Manong para po sa Tabi...: Quick Dip in Pagbilao Quezon...

Its my first time blogging... So please forgive me for sounding a bit... "Hello" or over bloggin of stuff..

South Luzon has always been my weakness in terms of places to visit...

Me and my office mates made plans a month ago to go out and have some beach fun on May 7 and 8, 2011. The plan was to go North of Luzon and visit the Hundred Islands (while they are still above water) but due to time constraint, was diverted to going down South... And so Pagbilao, Quezon it was.

Although I've been going around the Philippines, it made me excited bcoz it was a first for me to actually be with my "FRAT"("Frating Gutom", "Frating tumatawa", etc.)

Luzon's down South is not my area of travel, "Maki" suggested to visit a beach called "Puting Buhangin"(White Sand) and is also known as Lukang Beach located in Padre Burgos, a good 40min drive from the main city of Pagbilao Quezon.

FYI: Padre Burgos is a 5th class municipality in the province of Quezon, Philippines and is notable for its unspoiled beaches.

I read a few blogs and I got enticed to admire the beauty of the beach myself.

For convenience purposes, we opted to assign a car for each family. (Ella's vios, Freda's Honda City and Avanza for me, well, actually my brother's car. (Driving an Xtrail will kill not time, but budget)

My day started when Joevert came to my house around 3am right after his work, fearing that he might enjoy the comforts of his bed and be left behind. He washed his clothes and I watched HBO(as usual) while reading more about places to go to in Quezon to kill time. At around 6am we picked up Maki in Starmall Crossing and my "FRAT" buddy Pau in her house in Mandaluyong City Jail, ooppppsss I meant near M. City Hall... And off we went to Caltex in SLEX to meet with my other "FRAT" buddies and family, Ella and Papa Martin, Freda and Papa P(Paul) with their daughters "Mahal and Mura", I mean Yuna the singer and Yumi the dancer.

"Pau and Maki SLEX Caltex moment..."

We organized ourselves, bought some drinks, a visit to the restroom, a few minutes more, we were back on the road. I headed the convoy followed by Freda and Ella.

MAN!!! The traffic was hell... We were already late by 40mins so I did a bit (as if!) of a road chase type of driving.

To lessen the burden of travel, Pau's phone was used to play the music. It was a blast from the past. Maybe you've heard the boy band named "Backstreet boys". The ride was fun becoz of the song and dance numbers performed by Pau and Maki (while sitting). I wasn't a fanatic of the band unlike Pau (Pauline Gamez) who apparently was into Nick Carter. LOL.

You actually won’t get lost along the way, bcoz you just have to follow the signs to Bicol and the junctions were well labeled.

Along the way, Pau had a very nice idea; she wanted to take pictures of all the welcome arches that we were going to pass... The first arch... she wasn't able to take it becoz she was doing something on her phone... Around 4 arches more, she was again texting... She got frustrated and focused on her mission... And so another arch was coming... but then, she used her vocals rather than the camera... "Me: Pau ayan na...", and then, a voice was heard from miles away "aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", with her high pitch voice... "Me: Ahh pau, voice activated ba ung camera mo?", try mo kaya I click ksa sumigaw." she took my advice and got the picture of the two succeeding arches until finally she gave up on it...

"Masin Sur and Pagbilao Arches"

4hours after we left CALTEX SLEX, our contact Kuya Robert, was already looking for us, we were now at the last leg of the stretch. And so we thought...

Going to Pagbilao was the road map I prepared, assuming that it was just a few kilometers away from Padre Burgos... I was wrong... it took us about an hour more to get to Padre Burgos...

AT LAST! I saw the sign!!! "To P. Burgos". The road was zigzagging but was tolerable becoz the pavement was well maintained.

Finally, after 5hours of driving. We arrived!

Bad thing, we actually missed the road to the port for a few meters, Good thing, those few meters got us in front of the house of congressman(who up until now, I don't know the name) where we were going to stay.

Everything happened so fast... unload our things, changed clothes, prepare the things to bring... Before I knew it, we were walking to the port area. The port was just 30seconds walk for Ella Mae and 3min walk for me.


"View from the House Terrace"

"Pau, me and Joevert leaving the Port"

The port was not a fancy one. It was actually a small town port. The locals were kind and accommodating.

The medium sized pump boat was just traveling along the coast line. A good thing for people that's not really happy with boat rides... Just like Ella Mae who gets stressed if she doesn't see land. :) The view from the boat ride was nice. All the rock formations will take your stress away. A few minutes passed and we saw Borawan beach, Maki wanted to disembark to take some pic but "Manong Boater" said it would be best to drop by on our way home.

"Borawan beach... Near yet so far..."

At that point my gaze turned to a big cylindrical smoke pipe with red and white horizontal stripes dotting on top of a rock formation. I called Maki and said, This is it...

As we took a turn on a rock edge, I immediately saw the famous cave mentioned in the blogs and seconds after came the view of the hidden beach... The place instantly spelled...

R E L A X

"Our destination... Puting Beach"

As I look on the water while docking I saw a lot of sea life bcoz the water was very calm and crystal clear.

By then, a girl was rushing from the cave towards the beach shouting "Ayoko dun may ahas"(I don't like it there, there's a snake!). I wasn't deterred by that. Actually I became more curious of the cave.

