jai versus the volcano

weekends at the casa de jai y layla: saturdays are usually spent sleeping during the day and watching dvds at night with pizza on the side. sometimes we'd go out in the afternoon, do a lil malling, have dinner, maybe catch a movie's last full show, and then buy chow on the way home. on sundays, we mostly stay inside, sleep, talk, clean up, watch a dvd or two again, but we sometimes go out as well especially when we've lazed around enough on saturday. so categorically, we're both happy homebodies but anything good comes up and we'll fly.

anyways, when the american trainors of the account layla works for come over to the country, the whole team goes out clubbing. i went with them a couple of times, and sure it was fun watching them americans get drunk and dance like fools but i guess (since they really werent my friends) i didnt enjoy it that much. anyhow, saturday last, layla was out with the party people again, and i was home sleeping, tired from an editing job. sunday next morning, as always, layla arrived loudly, waking me up from my deep slumber. she dragged me off the bed telling me that they were going to tagaytay again (this was their second time) and she wanted me to come with her, all expenses paid by the kind one named jacinda. so i ditched the plans to have our tv fixed and tagged along with the temple troop on their trip to tagaytay.

layla and i breakfasted at mcdo then met the gang at the rendezvous point where the van awaited. after a quickie stop at sm bicutan for batteries and a halo-halo "initiation" for the gay one named travis, we we're off. while christopher cross performed live on the dvd display. anyways, first stop was taal vista lodge sans "taal vista lodge" on the grass. i have been here a million times. great view of the taal volcano, where i heard we were headed next. now there, i have never been.

what did the male volcano say to the female volcano? "i lava you."

from left to right: my layla, gladys, nelly, marie, jacinda, travis, noel, bottled water.

names on are based on what i heard, not sure about the spellings. especially bottled water. i really think im wrong there. anyways, not shown in the pic are laura (american), gladys's boyfriend who doesnt have a name, and layla's macho handsomo boyfriend who took the picture.

we jumped back into the mystery van and crossed the road to get some grub from mcdo (yes, mcdonald's again, but someone else is paying for it). outside, they conversed with this fat dude on a motorcycle about the boats that would take us to the volcano. the deal was made and we followed the fat dude and his bike down the zigzaggy road im familiar with and to a resort in talisay.

layla: i thought you said you have a yacht? what is this?
jai: it's a thinner version of a yacht. it's pa-yacht.

amazing race?!

about 15 minutes later, the boats dropped us off a beach where people hung around offering horses. the one named marie got one while the rest of us traversed the dusty horsedung-filled trail on foot. the hike lasted about an hour or so.

smile is an anagram of miles.

just like a walk in the park eh? a really long park...

a mac user in a photo that looks like a microsoft windows wallpaper.

btw, everyone in the group hates the one named gladys because she apparently doesnt understand what courtesy means. actually she wasnt invited to the clubbing and the trip but she just popped out of nowhere plus escort. how acquire the information is a mystery to them. anywayss, i mentioned this because i had reason to hate her myself: she had ruined the picture above by stepping into the frame. so i guess they were right about that courtesy thing. but thanks to the wonders of image cropping, the horrible sight is gone. only beauty...

aragorn: what can you see, legolas?
legolas: i see trees of green... red roses too... i see them bloom... for me and you... and i think to myself...
aragorn & legolas: what a wonderful world...

i am sykes.

going back to the adventure... when we finally reached the summit, i didnt sit down to rest despite being a bit tired. i opened my bottled water and drank everything as i admired the splendiferous spectacle that laid before my eyes: the taal volcano crater lake. i wondered and pondered how such a devastative force of nature as a volcano can look so calm and beautiful. and then i sat down to rest.

w

o

w

however! the journey didnt end there. the locals there told us that they could take us down there for a price. after the negotiations, seven of us went for it, guided by three guys armed with guns. i wasnt paranoid or anything but as we walked through the bushes, my imagination fired up and i was thinking maybe they weren actually gonna take us to the crater. instead they'd lead us to an altar where they'd kill us and sacrifice us to the volcano god. or that they were terrorists taking us to their hidden camp where they'll hold us for ransom. or they were aliens with a secret base underneath the lake and we were dinner. anyways...

layla is covering her face because she's afraid the leaves might cut her.
yeah right. as if these green things can...
oh! f*#k! im bleedin! medic! mediiiiccc!!!

are we there yet?

