“Coz sometimes you just need to get away from it all.”
I don’t know if someone said that first or if I read that somewhere but it’s the truth, at least for me. The past few days have been pretty trying for me and the minute I felt I couldn’t take it I wanted to do something productive, I thought of hiking. I had a yearning to be surrounded by trees, clouds, landscape and it’s funny that I say that now because I thought I hated hiking. My mother mountain was Mt. Pundaquit in Zambales and I went because of a team building event and I got bored the 2 times I hiked, I remember thinking “are we there yet?”. Needless to say I thought it wasn’t for me. Fast forward to 2017 and I’m singing a completely different tune.
I remember hiking in Batad thinking “nowhere to go but up” on our way back and since then I would catch myself say it in my mind. Life is a hike. Sometimes it’s flat, sometimes it’s steep, and in the case of Taal there’s horse shit every couple meters or so. It’ll be tiring and you’ll have moments when you just can’t feel it but it teaches you strength.
Anyhoot, about the trip, I was lucky to secure a spot with Tripsanity for the price of PHP1200 all-in (meals excluded). I found the event on Facebook, inquired, and I feel because I booked late I didn’t have to pay for downpayment but I’m sure if it was early on I would’ve. Our tour guide was great, he was patient and went out of his way to accommodate all of our requests. Because the vans will pass through Alabang I didn’t have to go all the way to Eton Centris (meet-up point), same for the trip back. I took a jeepney at 5am (and I’ll be honest I was so worried na baka walang available at that time), walked to our meeting place (literal na tumbling sa lapit), and waited for the van. Easy-peasy. We took a couple of U-turns due to road closure on our way back but I wasn’t bothered by it, I’ve long realised that when you travel you always need to have an open mind, be prepared that things won’t always go as planned. Just like in life.
it begins with a step 