Puerto Galera

I had a great time at Puerto Galera this weekend - and it was my (and Jeanne's) first time to leave the island of Luzon!

The trip to and from Puerto Galera took around four to five hours, with a 2-3 hour bus ride from Manila to Batangas Port and then a 1-2 hour ferry boat ride to Mindoro. The ferry ride was fun for the first few minutes, but the novelty wore off rather quickly. Fortunately, neither of us turned out to be susceptible to seasickness. Unfortunately, the weather forecast of rain proved accurate, and we landed onto a rainy beach.

After some hunting around, we ended up getting two rooms at White Beach Hotel. Kady's sister's boyfriend cooked lunch (tocino and hotdogs), and after eating we went off to enjoy the beach.

Being people who appreciate simple pleasures, enjoying the beach mostly meant playing with the sand, collecting some rocks (the sand by the way was rather coarse, and there were a lot of pebbles and stones) and trying to skip others, and letting ourselves be pushed to and fro by the waves. Oh, and playing with Kady's sister's adorable little baby, who seemed to take to Jeanne and me quite well.

Once we got tired of flailing around in the rain, we went back to our rooms and played some cards, mostly pusoy dos. After dinner (spaghetti with red, red sauce), we continued playing cards - and broke out the chocolate milk (+condensed milk +vodka).

(This mix was dubbed "the drink of amazing powers" by Kat, that time she showed us how to make it. We tend to agree, since the alcohol taste is quite effectively masked by the chocolate milk and the sweetness. The original recipe called for gin, but vodka seemed better, contributing only a slight spicy aftertaste.)

At around midnight the three of us walked back to the beach to look at the stars and talk a little (and sober up, as it would turn out). They say they saw shooting stars, but I personally didn't, boo. Eventually we all got pretty sleepy (we were lying down on the sand) and decided to go back and sleep.

The morning went as all mornings-when-you-have-to-return-to-reality do. Woke up relatively late (9 am), spent a little more time on the beach (it wasn't raining anymore, I think we got a slight tan), and packed up. Left on the ferry at about 1 pm, after getting some small pasalubong items from a handicraft/souvenir shop.

We parted ways at the port: Jeanne and I boarded a bus to Cubao, while Kady and her sister's family went on their way home to Laguna. About two and a half hours later we were having dinner at Tropical Hut, and a little later were back home. Bow.


On an unrelated note, I now have a Plurk widget near the bottom of my Blogger page!