The Definition of “Arayat 5”

It all started with this:

Many expressed interest but few chose to heed the call—and those who did conquered every odds and obstacles in order to claim, “We owned Arayat!”

There were only five of us who went on with the climb—Sauron, Ohmer, A, R and me. Actually, I wasn’t even sure of going and R really had no intention to come at all—it turned out that at the last minute, those who expressed the intention to climb bailed out and we ended up choosing to join instead. The Arayat 5 from DLSU. From left: Ohmer, R, A, me and Sauron.

Since Ohmer is from Pampanga, we met with him in Brgy. Ayala and began the convoy that would bring us to the base of the mountain.

And as if sharing the ride with us, we saw what awaits us in minutes—a mountain that does not look as intimidating.

So this is the base where we began the trek. There’s another shot way before we’re completely wasted from climbing. Hehehe, nakangiti pa, o!

The rest of the climbers are Ohmer’s friends—they were nice enough accompany us in this trip.

These were some of the views of the lowlands—and we’re not even a quarter past the base!

I suppose it’s safe to say that this is where things got serious. Of course, we didn’t know that until we were deeper into the mountain. Since this terrain was such an open space, we had to adjust to the sun, which slowly began to take a toll on our hydration. Despite that, the photo ops were too good to pass up.

Deep into the trail. At this point, it’s a physical and mental battle. Although personally, I enjoyed the climbing part.

And we arrived at White Rock, which I believe is the second highest peak. From this place, the summit of Mt. Arayat can be seen...reaching THAT little tower is our goal.

Sauron is not yet here because he took a wrong turn and went temporarily missing…

Oh, there he is now.

A couple of hours later, we finally reached the top, where two dogs greeted us. Here is one of them.

We had our lunch here (at 1430H) but we were too hungry to take a pause and photograph the food…so, just settle with how view from the peak looks like.

So here we were after gaining some energy back…

We stayed at the peak for about an hour before heading back. Dusk caught up with us but it was still a sight to behold—the sunset and the emergence of the stars (okay, this is actually the planet Venus, the stars were too far to be photographed).

I suppose the big question is, “Was the climb worth it?” Well, it’s my first time to seriously climb a mountain—apparently, the trekking we did in Davao is child’s play compared to this. I would consider this as one of the charge-to-experience moments, where at least, I wouldn’t wonder “what-if?”

For one, I learned I am a climber, such that I can keep up with the guys going upwards. Going down, on the other hand, is a totally different story—I suck at going down. Compared to how fast (and almost with reckless abandon) I climb up, I was incredibly slow and careful when I go down, and even with such care, I still slipped more than thrice. It felt more spectacular for me when I got down compared to when I got to the peak (though it felt awesome, too) because of the sheer amazement that when I looked up again and saw the tiny tower on the peak, I had to remind myself that I just came from there.

One moment I won’t forget is literally climbing a steeply inclined terrain with only large rocks to cling on for support—no harnesses or something soft to fall back on. In hindsight, it was dangerous but it was worth the risk. Trekking for 10 hours in varied terrain definitely tested us physically and mentally. On a personal note, I remind myself not to dismiss ideas such as climbing the stairs of Andrew Building from ground to, say, 10th floor at the least; undertaking two straight hours of tennis training-in-hell under humid conditions in an open court; or taking 9 units of post graduate course work under the known sadistic professors.

The climb made me realize just what all of us are capable of—we’re not the Arayat 5 for nothing.

Pics from Arayat 5 cams--Ohmer, Sauron, R, A and J. For those who plan to grab the last two pics, please credit the genius in Sauron--nag-overtake pa yan para lang habulin ang sunset.

Destination Davao: Ready, Steady, GO!!! (Part 6 of 6)

In conclusion of the Destination Davao series, I present the last bit of detail of the big kids’ adventure. Six days passed by quickly and business and pleasure definitely merged in the process. Now it was time to head back.

I’ve always wanted to take a picture of Mt. Apo but throughout the trip, the view didn’t seem to cooperate. On the last day, I decided to go with what was there and took a couple of snap shots from our hostel’s balcony. I can’t just leave Davao without a mountain pic.

Here we were during and after breakfast. Do we look exhausted? ^^()

And here doing personal economics (Quiaps, 2008) to see just how much harder we need to work to earn back whatever we spent.

And here’s trying to pass as durian endorsers. Did we do a good job? LOL!!! This was on the way to the airport and because we really need to buy pasalubong, we stopped by here. If you’re wondering why there are very little pictures, well, it’s probably because exhaustion finally caught up with us. Upon arrival to Manila, we bid our farewells—not exactly dramatic because it’s a school day the next day. We would see each other again (and eventually get our USBs infected with viruses because of the pic uploading in the department computer).