Touch down! The sand was not as powdery as that of Bora but fine and feels good all the same. We took a hut and prepared our lunch. It was already passed 1pm and by the looks of it, we were already, well, I was already hungry. As expected, Yumi and Yuna ran immediately to the beach with their dad Papa P. played a bit before joining their mom Freda, who, as expected, was already digging in... A sign of a true blooded "FRAT" member. LOL

"The chix adobo was GREAT! as usual... Thanks to my Mom. (HAPPY MOM's DAY!!! love you very much your THE BEST Mommy Lourdes)"

After eating, we decided to check out the cave first also Known as "KWEBANG LAMPAS". Getting there looks easy, but actually, IT IS NOT! Mind you, the rocks on the side were really sharp and the fact that these are under water, made it hard to feel your way through. Tip: If you know how to swim, use your talent and float your way to the cave. Pau and I decided to put on our slippers while crawling our way to the cave entrance while Yumi was bravely clinging to us.

"Kwebang Lampas"

Ella Mae and Papa M, came to the entrance first and waited for us. The cave was nice and the water was warm. As we were waiting for the others, a bunch of guys were hurrying out of the cave. They said not to go any further becoz there was a snake. The sound of the snake was music to my ears, and was too for Papa M, who was the first to enter the cave, not to take pictures, but to look for the snake. I turned over the care of Yumi to her godmother Ella and hurried inside to Papa M for snake hunting. I did not see the snake becoz according to the guys, (two went inside again to show one of their buddy where the snake was) it was pegged inside the rock crevices. Papa M, immediately told me that the snake was probably hunting for the birds living in the cave. Freda and her family as well as Pau decided not to push further and went back to the safety of the beach. But of course, those that stayed did not leave the cave without our photo ops. and under water shots.

"Me, Joevert, Papa M and Maki"

After a good 40minutes, we followed Pau and Freda's family by the beach.

Lots of laughter and smile, posing and sand play. Then came the girls hurrying out of the water, shouting "May gumagalaw na mahaba", as usual I went to the water and looked for the "mahabang gagalaw". It was actually a long thin fish. Not really aggressive but was either hungry or was captivated by Joevert since every time he tries to look at it, it swam towards him.

"Beach Fun and the "MABANG GUMAGALAW"

At around 3:30pm, Joevert, Pau and I, went to the hut to take a break but was called by our good friend... "VIDEOKE"... There is a 5 peso slot VIDEOKE machine in a hut at the back of were we stayed beside a canteen. There were some locals using it, so we queued after them. First off was Pau who repeated her performance of the song “I'll never get over you getting over me?” followed by yours truly and our very own J. Madela (Joevert).The others followed after an hour to join in the fun.

As the night came closer, we packed up for our trip back to the house of congressman. We had a group pic with the aid of "Kuya Boater" (the assistant of "Manong Boater") to take our picture. We have three cameras and were all handed over to Kuya Boater for the take. And yes, he took our picture. The first was the cam of Papa M., which looked like were part of RING movie. The second was Freda's, we looked normal, but thing is, we needed big signs to actually tell which person is which. I didn't bother looking at Maki's. hehehe We decided to use the timer which turned out to be better. :D

"Maki, Pau Joevert, Me, Ella, Papa M, Freda, Papa P, Yuna and Yumi"

It was already low tide when we where pushed back to the sea on the boat, I looked at the cave for the last time. The rocks that were 4ft below the water, where all clearly seen.

We left the beach at around 6:00pm, we decided that we had enough for the day and we passed alighting into the Borawan Beach.

The sun was setting when we got to the port, the boat took a bit longer positioning it self by the port so we could go down.

SUNSET! We did not return immediately to the house, but stayed at the end of the port. Took pictures of the sunset and as usual,

"What a sunset..."

the never ending and never dying JUMP SHOTSSSSSSSSS.

"Up! Up! and AWAY!!!"

DINNER! The night made me appreciate the houses’ antiquity. The house was from a prominent family. Shown in all the paintings, pianos (they had 2) 3 dinning antique tables and chairs (some of which could be seen in Manila hotel's premier room, the MacArthur Suite).

I cooked the Fried Rice and the Crab and Corn Soup, while the others did the grilling of Pork chop marinated by Ella over night. The dinner was great. As well as the timing of the rain. It was a fun filled dinner with a cool air breeze from the outside.

Lights out! After dinner, the guys went up to sleep while the girls had an (inuman)drinking session. Yes, the guys slept while the girls drank. The room had two queen size bed so we requested for extra mattresses for me, Joevert, Maki and Pau. All in all 8 adults and two children slept in a single room.

The morning was wet, we had a light breakfast and our last photo ops.

Our original schedule was to leave in different times, 3 batches to be exact but since the weather was turning from mild to bad, at around 9am we decided to leave all at the same time. We passed by a bakery in Sariaya, Quezon for pasalubong and I spent Php1,020.00 for it. It was all worth it.

12:00nn on a rainy Sunday… HOME SWEET HOME…

"Zaragoza Family hehe"

Leaving the place with a smile is a good thing. Added to the fact that, I got a chance to again appreciate the beauty of the Philippines, but the visit to the "Puting Beach" refreshed me for the stressful weeks to come.