December 29, 2007

free breakfast, henna tattoo, body massage, milkshakes & the congress blast

november 13

the girls woke up earlier than myself. i heard them banging the door of my room several times but i just couldn't wake up! anyhow, as i got up by 9am, i headed outside to find most of them already having breakfast at the resort's restaurant. i took my free meal stub from the receptionist & got myself my first day's meal of 'longsilog' & coffee.

some of us hurriedly went back to our rooms to change. i was still wearing my pajamas when i took my breakfast.
as i got back out, i went along w/ some of my officemates for a little shopping at 'd'mall'. i got myself 2 colorful shell chimes to hang at the end corners of my room to compliment the various hues from my daughter's stuffed animals, blankets, curtain & toys. it was perfect!

right before shopping, we took snapshots at one of the man-made sand castles

after shopping, we found everybody lined up to get their henna tattoos. i went looking for another tattoo stand & fortunately found one isolated & empty & got inked. ofcourse we had to dry up our tattoos for 2 hours so we couldn't get wet yet & went back to 'd'mall' for more shopping. eventually getting hungry, we looked somewhere for a place to eat lunch. by the 2nd day, not everyone was 'all in once place' unlike the day before, so we weren't able to communicate everyone's whereabouts & had to eat in different eateries by different groups. we ate near the market stalls at a place which servers fresh hot 'bulalo'. we ordered several other viands like 'bicol express' , 'pinakbet', ' sizzling gambas' & 'mango salad'. yummy!

getting inked

right beside the 'bulalo eatery', a stall was selling delicacies for 3 pieces for a P100. i bought a few for take-home.

at the beach, allen & pope were already skim boarding & the rest were already swimming so we hurried back to our rooms, changed to our swim wears & dipped in the clear blue waters of boracay. we went out of the waters before dawn, showered up & pampered ourselves more w/ body massages right outside of the resort. we had 1 hour sessions each for P350.

by 8-9pm, we went walking towards the other end of the beach looking for another place for dinner. this time we walked & dined collectively. before we reached our destination, shiela who was walking w/ me received a text message from her boyfriend that the congress hall in quezon city was bombed & that it was all over the news. w/ no luxury of having a television at the beachfront & away from the resort, we were all second-guessing so everybody who brought their cellphones called their loved ones, especially myself. the congress building is just across our subdivision. i called home & they said the blast 'jolted' our house. i stayed on the call & made sure my daughter's in her room & checked anyone who might still be outside, or near congress. fortunately everyone was home except my dad who was somewhere still far from our area & only sent the news to me via sms as well. the bombing killed a congressman & 3 others.

calling home

after the brief stopover, we decided to get dinner at jonah's restaurant which apparently was famous for it's fruit & milk shakes. for dinner, we stuffed ourselves w/ calamares, baked shellfish, chicken & sinigang plus. we were done by 11pm.

posed with my jonah's mocha-peanut milkshake

group pictures!

at the terrace at the room adjacent to my room
wacky shot 'daw'
after dinner at jonah's, we looked out for picture perfect venues & posed!
was high tide at bora. scary.

December 28, 2007

dining & drinking on white sand

after we all changed to our dry clothes, we went to 'd'mall' again to find someplace to eat for dinner. we spotted an empty seafood resto by the beach & settled in. it was a loong wait for our food to get cooked so those who brought their cameras made sure time wasn't wasted & took pictures of us all.

i bought myself icecream after dinner then we all went looking out for a bar. we chose bom-bom's at station 2 which was actually the coziest we've spotted. huge colorful bean bags around wooden tables were set on the white sand just a feet away from the ocean water. the ocean breeze relaxed everybody accompanied w/ the mellow acoustic reggae music played on their small stage.


we stayed up all night with the girls drinking various mixes of cocktails while the boys hammered themselves w/ heaps & heaps of beers.


December 26, 2007

afternoon delight

all hungry from the lengthy journey, we headed straight to 'd'mall' for lunch and ate at andoks. we all stuffed ourselves w/ roasted chicken, roasted liempo, sinigang, sisig & rice.
after finishing lunch, we went to the bans resort, chose our rooms, unpacked our things & changed to our swim wears.
it was almost mid afternoon when we headed to the beach. we almost spent the whole afternoon taking pictures of ourselves so by the time we took a dip in the beach, it was sunset so we didn't have to worry about getting tanned by the sun. some of the boys went skimboarding.
the beach was lovely. the white sand was as smooth as powder & the ocean water's very clear & clean we can see the tiny fishes swimming at the bottom of the water.
walking towards 'fridays'


stopped for pictures, ofcourse
when we got the 'fridays'. ofcourse again, we had to pose for more pictures

more 'fridays'


as dawn set in, we went out of the water and showered up for dinner.

December 21, 2007

boracay bound

a few months ago, our british boss gave everybody an approval during a supervisors' meet to take each of our teams out for fun using the department's annual budget. we initially thought of the typical 'dinner' or 'bar' out w/ our staffs until he eventually mentioned 'boracay'.

a few days later after, one of the teams booked for boracay. ultimately, everyone got hooked on the idea our boss suggested so we all went to bora!

my team converged w/ another for the better fun of it. so the other team had to fit our scheduled days off so we can all go together. our total man count was 18. we booked a flight out to bora from nov 12-14.

it was my first time to step foot on this very famous tropical island so i felt so giddy the night before i hadn't had much sleep. for the preparations, luckily, my 2 kumares lent me some of their 2-piece bathing suits so i didn't have to worry what to wear there.

we all met at the domestic airport in manila at 8am for our cebu pacific flight to kalibo at 930am. the flight was brief, afterwhich, we rode a bus to caticlan. the bus ride was lenghty so i had time to nap having only slept 2 hours back home. we arrived in caticlan before noon. we took a very brief boat ride to the island & waited for awhile at the dock for one of our officemates who didn't reach the airport on time & had to travel by herself.

as soon as she arrived, we rode one of the white mini buses who drove us straight to the beach. wow. boracay was indeed magnanimously beautiful.
at the airport
inside the plane with khaye & shiela; at the kalibo airport
boat ride to caticlan; at the dock
waiting

terrace view of the bans resort

our 'bora' experts booked rooms at the 'bans resort' located at station 1 which was so conveniently located just a few steps from the shoreline and very close promixity to the restos & bars.