Y-M-C-A! It's fun to stay in the Y-M-C-A...

compared to the previous walk we did, this one was a piece of pie. it was short and there were no horse poop to dodge. the only threat we had to face were some thorny shrubs. lots of moments later i noticed that werent exactly heading towards the lake. the path they took us seemed to just go around it and at one point it even went uphill. i was like, weren't we supposed to go down? and then suddenly our guides told us to stop. they pointed to the steep side of a cliff below our feet and said that we were gonna climb down. with sheer determination and a lil "we're-here-let's-get-it-over-with" encouragement, we descended to our inevitable deaths, i mean, destination. we held onto branches and roots, dug our shoes into the soft soil, slipped occasionally, and with the three gunmen assisting us, we did what seemed impossible and reached lower ground.

where there's smoke, there's... smokers? potheads? indians?!

can you do smoke rings?

and so that's where the smoke was coming from. a big hole in the ground spewing sulfur like a big eternal fart. i really believe that it's a tunnel straight down to hell.

uncle lucifer, you there? how's the soul-buying business goin?

who's that good-lookin guy in red?! that would be me. with layla's handbag attached to my belt. and i have to admit, a crazy part of me actually wanted to jump. but then again, i could just end up at the rocky bottom of this pit and have broken bones. which would mean id have to be carried all the way back up this:

look! a face! right there! see?

no, thank you. anyways, with dirt-filled shoes, sweat-drenched shirts, and picture-loaded cellphones, we ran towards the water. we took off our shoes and socks and waded into the lake. felt nice, as long as you didnt step into some really hot parts. man, do they sting. there are even parts that actually boil. oh yeah, we are in a volcano after all. cool.

water nymph, oh water nymph... what rhymes with "water nymph"?

last one in is a rotten egg!

first one in's gonna have hard-boiled eggs...

layla: it's hot!
jai: you're hot.

green one! red two! black three! pink four! gray five!

anyways, the sun was beginning to dip by this time and the gunguys said we should start leaving before it got too dark to go back the trail. i left my mark on a big rock near the shore before joining the gang in retracing our steps all the way back to manila.

a moment to remember... a pose to regret.

well, that's the end of my coverage of our outrageous outdoors operation. there are about 10 times more pictures in my mobile phone which i didnt include in this entry simply because im lazy. and also for content reasons since this is still a blog, not a photo album. and i'd probably run out of things to say in the captions. and part of the hike back to the shore where our boats waited was in darkness so no use taking shots there. im pretty sure each of us stepped on some of the horse crap we had carefully avoided before. anyways, i wasnt really that exhausted but i demanded a good rest nonetheless. however, i didnt fall asleep in the van on the way back. when layla and i got home, we showered, i bought some food, we ate and hit the sack. i suffered from minor body aches, mostly on my leg muscles and a not-so-painful one on the chest which wouldnt put me to sleep for a while. when the sandman finally won, i dreamed of being in a school for adults but they were teaching us the same lessons from grade school and when i questioned why we had to go through all of that again, i woke up to the morning sun and all the pain was gone.

if you got here by reading through all of the words and looking at all of the pics, a big bunch of thanks to you. hope you enjoyed this entry. because i sure enjoyed posting it. but not as much as i enjoyed experiencing it. hah! until next time, friends, good bye and may you all be safe wherever you go.

p.s. got a couple of new movie reviews, btw: death trance and monster house.