~ Tunayna Tunayn ~

The best time to write something personally efficient is your most convenient time of the day. For me, it has always been the wee hours of the morning. Despite me wearing some droopy eyes for the moment, I have to finish this one.

As Mister Procree Procrastination knocks on my back door.

Whatever that is.

For this year, I told myself that I should do something fairly different. All these years, I’ve been mukmuk-ing at home. As in year after year, it was sort of a vicious cycle of two years of mukmuk-ing and then getting a driver’s license. It felt like it ran for six years already.

And I just told myself to stop doing the same shit year after year.

So, for this year, I originally planned to go on a “backpacking” trip to the Quezon province. Asking my trusty consultant, that’s my mom for the incoherent in you, she told me that politics is bad in that area and I should stay home.

In fairness, she filed a sick leave and cooked morcon for me, which made me speechless. Thanks mom!

Going forward, I only had five days left for my so-called solo trip. And Mister Idea pooped este popped up and informed me that I should just do a quick tour… maybe in Corregidor.

And guess what? I did, I did do… do did… uhm… hhhmm… I opted to do the Corregidor Day Tour. It was fairly easy; I called up Sun Cruises, Inc. I paid two kiyaw via their BDO account and obviously, I asked first if they had an available trip last Friday. I ended up with the second trip, the 11 AM trip.

Here’s a minor pet peeve: if you know that the trip is 11 AM and you would just end up late, then that is just stupid and fucking stupid at the same time. I’m not making a big deal out of this, but still, we could’ve been early at that time.

It took us around an hour and a half for the sea trip. It was awesome because they were showing Titanic. Tangina joke lang. It could’ve been the saddest day of the year if that happened. Pakyu Leo and Cameron.

Once you get there, you ride this bus/jeep to the hotel. The best thing to do at this time of hour is to just chill. You can take a few pictures at the port and that should be it. Why? During the day tour itself, you’ll get to have a few minutes for the “most important” places in the island. Once you arrive in the hotel, you get to eat the food ala buffet.

I guess this is the only sucky part of the trip since I went alone and I had no one to make bantay my things but it was all cool actually since who would make pakelam my bad? No one of course; I look like a hampas-lupa, imho.

Oh, bring your own drinks. Do a computation for this one; a can of coke consists of sixty bucks each. Again, do the math.

Lunch felt like it took around thirty to forty five minutes. You have to be aware that you are in a day tour, if ever you’ll avail it.

First stop is the museum and the Pacific War Memorial. Our tour guide informed us that once a year something special happens there. Edward Cullen shines in that area. Seriously.

Then, the actual tour starts with the middle something something of the island and then the top part of the island. What to expect with the tour: you’ll get to see the different rubbles of the barracks and other buildings, awesome guns, cemetery, a lighthouse, makahiya and monkeys! Yes, you’ll see Mojo Jojo in that area. He’s not actually keen in taking over the world but you get the idea.

It’ll be nice if you see two monkeys and Ruffa Gutierrez’s mother side by side by side. Go figure.

And then, for a hundred and fifty bucks, you’ll get to pass through the Malinta Tunnel. They have this light and sound show. Again, you shouldn’t expect much in this show and instead try to be a true blue Filipino and listen and feel the show because what you’ll experience in that demonstration is the life of people during the war.

After the Malinta trip, you’ll proceed back to the ferry.

Now, I’m not actually good with history but I’m interested with our history. I believe that this is a good trip for us Filipinos. The feeling of happiness, due to the trip, and sadness, due to the history, is overwhelming. I was on the verge of crying every time I hear the words genocide, dead, and death.

I don’t know. Maybe it was just me. And maybe, it was the love for this country.

--=+=--

Yes, I spent my 29th birthday alone on a supposedly grim island. It was all worth it.

And I’d like to thank all the people who greeted me via the radio, tweeter, SMS, facebook, plurk, e-mail, and personally (may nakalimutan ba ko?). You guys made my supposedly ordinary day extraordinary. This one’s for the books and I won’t forget it.