after so much noise (planning and inviting) in september, the possibility of the trip pushing through approached the value of zero as the month of october progressed. the 'laagans' from cebu, one by one, withdrew their commitment from the trip. while rubai, lotte, shiela and cece braved the 888 skywalk adventure , others pled non-solvency.extending the invitation the bff's cousin was the answer the dwindling number of company. by the 29th of october, four ladies survived the night trip from bacolod to bais via mabinay. the ceres driver was a maniac. our bus must have overtaken two buses that left the terminal before us. even before reaching
mabinay, the bus swerved left and right. it was a great relief when the konduktor finally announced that we already reached bais.
la planta hotel (where we slept) was a short walking distance from the bus stop. the amiable guard/receptionist/bellboy met us with a warm greeting, confirmed our reservation, checked us in and led the way to the second floor where our rooms were located. sleep came as soon as our back hit the downy beds looking forward for the dawn.
everyone was dressed by six but breakfast was served late (my most expensive breakfast in 13 months at Php 345 for tapsilog - 2 eggs -, coffee, 1 Li water, and hotdog sandwich). at 8, the sun was already up in the sky and the tide has ebbed. Aboard a big (advertised to be good for 20 people) out-riggered boat named Vios with a 4-man crew, we waited more than 30 minutes before three bottle nose dolphins were spotted. in the vicinity were two small boats and another one like ours. the dolphins were far from being playful. they surface for a few seconds and we would spot them a hundred meters away next. then all four boats would race to get to them first. i couldn't decide if i should be excited or not :( after another 30 minutes the dolphins were no more, apparently spent from the chase and decided to hold their breath a while longer, our guide suggested to have a swim at the manjuyod sandbar. there we spent more than 2 hours killing time getting toasted under the sun and forgot all about lunch. by 1 pm, the water almost covered the exposed stretch so we decided to leave. a stopover at the mangrove park was not possible though since the tide is high already. so the plan was, have lunch and head fordumaguete. downtown, both the boatmen and the tricycle drive who took us from the wharf has only one place in mind, wonka at amorganda.
sleep was elusive during the 1 hour ride to dumaguete. i was busy looking for the junction where the habal-habal to the twin lakes were stationed. at dumaguete, we got off three blocks away from where our hotel was located.
i am all praises for the executive room that we got at hotel nicanor. it looked exactly as it was advertised. there were two king-sized beds with two rolled towels on each bed and a sachet of bubble bath gel. O yes! the toilet and bath was humongous that all four of us can use it simultaneously without crowding (with the toilet, tub, bath and lavatory arranged so). located on the fourth floor, we had a street view sans the annoying noise of traffic.
after rinsing off salt water, we slept the afternoon away, waking up at 8 to have dinner.
we walked up and down rizal boulevard three times before deciding that Casablanca's the place to be. we had an alcove facing the sea which whet my appetite that finishing a huge serving of hungarian goulash wasn't an issue at all. we considered our day done after we had our picture taken with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman ( poster of their movie, which is the restaurant's namesake on the wall).
back at the hotel, i can't remember what prompted it but we started to talk about ghosts and jean garcia's horror movie was on tv. when the camera panned and started to zoom in to whatever was behind jean, the deafening silence was cut by simultaneous screams emanating from foreheads peeking out of the blanket. attorney nans, who once trained under peque gallaga on making films laughed her heart out and changed the channel to food network for us.
