we'll make it on time to CWC so that I could watch my favorite anime, Samurai X on Studio 23, 8 PM. I wanted to watch the episode especially since it would feature my long-time crush, Soujiro Seta (loved him since 5 years ago).

So handsome... -_- too bad you're just a cartoon.

So when we were finished with the Cagsawa Ruins, I thought, finally we're going to go back now... but it turns out that we weren't. We still went to some mountain top. And it was already 7 PM when the adults decided to return to CWC, and with a hour and a half trip back I didn't get to watch the episode with my beloved Soujiro. My cousins and brothers sympathized with me since they're also avid watchers of Samurai X.

And here was when a particular unmarried relative started to get annoying. Argh. So irritating. I won't put it into details now, but s/he wanted the trip to go his/her way, and s/he wants us younger ones to behave to the point where just a little witty remark will make him/her turn to us and give us a mean look. S/he has lost the child in her.

IV. Third day: to Donsol

By this day Kuya Jules was with us to be our tourist guide. We went to various places on our way to Donsol, which is in Sorsogon.

--> Hoyop Hoyopan Cave

Now here is a good part of the trip. The Hoyop Hoyopan Cave is beautiful and exciting. And who would've thought that there'd be human fossils there, dating back from 200 BC? I saw it with my own eyes, a part of the feet and the ribs. Too bad I didn't get to touch it, though.


The funniest thing happened inside the cave; too bad I didn't get to record it since it's worthy to be aired on Bitoy's Funniest Videos. See, there's a part of the cave wherein the holes are small and you have to squeeze your way through them in order to move on to the other parts of the cave. All of us didn't have difficulty in squeezing through; it's Filipino-sized, after all. But my huge Tita Rose had a different story. Half of us have already passed through the holes, and it was her turn. She couldn't fit! All of us had to go through before she could try to squeeze herself again. It was REALLY FUNNY. She tried every possible move, bent her body in every possible angle for the sake of going in. It took so long, and all of us were laughing. It was hilarious, I tell you.

(Okay, just now Kyle corrected some of the grammatical errors he found on this post. T_____T I hate him.)

My family + relatives.

Seated: Ninong Ipoy and me, holding a crystal
Huddled on the left, clockwise: Drex (in green shirt), Ninang Tetet, Ninong Joji, Ryan, Tita Rose, Ace, Bryan
Huddled to the right: Mom, Kyle, Dad

We brought some crystals as souvenirs, and the crystals are said to have energizing properties. Just submerge them on your drinking/bathing water for a while and presto. Energizing water.

--> Mayon Volcano

We had lunch after that and went to the Mayon Volcano (not at the tip, of course). We ate there; and it was also there where I found out of the tragedy that struck Kuya Jules. His mother and younger sibling were swept away and killed by the typhoon Reming. I feel sorry for him because of that.


--> Waterfalls

I was tired and wanted to rest after lunch, but the trip wasn't over yet. We went to a waterfall, where we didn't bathe at all. Too bad. This time it was Drex - Tita Rose's son - who made a blooper. He stumbled through one of the boulders. Dad laughed so hard that he put Drex to shame. Poor kid.

And after that we finally went to the place in Donsol where we would be staying. It was a humble beach resort, the TV had no cable (so I can't watch Samurai X again) and there were no fancy stuff or whatsoever.

Then came another blooper from Tita Rose. The kids, along with me and Tita Rose, were at the beach, and since Tita Rose and I were just there to watch the kids, she decided that both of us play a game. She drew a big circle and told me that we run along the lines of the circle and tag each other. So we did. I was having so much fun running around the circle (we looked like idiots), and after a while, when she tagged me she lost control of herself, ran outside the circle and fell face-first to the sand just near the water. AND I LAUGHED SOOOO HARD! I'm laughing now just by the thought of it. Anyway, as I said, I laughed so hard that I peed in my shorts. That's how funny it was.

IV. Day IV: Whale-watching and going home

The reason why we went to Donsol in the first place was to interact with the whale sharks, or butanding as we call it. So at 8 AM we went to another resort, just near the one we were at, as that was the place where these interactions were financially settled.

Dad and Ninong Joji didn't bother coming, because aside from the butanding interaction being expensive (3,500 pesos), they also had to rest as they were going to drive us home.

Anyway, first up to see the butanding were me and Kyle, since there were only two guys who were with us so we had to go at it two at a time. And guess what I saw?

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A whale shark, baby. It's HUGE!

It was amazing. It's the first time I've seen a butanding so close. Kyle and Ryan were lucky, though; they were able to touch it.

We finished after three hours, after that we ate, packed our things, and went home. Though we went back to CWC to stay the night there; it was already 8 PM and dad didn't want to drive all the way home at an ungodly hour. And as usual, we cheated into sleeping in one of the hotel rooms.

V. Fourth day: HOME

We started at 8 AM. The only different thing about this trip is that we took a different route in Atimonan. We drove through the Quezon National Forest Park, and I tell you, it was AMAZING. Depending on the person, it may be seen as frightening or beautiful. But the park really was amazing. It was as if I was in a place where fairies and anitos reside. The trees were humongous, and the roads were all zigzagged. You MUST go there at lest once in your life.

We got home at 6 PM, just in time for American Idol. Phew! Finished, at last.