Another lazy day
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
5
Trip End
Oct 09, 2005
Sabang, Philippines
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
the following day was pretty uneventful, more chillin and lazing about this isolated town...another bbq, and some more wandering about...nothing much worth saying here...did some souvenir shpping and bought 6 sarongs to decorate the bare white walls and table in my apt back in korea...later on that night while hanging out with my friends, someone decided to liberate me of my purchases, as they were in a bag hanging off the handle bar of my motorbike...i was crushed, how would i ever be able to get over the theft of 10 dollars worth of sarongs????suprisingly i figured out a way--buy them all over agian the following day, and chalk it up to another one of those things that happens....ie: shit
having made plans for an early tour of the mangroves with a lady that was selling sarongs and various other souvenirs(who also happened to be a tour guide), i once again woke early and made my way to the beach...after meeting the woman, and picking up a friend of hers to accompany us on our tour, we eventually boarded our tour boat (a glorified canoe) which came equipped with a man and a paddle to power us on our journey...the island has one of the largest remaining natural mangrove forests in the world, as most of the others ones have been heavily destroyed by development(chalk another one up for humans, in our quest to conquer the planet...dont even get me started!!) without boring u with details, i will say, it was quite an amazing boat trip thru the jungle, and i felt like i was in the heart of the jungle...
after the trip we spent a few minutes planting seedlings on the beach to replenish the forest...hopefully i will be able to return in many years to see the fruits of my labours(not really that much labor involved, but it sounds good)...
after a hard day of sitting in a boat, and planting a few mangroves, i decided i deserved a rest, and after a 45 minute walk along the rocky shore in the other direction from the village, i eventually came upon the waterfall i had heard mentioned by some of the locals, and the "tourist info" booth...having not read anything about it previously, i wasnt expecting too much (tho in my books, any waterfall is a good one...waterfalls being one of my favourite natural sites to visit), but it was actually a pretty decent size, and beauitiful...after setting up my camera to take a few pics , i found an arrangement of boulders that formesd a sweet recliner-like position, and proceeded to have a nap in front of the waterfall for an hour or so.....what a great place to find a comfortable rock bed...ah, vacation is hard work....
there was some great rock formations in the wall that lent themselves to be climbed, and i started making my way up them...it was pretty jagged, and a fall would lead to a rocky watery landing in the ocean, which would certainly be bad news...soon realising that this was one of those things i really shouldnt be doing, as i was by myself...and also taking into account that no-one really knew i was there, and quite certain that no-one would be coming that way for possibly days, i made a judgement call, and returned to the safety of the shore...had someone been there with me, it could have been quite a fun scramble....
returning to my lodging, i encountered many school kids on their way home from school, and like usual they were all waving and screaming at the silly white guy on the bike...i stopped to visit with them and take a few photos...funny thing in the philippines, everytime u pull out a camera they scramble to be in the front of the picture, usually to the point of knocking each other over...on two seperate occasions as i was taking pictures of school children, one or two were knocked to the ground, and almost trampled by their friends as they vied for prime real-esate in the pics...its a nice change from korean kids, who hide their faces and run as soon as they see you pull out a camera...
that was basically all that my day consisted of...not very interesting to read about i realize, but exactly what i was looking for when i started out on this trip...
