We woke up to a pleasant breeze from the ocean and our open 'Swiss Family Robinson' style treehouse hotel room and we sat watching the sun and enjoying the breeze. Finally, we made our way to a lovely breakfast buffet with fresh fruit and juices. Because we were able to connect to the internet in the main restaurant, I was able to do some school work (side note: it's difficult to work on a project with other people who are on the other side of the world! I empathize with international business people now...)
After I worked for a bit (with low battery and annoyingly slow and unreliable internet connection), we decided to sit by the pool / beach and read for a while so I quickly changed into my swimsuit in the bathroom of the main hotel area. However, when I came back out, I couldn't locate the guys! And they had carried my laptop, kindle, phone, and sunscreen with them as well! I decided to just sit by the pool for a minute and wait for them. When they finally returned (they had hiked up to the room to change into their suits), they said they were going to go for a kayak and snorkel adventure. I was finally convinced that this would be better than reading a book and joined them in lathering ourselves in sun screen for the trip and headed off.
We kayaked for a while seeing lovely white sand beaches and little ocean huts and many boats when we finally arrived at our destination. Our guide was going to take us to see giant clams! Well, that sounds pretty synonymically balmy! (clammy / balmy get it? hahahahha I crack myself up). Our guide had ropes along his banca that we could hold on to while he drove slowly and we looked at the underwater paradise. We saw so many corals and life that is wholly unknown to the oxygen loving life that we're used to. We went for a while and then the boat stopped, I came up for air and to see why we stopped and dad asked, with an excited smile if I had seem the clams! Well.. nope, I missed them as I had been watching the other underwater life that was at the spot - no, not fish but rather other scuba divers. Harumph. So we turned the boat around and dad pointed at the clams and they were astounding. They could've eaten me! Well, at least my foot. But still amazing. We snorkeled a little bit more and loved the beauty for a while.
Our guide told us of a cave you could swim underwater to get to and we, of course, had to check it out. So he drove us in the boat (we didn't want to chance missing our ferry to get back to Batangas later in the day) and we came up to this secret cave. First we climbed in from above since we didn't know where the water entrance was located. We climbed through little tunnels to get the cavern and then swam around looking at the cave fish for a while and then decided to swim out under the rock into the open ocean. It's kinda scary to be under water with rock keeping you from the air but we made it through (with a swallowfull of saltwater on my part). So fun! We swam back and forth a couple times under the rock and I swallowed a little more saltwater that was in my snorkel and also hit my leg on the rock but all in all it was quite a success. We boated back to the kayaks and got back to our resort.
We packed quickly and made our way down to lunch and a few other quick activities (to be told in person if anyone is curious :) then got on a banca for the island's port where we transferred to a bigger ferry and headed off back to Batangas. We arrived and many men tried to help us with our bags. Dad had grown quite tired of this and authoritatively told the guy trying to help him 'no'. I completely understood because no one likes being offered something so nice as to be helped with luggage only to be told later that you had to pay them for their troubles. Our driver - who had previously driven us from Tagaytay to Batangas - met us at the port and drove us to Manila. We were all pretty exhausted and took little snoozes on the way.
We arrived in Manila and were greeted with a wonderful site. A Marriott. With air conditioning. Now, don't get me wrong. I can be a tough girl when needed and I had gotten pretty used to the heat and knowing that I was going to sweat through anything I was wearing even if I stayed in the shade and didn't move. However, it does wear on you after a while.. and walking into the air conditioned lobby of the Manila Marriott (after the car being bomb-dog sniffed and going through an x-ray machine) was absolutely wonderful. Literally, a breath of fresh air.
We enjoyed the executive lounge with petit-fours and desserts and Dad and I headed down to eat a little dinner (I was going to work on some school papers and needed sustenance if I was going to stay up any later) After a little exploration and smiling a few hotel employee's saying, 'good evening sir, ma'am'', we found the buffet. And what a buffet it was. Smoked salmon, dragon fruit, dim sum, scallops and whole crabs, pasta station, and rotisserie duck. Not a bad dinner. We had to call Jeremy to join us and we ate little samples of dishes. "There is no more perfect food than smoked salmon" was Jeremy's response as he closed his eyes and savored the deliciousness of the late night snack.
After dinner, I grabbed my laptop and headed back to the executive lounge and worked for a couple of hours. I must say, if I ever become an international business traveler, I'm definitely becoming a member of whatever hotel / airline special services they offer. It's amazing how much an hour in the Admiral's Club vs. regular airport lobby can do to your sense of peace.
So where, you ask, did the title of this blog (The 5 minute lobster) come from? Those 5 little minutes that I sat by the pool waiting on the disappeared guys to rejoin me. And I'm a lobster. It's amazing how much of a difference being closer to the equator will do to pale skin in 5 little short minutes.
~Elizabeth
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| Saying goodbye to our jungle resort |
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| Aahhhh, smoked salmon in airconditioned hotel |
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