Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Saturday, January 19, 2013

BORA SERIES 3:Early in Delayed Out

BORA SERIES 3:
Early in Delayed Out

We arrived 20 minutes early to Boracay. It was not raining and the flight was a breeze. F & M won two eco-bags and gave me one. HM and I sat next to the exit and had to be asked if we were okay with the responsibilty that came with it. I was scared shitless but I agreed. I didn't realize I could not listen to music since I had to turn off my phone for the entire trip. Shemas. Note to self, bring music device next time you go on a flight, long or short. Also bring a camera because although the iphone5 may now take awesome pictures, you still can't use it while the plane is in the air. And you may miss the chance, your very first to be in the clouds.

The Europeans onboard were fun to watch, one guy took out a bottle, I knew it was alchohol at once and they proceeded to drinking the entire bottle, no cups whatsoever. It might have accounted for them being scared shitless of the bumpy ride on our relatively tiny aircraft. Still they were paler than what they already were when we landed. F & M said that they cheered when we landed safely. Pussies, said the girl who refused to be on any kind of plane if it had not been for the fact that she has been friends with these people for a decade and tickets had already been bought and paid for by someone else. But at least I had my phobia to blame. This one plane ride was a big deal for me, the fact that I survived it is giving my mother ideas. Jesus, she wants me to get a passport and go to Hongkong. The only thing that would remotely make me want to go to HongKong is to see Tita Loida. Why would I go on a formerly Brit controlled island now returned to China and go shopping? I barely want to go to the Ayala Malls for christ's sake. Anyway, so first flight was mentally scary but relatively uneventful. So I knew something had to happen to the return flight, right? Oh boy, was it ever true.

The flight was supposed to be Airphil in Caticlan but there was a delayed flight in the morning that dominoed the entire day into basically euphoria from a vacation erasing pile of mishaps. The intelligent lady printed out boardpasses when she had an inclining that we would not be able to get on the said flight on our ticket. She said out flight might board at five. I have worked in Expedia and might is not a word that should be used when it comes to these kinds of things. So I knew that we would be late. HM and I went ahead of the guys and rode a cab (big tricycle in the island) with R who was riding a bus to Iloilo. But later on, because of the delays, we ended up getting on the bus to Kalibo with the guys who apparently already had the right tickets (later HM had to get us rechecked so we could get out seats in the new plane we were supposed to get on). Our flight was diverted to Kalibo and we had to ride a bus, I don't know how long the trip was because I clocked out. Seriously clocked out, drool coming out of my mouth clocked out. Yuck, I know. This is a condition I only get into majorly when I have a hangover and I have not had one of those in a very long time.

Silver linings are my thing. And in this case it was seeing a real cocomangas shirt/jersey. We were lining up for our boarding passes when HM noticed it. I asked the guy to let me take a picture of the front. He was really not my type since I didn't like Chinesy La-salle type of guys (sorry that was both racist and schoolist at the same time but I hope you got my metaphor you know Asian chinese guy who is all I'm so pogi) and his friend said something like “Oh, you're like a celebrity.” and I wanted to say, “Hey more guy who looked like all the wrong parts of Korea Japan & China, shut the fuck up, I have a boner for the shirt and not your friend. And the fact that I am not even taking to you is just proof that if fugly girls like me won't even talk to you, you just need to go screw yourself.” But of course I didn't say that. And since I knew I would have to explain what cocomangas shirt guy looked like, I took a picture. He caught me. Opps. But I just had my Bora vacay, I was fully charged and did not give a rat's ass if he thought I was some stalker type fattie. I am still clapping after every sentence I type and saying, I want to do that too then puke my guts out and get hospitalized after. Mental note: Do this on my last day and/or ask future will be brought to Bora boyfriend to do it for me and gimme the shirt as a sign of his macho love for me. That is because he would have to be strong enough to drink my dad and several uncles under the table to get them to ok him to be a keeper. So a cocomangas survivor might just be someone they would approve of. But then again, I want to be able to do it. I wonder if old Carla would have been able to do it. Oh well, we can't all be sober. But the girl who fracks cocomangas friend might just need to be alchoholic to suck his white ass. Opps oh no I didn't.

HM & I ate bibimbap at a restaurant in front of the airport entrance in Caticlan and I must make note of this, DO NOT MIX IT if eating with HM. I forgot how she can't handle spicy food all that much. I think my bitch gauge is so up these days and I have been so insensitive in my being all cooped up in my room alone that I forgot to be considerate of other people's needs and taste in general. And I always complain about it to people who may or may not be helpful in this kind of situation because they always get their way or at least make other miserable so they get what they want.

It's not always a bad thing that they do that but I just need to know how to be sociable without being a pussy or clingy.