So that’s Davao, my first local, airborne trip (yeah, yeah—so what if I know now that you don’t really need a passport for this kind of thing. I was a noob at local flights, ‘ayt!) I’m really glad I got to go and I’m looking forward to the next PAP Convention. ^_^ Oh, wait…that means we have to get our youth research to a higher level! D’oh! ^o^

Very special thanks to: Samah, Tweena, Patwik, Weeia, and Antwone for the pics!


FIN.

Destination Davao: Ready, Steady, GO!!! (Part 5 of ?)

After embracing land, we now turn to the sea. Based on my calculations, the island hopping destination was a one hour boat ride from the city port. It was through R’s friend, B, that this island hopping adventure came to be. Again, my apologies, as I have forgotten the specific names of the islands we hopped on ^^(). Er, let’s just see the pics.

This is us on the way to the island. Everyone who went to the jungle the day before looked pretty decent, right? (I admit, I was kind of sleepy ^^)

And we are at it again—posin’ time! There must be something about the sun, sea, breeze and FIVE cameras.

Since it did take a while to get to the first stop, T, A, R and S (wahaha, T-A-R-S!!! XD…hmmm, could be S-T-A-R or…RATS!!!! Okay, I’ll stop now…) decided to re-enact when Jack Sparrow became a girl and three pirate-wannabe-psychology-professors caught her (er, him?) using water bottles as weapons. Ahrrr, ma’teee!

There were three stops—first was the coral reef area (upper left) where everyone except mC and I went in for a dip. The second stop was in the middle of the sea, where everyone had lunch except me because I got incredibly nauseous and it took every single ounce of whatever concentrated power of will I had so I won't puke. Apparently, I don’t get sea sick when the boat is in motion, but if it halts and the bloody thing slowly sways at rest, I can’t swallow my food. Thankfully, when we began heading for the last stop, I actually re-enjoyed being out in the sea. We passed by a stretch of beaches before arriving at the last stop. Unfortunately, it was high noon and very hot so swimming had to be deferred for some, but for others (*ahem* R and T), conquering the elusive surfboard was top priority.

Now, I didn’t swim but that didn’t prevent me from getting a tan (like I played tennis when I actually didn’t ^^;). After getting some rest, S and I wondered off for photo ops and we ended up trespassing to this really cool smooth, white-sand beach just next to our stop. In the brimming hot afternoon sun, we took photos and posed.

And posed some more! Hahaha, is this emo or what?! LOL!!! Work it, work it!!!

It was fun and photo ops here was so easy, even if the only props were that log and a lone tree stump (that was initially intended as the base for S’ camera using a timer but we ended up using it as a posing pedestal instead). Man, the view here is just magnificent so can’t really blame me for being trigger-happy. ^-^

There were some interesting creatures in the area. If you like picking tiny seashells by the seashore *resists reciting the tongue twister*, well, try doing that when something prickly suddenly wiggles in your hand. Yep, turns out one of the shells I picked was ALIVE and this tiny dude came out. And yes, for a moment, I was tempted to pull it out of the shell to see what it looks like but sadistic mode was off so S and I just tried to get the best picture. Picking it up, putting on the table, click-click, picking it up AGAIN, click-click, it fell off the table on to the sand, we picked it up YET AGAIN, click-click, different angle, click-click…

So basically, yeah, I had a sinking feeling it felt kind of tortured anyways. Later on, I saw a whole bunch of them critters in this beach trash dump. I thought they were cute ^-^ especially this big white shelled one who hid on time before I was able to take a snap shot. Again, I wanted to grab it but it got away. ^^()

Now the starfish(es?) were found by T and R. This was before S and I went wandering off and T brought this really big and bright star fish in the hut where the rest of us were resting. I’m not even sure what’s the story behind this so…maybe they can fill it in?

By around we mid-afternoon, we began heading back. Here’s a couple of group shots before we left…

And here we are on the roof deck, pretending to be pageant delegates…(let’s not get into the details of what pageantry it was).

So I initially thought island hopping was exhausting. Well, maybe the more hardcore ones but this one turned out to be relaxing and worth spending the whole day for. Sans the second stop, I enjoyed every bit of the exploration—especially the ride to and from the island by boat—the wind, wave and speed.

The Davao adventure was coming to an end. This entry and those before it do not give justice to the spectacular panorama that graced us. Perhaps that would be in another entry under a different topic. For now, reality is starting to pull us back, waiting for us in a sphere called Manila. Stay tuned—it might actually end next time.


