beach bums & tan lines

after months of planning & schedule checking, the planned out-of-town trip with mba friends came to fruition as we boarded the bus along buendia ave early friday morning. we were en route to batangas pier to ride the ferry boat to puerto galera (uhmmm also called poor man's boracay - pmb) and it was exciting because it was the first time we were going out of town together. annie, jap, eric & i were giddy talking about what we planned to wear, how much we spent on clothes for the trip, gossiping, taking pictures and just plain happy we were all in havaiinas. there were only four of us leaving for galera friday as two others couldn't take VL's that day so they planned to follow the next day.

the ferry ride was uneventful and we docked in galera a little before noon, settled down and had some hearty lunch. it was still a no rice meal for me but i'm getting the hang of it already so it was no big deal. we decided to squeeze in some snooze time and went back to the beach a little after 3pm and decided to hang around and check out some eye candy. now galera's beach isn't really comparable to bora -- there's really no white sand and you have to wonder why "white beach" ever was called "white" to begin with. i thought there were quite a number of people littering the beach that friday so we contented to hang out by the shore while a couple of my friends took a dip.

i first saw "blue" walking along the shores of the beach in his board shorts. he was actually quite lean, well-toned, flat abs, great hair and a disarming smile. he was quite goodlooking and it was obvious he was comfortable with being goodlooking cause he clowned around with his friends. needless to say, he was our eye candy for the day.

after dinner, we decided to hang-out in one of the beach-front bars, ordered some more food while sipping on the the 1st bottle of red wine my friends brought to the trip. wow, i must have had about 4 glasses of wine since i was feeling goofy an hour & a half later. we didn't really stay quite late friday night and we were in all in la la land around midnight. there's still tomorrow to do some partying.

we woke up sometime around 8am the following day feeling refreshed and ready to bum it out on the beach. we had a great breakfast of cheese pancakes and omellette, donned our beach best and splashed sunblock all over. i spent the better part of the morning bumming it out by the shore, contented with people walking past while watching my arms grow darker by the hour. yikes ... after a while, i realized "what the heck?" i was at the beach and i decided that people will envy my tan lines for sure -- unless they become too black that its not considered tan anymore. we goofed around a bit more, taking more pictures and noticing that there were more & more ferry boats docking every 30mins. fcuk, there were just too many people now and its not even noon yet. the flurry of people coming all tugging along their bags obviously was foolish enough not to reserve a place to stay. i whispered "good luck" softly, trying to hide the mischievous grin behind it.

jm & arnold (they call him "naughty" or "naught-naught") arrived around 5pm. they got stuck at the pier due to the sheer volume of people trying to get to galera. there's now more credence to galera being called PMB, its just too accessible and too cheap an out-of-town that most can afford it. good thing we weren't really after rest & relaxation this time around or we have been totally bummed out. we stayed by the beach until the sunset, some friends cooling it off by the beach. we did catch "blue" a number of times while we sat on the sand, ipod on one hand, camera on the other. he's still our eye candy on day 2.

dinner was at a familiar place, we decided to pig it out at manolo's where we had lunch and breakfast. right after dinner, we decided to find a place where we could hang out and get a few drinks but seeing how much people docked the day, that was going to be a challenge. we decided to hang out at the far side of the beach by the shore and sipped on our 2nd bottle of red wine. i was feeling good an hour later and we finally found a vacant table at one of the stalls behind us. we had a few cans of beer, some barbecue and finally a pitcher of mindoro sling. quite honestly, i was tipsy around 1am and decided to call it a night. the alcohol was getting to me and i didn't want to risk having a paralyzing headache the following morning or worse, throw up all over the sand. that is just so unposh.

despite the almost 2 glasses of water i downed before going to bed, my head hurt bad the following morning. 2 advils really work a miracle and i was relieved an hour later. we had breakfast at the usual place and checked out around noon still deciding where we should hang out since the boat ride we finally got tickets for was to leave at 5pm. we decided to just stick it out with some of jap's friends who we thought had rooms reserved but instead were camping out. it wasn't really a big deal cause we just needed a place to stow away our stuff before we the boat trip. lunch unfortunately came at 3pm, too many people having lunch or just cooling off with shakes in hand. we took more pictures later on while we were wating for the boat.

the boat came around 6pm, it was actually more than an hour delayed and we got seats at the far back end of the boat. it stopped in another part of the island where it tried to load more passengers which irked a lot of the passengers and prompted us to start scrambling for the life vests just in case. things settled down as some of the would-be passengers were persuaded to disembark -- it was quite dark already at this time and i was quite scared of the boat ride back. mentally, i was surveying the boat and the passengers and figuring out my escape plan. fcuk, there was none, i was squeezed in between people and the nearest exit is a small opening. if the boat capsizes, i was certain i will drown. i prayed real hard during the more than an hour boat trip and managed a sigh of relief when we finally reached the pier.

the bus trip was ok. we got to manila sometime around 11pm and since the bus didn't stop at alabang, i had to settle for magallanes. i could have taken a cab but i was feeling courageous after the boat ride that i decided to forego the cab and take on the public transportation. for the first time in so many years, i rode a public bus (provincial trips not included), a public jeep and a tricycle going home. i paid in bills because i didn't really know how much the fare was but it was quite fun to relive those years when i used to ride the public transportation.

all in all, the galera trip was quite fun. i managed to hang out with friends from school outside of the usual classroom, impromptu dinners and movies. too bad JM didn't treat us to a song. that guy can really sing, hope he tries out for pinoy idol.

despite blue, it was still my baby who i missed most. so i'm glad to be back.