The flight was not so cool. We had to back up and I think I pissed off a couple of passengers because HM thought out seats would be in the back instead of the front where the number 3 seats were. I had to sit next to a guy who kept taking pictures with his camera. WITH FRACKING FLASH. I wanted to kick his knees for bumping mine all that time. The plane was not huge but there was enough space for him not to do that. And night flying is soooo night fun except when you see the lights in the city and it looks like what it does in airal shots in the movies. The fact that my eyes and brain saw it make it awesome. And despite the delays I was glad that we made it back safely.

So in the darkest hour, adventures are perhaps just lurking around the corner. I am glad I had reliable friends to get my out of my crazy during the whole trip. I gave them a lot of Ninya moments but I am just glad that they can laugh it off as usual. There is just no helping how I am and who I am and I am glad to know that somehow, though they may not understand all of it, they make an effort not to change me or hate me. And for those many days, I was glad I didn't have to wear any masks of any kind in front of people who are among the handful of people I allow to mock me or make fun of me without me cursing them under my breath. And only one person is allowed to do that at work. The rest need to be careful of what mask I wear around them because they never know what bad karma could bounce off me to them.

So I can now ride an airplane, it is still nerve-wrecking and I would still need to remember to equalize every time the pressure is pressing on my ears but I guess life lessons can be learned. Even when you are scared shitless to do it, doing something new and something you never thought you would be capable of might just let you ride the clouds.


**edit and pictures later**
to follow EPIC BATTLE DANCE ROYALE etc

 

BORA SERIES: 1 Of Flying and Fears

Bora 1 :

Of Flying and Fears

It was the adventure that I did not want to go to. It was the vacation that I would have never have thought would be possible. It was a celebration of ten years of friendships. December 2012 had been the best and the worst for me. It was the culmination of two groups of friends and the things that I would do for them and the things they have done for me. I married off two friends, one wedding I missed but I hope so relive in video and pictures and another one that I witnessed and participated in and hope will be strong and fruitful as perhaps my parent's marriage still is. But the highlight of my year has been this trip to Boracay that my college friends have been planning since ever. It started as something that had to be done in 10-10-10 but the actual thing happened 12-31-12. I could give you a blow by blow of it all, and long winded person that I am I probably will but I want to just say this before the tips and the details come flooding out, I am just glad that I am able to say that I rode an airplane and I survived it. Granted that it was only for 45 minutes at a time but that is change, that for me was terifying. But like what I now know but refused to believe in before, it is that the things you are afraid of may not always be the reason why you are not able to go places or do things you never thought would be possible, it's your perception of what you are capable of doing that makes you less of who you can be. Sure I still don't think my job is my niche in the world, but I need to stop making excuses as to why I did not write anything substantial in 2012. For frack's sake I saw BigBang live in concert and I got a better paying job. Sure I can't rant about things from work but I can write about me. Sure I have no lovelife (kuddos to my friends who have by the way) and no other thing to do after work but watch dvds and read but that doesn't mean my fingers have to stop touching my Eros just because nothing is happening in my life and I have no internet connection. Andoy is right, I need to change my genre. I do love my romance novels and I do love happy endings because I am a gaddem hopeless romantic but that doesn't mean I have to just write that, or read it for that matter. I could write about life, I could write about adventures and perhaps if I am not so effin chicken, I could possibly ride another plane to another place and have another adventure. I may or may not do it alone. But one thing is for sure, I am taking on Andoy's advice and putting the 2 years as my window to run my ass off *literally* and make sure that I have enough money for food and souveniers when I go on my second Bora trip. I told Reina, lady who bought me tickets to this first trip on our last moonlit conversation on our last night on this trip that I want to go back to Boracay with a boyfriend (however long that may take me to accomplish the boyfriend ready and Bora-ready body I plan to follow through with it). This trip was for lack of a better term EPIC in so many ways. For one thing, I didn't take home a boy after slut dancing my way into the New Year ( yey retired slutty me). Regardless of how Andoy and his cards said completion comes from a union and that I should stop defying my fate, I still don't want to meet Mr. Right at a bar while I dance to charge up because of my soul-less year. There are nights in Elbi when we did the girls' night out to dance and be just out of control, that was one of those nights. Fully charged and Epic-ly happy to be with my soulmates, who despite not really being sure what to make of me and being founding members of ALPHA NINYA RHOT have told me that one thing that made me feel good about my shady past, that we would have never have survived Elbi without each other. They phrased it a bit differently but I heard it like that because I know that I would have remained the bitch that I was in high school who did not know an iota about fashion or make-up if it was not for them. I would have become a lesbian if not for them, I think. And that would have never have satisfied my oral fixation. They put up with my oral diarrhea and we have profound conversations, debates even about how screwed up we were before. We are honest enough to tell each other that we are not doing good and that regardless of how much advice we give each other, the only thing we actually do take away from the experience is the knowledge that someone heard us say the deepest darkest and hardest truths about ourselves that our family would never understand or know and that we don't always want our better half to worry about and that our inner voices don't even want to echo. On that trip to Bora, I overcame my fear of saying that I am afraid to love again and I know that my friends, selective listeners they may be to all my oral diarhea heard it. They can't offer me advice on it except that I have to live my life and deal with things on a daily basis and to make sure to put my heart back in however hairy it may seem to be now. I know I wanted to write down all the details of our trip before I loose the timeline in my head, I did try to put my thoughts on paper (on the notebook Fried gave me) but I just want to get the emo side of things out of the way so that the good times can keep rolling.

