south-east asia → philippines → bataan → bagac
company outing last friday, 18th of april, and as the assembly time is as early as 5am, i had to stay in the office on thursday night and wait until morning the next day. unexpectedly after lunch, i heard my mom and tita were at glorietta 4, and as i’m suppose to have a haircut later that day, i asked them to wait for me. ‘left office half-past 5. arriving at glorietta, both of them showing their new hair-do’s, i searched for my stylist (which i had scheduled a day before). and the haircut? ‘wasn’t bad at all, although a bit strange and outlandish, and probably be a surprise if you see (as i’ve been at first and most people).
then, we went home, i had a quick bite and pack my things swiftly as i have to go back to office. having my precious camera with me and just leaving home past 10pm (office is normally 2 hours away), i have to be a bit vigilant, but my brother mentioned that with my new hairstyle, i could pass as a loony drug-addict, just add some tatoos (which i wouldn’t absolutely get anyway)…and having said that, that’s one of the best opportunities you miss if you love taking pictures. ordinary people doing their ordinary business is my favorite subject and you see, you can’t normally shoot at night, alone, and in public. literally, you are tease. a bait. and i’ve been a victim of that.
enough said, i arrived at the office past 11pm (which is quick because less traffic). jeremy (an officemate, we have the same name..and both of us share it with another 3rd jeremy) was already there doing some very late night support (with alfred). wilson is also staying overnight as well as other people i saw lying on coaches in the pantry (i should have thought of that, or still better, the clinic, they have comfortable beds there..)
trying to get some rest at the comfort of my own office chair, i couldn’t feel sleep, instead hunger. same with jeremy and wilson, so we went out and get some food nearby (chowking). a few moments, we headed to shell station (ayala), where we arrived as the first occupants of bus. i sat at the very back (which is a bit shaky, but i guess it did help to feel sleepy). i think i was asleep even before the bus gets full and depart, and woke up suddenly when we had stop-over in –, which a place i don’t know because i went back to sleep again.
we arrived at about 9.30ish. so the trip was around 4 hours. i tried taking pictures of the rural sideways but inside a shaky bus, it’s really a hard task. we got a table, attendance checked, and sandwich for snacks. then some programmes and games. i was listed in one of the games but suddenly got kicked off, haha. still good as i can take pictures of my teammates. 
lunch afterwards, which i might say, a bit unorganized and shame to say, inadequate. getting full with lots of softdrinks and water instead, we tried the beach. the sand was extremely hot! it’s burning really. the water is nice, and the wave is very pleasing. this is by far the waviest water i’ve been into, and i think its waves will even suffice decent surfing! (not that i’m a surfer though)
after being contented going with the flow of the strong current, i stayed for awhile along the sand (which is not too hot anymore), and then headed to the rooms we rented. some people are already leaving back to manila, we opted to stay overnight. as i still only have around 3 hours of sleep since the other day, i plunged myself in the living room sofa, and 4 hours later, woke up for dinner.
cheap dinner for only 20 pesos (i just paid for the rice, some left-over lechon from lunch i think? how come there were infinitesimal lechon earlier at lunch?!) and two rounds of beer care of sir bing. thanks.
then we stayed at the pool, inventing and doing some games like going for a coin at the bottom (take note, it’s night and the lights are minimum, so a bit challenging), stretching and holding hands in circles and lifting of legs alternately and doing some spinning (if you catch my drift, i don’t know how you call this game), doing indian sit at the bottom and waving at each other (idiotic really, haha), and for a change, some freestyle swimming lessons.
still beside the pool, i joined the others for some rounds of ‘in-between’ card game, (replacing wilson who lost as much as 600+ pesos!!) i was on the winning end when the guards showed up reminding to keep our voices low. noticing it’s almost 2 in the morning already, we just decided to continue the game indoors. unfortunately, we missed to buy chaser for our alcoholic drinks. we tried to look for some spare from our neighbors (apparently, they were all asleep), but none, so we just had a single round of fundador and continued our game and ending it, still a bit winner of around 100 pesos.
in the morning, we were suppose to have free breakfast (from our room rent) but i guess there were some misunderstandings among the management and they gave our breakfast to some other people! really crazy. their place is not bad at all, but i guess they need to improve more on their management and efficiency in contriving their business. in the end, i paid for a completely overrated 200-peso single-plate breakfast.
some quick swimming at the pool again (still out of luck, no swimming at the beach due to excessive waves, and under current), some pictures, then we prepared ourselves to go back to manila.
one thing i forgot to mention, bataan is historically famous as this is where one of the last major confrontation between japanese and american-filipino militaries took place. the famed, bataan death march, during world war II, involved about a hundred thousand prisoner of wars (americans and filipinos) forcibly undertake a 140-km march from bataan peninsula to prisoner camps. they were robbed of their belongings, unprovokedly beaten, denied of food and water, and thousands were executed or left behind dying.
coincidentally, great number of soldiers who died during this era were buried in Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. (from previous post)
more pics of the trip -> here