To Be Continued.

Destination Davao: Ready, Steady, GO!!! (Part 4 of ?)

Our Davao weekend was dedicated to close encounters with nature—and this is the first one, our adventures at Eden Nature Park. I’ll try to let the pictures do the talking.

After this was taken, the food disintegrated. Okay, fine—it was consumed appropriately, as we need all the energy we can get for what awaited us in the next several hours.

We decided to avail the tour package to upstart our nature tripping. Eden Nature Park is quite huge with plenty of things to do (that you usually have to pay for, anything free is rare these days). So, with the most economical choice, we went for the tour package with snack.

These were some of our stops, and unfortunately, I can’t really remember what they’re called exactly. ^^;;

Last time it was the fountain lights, THIS TIME, it’s the pweety, pweety flowers!!! We had a blast here—on top, I think these are daisies (O_o?) and on the bottom pic, it’s actually a wishing well filled with colorful gumamela flowers.

Of course, we just HAD to goof around with motion capture shots—it would’ve been nice if we were actually caught in midair. Really, we weren’t constipated here, or something.

Un-deux-trois-quatre!!! After the snack, this heart-love-nest area is just too good to pass up. For those who know me, this might not be the exact thing you would associate with me, but for the past few days exposed to people with characters of cam-whoreness and pose-whoreness (yes, S and R, I mean you guys), it kind of rubbed off on me.

A little bit of solo pics. The left one is actually taken during the mountain trail adventure, discussed below. The right one is during the tour.

So I mentioned that free things come rarely, but there was one free-of-charge adventure in Eden, and that was the mountain trail. We weren’t really planning on doing this—after all, it was slightly raining when we got to Eden and we were told that it was ‘not advisable’ at the time when we inquired. But because we were so awed with the sceneries during the tour and also because it never really occurred to us that ‘not advisable’ is a diplomatic way of saying “Absolutely-not! You-gotta-be-out-of-your-effin’-minds-wanting-to-plunge-in-the-depths-of-a-slippery-wet-mountain-terrain-on-your-own-in-this-weather!!!” (Hehe, we also FAIL at hip hop.)

Oh well, interpretations are relative. So off we go.

The whole trail adventure turned out really fun, anyways. Of course, with occasional minor and major slips here and there, shortness of breath and an epiphany that Crocs sandals can withstand slippery (sans muddy) trails, I thought it was really worth it. The entire trail seemed to vary in difficulty as one treks along—we noticed this because during the first kilometer or so, we were still lively and taking pictures. But once the slipping started, spiders and other bugs appeared and the trail disappeared coupled with obstructions, we knew that things were getting serious. A specific act I really liked during the trek was how we helped each other out by warning those behind what coming ahead of them (A, being generally in the lead, I salute you for embracing most of the cobwebs and other creatures on the path). It reminded me of ‘bayanihan’, but in a different way.

We found the ‘give up, surrender’ signs along the way to be amusing. US—give up? Are you effin’ kidding?! HAH! We don’t give up. We stick through our guns no matter what! When we make our beds, we lie on it. We went on, thinking of nothing but the finish line, the end of the tunnel, the ultimate goal…keep walking for there is no turning back.

Um, we didn’t finish the trail. -__-()

But it’s not because we were uber exhausted…well, sure, we were tired and all but c’mon—the rain got heavier! T called for back up and the next thing, we were zooming back to the Day Tour Center via the Tourmobile! (Ahh~ such a nice ride… ; ). We fell a third short of completing the trail but each of us were able to bring bits of memories from that adventure—like I had photos, my uber muddied Adidas and a scar. Now if you think that was the end, you’re mistaken. Much as we are determined individuals, we are also hard-headed, stubborn and really adventurous—so after the mountain trail, off to zip line Skyrider adventure! I’m not good at approximations so according to this, there is about 200-meter distance between the two ends of the zip line across a 60-foot drop. The ride is two-way, with the whole thing lasting for maybe two minutes. It’s PHP 150 and they make you sign a waiver—like they will claim responsibility if you break a nail or something. Climbing to the top of the tower can be exhausting (but hell, we’ve been through harsher conditions than this MINUTES ago, so this was cake walk). After that, it’s zip time!

YEAH, BABY!!! It was scary, exhilarating and relaxing at the same time. When you’re in the middle of the line, the view is simply amazing. And it was rather fast, maybe around third gear if you’re driving a manual (so that’s what, 30-40 kph?). I wouldn’t mind doing this again. ^_^

Next post will be about the island hopping, which happened the very next day. Stay tuned.


To Be Continued.