So there I said it, I had my first new year away from home and perhaps it's something that needs to be done more often. Christmas, I would probably never miss, unless I can't really make it. But maybe the new year needs to be greeted with an epic party every time. Perhaps my first years as an adult was so shitty I needed that kind of party to recharge me. And maybe just maybe I need to do something like this every year. Who knows? I just might be entering a different era of Nina. Spunky is part of my past, I can't be in the same weightclass as her anymore let alone cup-size but maybe I need to get a new me bitchslap old me and tell her, “Your reign is over chicken-shit, time for Simone to take over, baby!” That or I just need to go save up for my next major vacation and make sure to bring a camera on that one and a phone with internet connection.

**pictures to follow**


 

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

ANAWANGIN ADVENTURE (part 1)

WHY I WANT TO QUIT SMOKING

I ran after a bus. I ran so fast that I went past the provincial stop at Magallanes.

I think if I had a camera that was good in my cp I would've recorded the whole thing.

Basically, this is the gist, the trip that we needed to catch was the 3pm bus at Victory Liner Pasay. They all thought I could make it. They thought my work ends at 12. I dunno where they got it might be something I said or didn't say. So there. I left work at 1345. Stupid me bought shorts etc at St. Francis. So I got on the bus late. The bus driver said I would get there after three.

Lesson: When your friends tell you to get on an effin' cab, get on a fracking cab.

Lesson 2: Ride a MIA bus to go to Victory Liner PASAY. It takes 30 mins to get there. 

I had to get out of the bus at Guadalupe. There were no cabs there that would stop. I didn't want to stand in the middle of the highway just to hail one so I got on another bus, the same kinda bus.

They told me to get off at Mantrade and RUN for dear life to get to the other side and wait at the provincial stop. This was the first time in my entire life that I prayed for traffic to be heavy.

I got there and I even tried running after the buses that passed the provincial stop thinking the bus I needed to get on had already passed.

Long story short I answered Fried's call and when he asked me "Naka-yellow ka ba?" (Are you wearing yellow?) I said yes and dropped the call. I got on the bus and rode in front. I was hot, nearly dehydrated and panting when I got there. Fried was upfront and moved to the back. I sat there until San Fernando. TWO HOURS LATER. It was reminiscent of my one inch sitting training crap in ROTC. Still my ass was three times bigger since college so the relatively five inches wide seat with padding felt like an effin inch.

I finally got to the back of the bus and sat with my friends. I know that if they weren't my real friends, they would've killed me already. I think they had every motivation and reason to do so.

It made for MIRACLE NUMBER 1 for our trip to Zambales. There would be setbacks and mishaps but there would be blessings and adventure as well.

Lesson 3: Quit smoking and get back to exercising. That speed and height should not have been so hard had I been well-trained and toned.

Lesson 4: The bus time for the bus we rode at 5:30, 9 something, 12:00 and 3:00pm. The next one is  past 11:00.The buses to Olongapo start at 2am and have a 30-minute interval. 

Lesson 5: Never EVER travel without even a tiny-*ss bottle of water.


Things to buy : A good The North Face Travel backpack. 

Things to do/learn: How to get to Victory Liner Espana.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Traveller Grade : D



My Lakbayan grade is D!
How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!
Created by Eugene Villar.


I need to remedy this whole thing. I want to be able to add to the places that I have visited. Since my job offers some unique holidays when I don't have to go to work like the Lunar New Year and Korean Thanksgiving. I can use those times to go out. 


Too bad I promised Angel to go out during the Sol-al.  T_T I'll just make it up to her. I also need to tell my mom about our team trip to Pangasinan and Baguio. 


The last time I was in Baguio I went to my friend's house and I was with the corps commander of the ROTC. She was a UPLB student then and I was a COCC like her. He was courting her then and her mom hated soldiers and Marcos. He on the other hand, wanted to emulate the man's achievements. Or something like that. I ate breaded spinach and had a lot of fun. I still have the long-sleeved turtleneck that I bought in an ukay there for 50php. The PMT shirt I bought for a hundred has long been stolen from the clothesline so I might look for that again. I went to the PMA then and had a lot of fun since I had wanted to be a soldier then. 


Now she is a former Miss Earth Water and full-time flight attendant. He finished Westpoint and he is in the Air Force. I am a teacher and I still haven't ridden a plane. 


I wonder what Team Max & Co would do when we visit Ate Mhel's place in Pangasinan and I go back to Baguio once again. 


Gosh, I wish I could drag a boy with a car to this trip. If not for me, maybe for Ai. ^^