As Promised!

Sleep tonight

And may your dreams

Be realized

If the thundercloud

Passes rain

~U2, MLK

23:23:24 | 08.25.09 | hello the ashtray girl

27^th Aug the Whole World is waiting for.............

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles off earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

FOR REAL?! Haven't you heard about that Mars-going-near-the-earth story some 2 or 3 years ago???Hmmm... I wonder if that's really true and even if it was I don't think I would ever have the chance to see such phenomena cuz I'm pretty sure it's gonna rain once Earth smells Mars. It's probably allergic to it. ;p

***

Remember what I promised on my last entry? :) Yes, yes! Photos of my Bohol-Panglao Island (and more!) vacation! I know this is already a very late post almost rancid if this was food! Heheh! But nothing's gonna stop me from sharing my photos from the said vacation! Why? Because it was probably one of the best vacations I've ever had in the entire twenty plus years of my life! Although it was quite an expensive one, it was still fun and nothing could ever repay fun - not at all. It was also good to be staying in the island for two straight days with no worries and feeling like rich kids for a moment. :) Even the rainy Sunday weather didn't stop us from exploring the other surrounding islands of Panglao or Bohol. It was definitely an adventure with only the four of us -RV, Yo, Tim, and me- in a not very large pump boat braving the harsh sea filled with seemingly gigantic waves! In case you're wondering what got me to Bohol on a rainy August, we were there to celebrate Yo's 23rd birthday. Now the photos? Yes? Yes!

On the first day, Saturday, August 15, we familiarized ourselves with the place. We arrived in Panglao island at about 3P.M and went straight to our hotel, the Alona Kew White Beach Resort. I liked it very much! Probably not the nicest place to stay in the island but the people there were really great and nice and courteous plus our rooms were really comfortable (although not airconditioned! heheh...). Well, in the unfortunate times of recession, comfort and convenience is all that matters!

Photos of our room and the beach (or the quay! well, with all of those boats parked right there

who wouldn't mistake them for a quay?!).

We also decided to take it slow and easy on the first day so as not to overwhelm our already giddy selves. I went around the area and found some masseuse and got excited with the idea of getting a massage by the beach! I havent' slept a bit since I went straight to the port for my one hour and forty-five minutes trip from my shift the previous night. The massage at P250.00 for each of us will really be a good way to unwind after a very stressful week! And The Boyfriend offered to treat me for massage cuz he knows I'm a total sucker for such! Hoorah FREE massage! =)

Yo asleep with the bliss of the massage!

Tim and his masseuse looking at the camera, expectant already

for that shot :D

And me of course! Totally enjoying the massage! Especially when my

own masseuse worked on my head - it was like all the stress from all of my body

went out!

After the heavenly massage I fell asleep for about three hours before dinner was served and The Boyfriend woke me up with the dinner menu. Hearing the word "grilled" I immediately jumped out of the bed on cue and ran into the shower for a quick bath before heading to the beachside.

The food was good and eating by the beachside made the dinner even more sumptuous! There were also some men who serenaded us over dinner. Forgive me for the lack of word, but I honestly really don't know what they are called exactly. They were really good and even sang that ever famous Yoyoy Revillame song - Bochikik. We couldn't help singing with them ourselves! Haha! Afterwards, Yo and I went to the pool for a quick dip (no photos cuz RV didn't upload the photos from his camera yet). We only swam for like fifteen minutes and the rest of the evening was spent listening to some good live music from a resort nearby. I should say the singer of the band and the band, actually, was good as in really, really good! Although the singer has to work on some of his diction. :S But in fairness, they were really good they could lull me to sleep by the bay in a good way! They do know how to play their instruments, too. So there! We were just starting to enjoy listening to them when the rain started to pour leaving us with no choice but to retreat to our rooms and hope and pray that God will give us good weather the next day since we were planning to watch dolphins at the break of dawn.

On the second day, Sunday, August 16, I pulled the curtains open to check the weather. Lo and behold! Gray skies said good morning to me and I then shook The Boyfriend awake and told him of the bad news. He couldn't help groaning with frustration and I tried to cheer him up and convince him that it's going to be alright and that the sun will come out in a matter of minutes and that it was too early to worry. It was already 5:30 AM. The boat was scheduled to pick us up at about the same time. The vaporous air outside confirmed the gloomy weather and I couldn't help but sigh. It's definitely goodbye dolphins or rather, goodbye dolphin watching. :(

Heartbroken by the news, we ate our breakfast sullen. And funny RV was like, "Feast on! This could be our last meal!" Haha! I know. Crazy. The four of us were quite dubious as to pushing through with the island hopping sans the dolphin watching (with the sea as disturbed, I doubt if the dolphins would ever leave their place in the sea just to put on a show for us) because the sea really looked bad with the threatening waves and all! We had to ask the locals if it was safe to sail and they were confident enough to assure us that we can still go island hopping and get back to the resort alive and complete! We decided to take their word for it and we found ourselves on a pumpboat jumping on and dodging the waves.

us having breakfast.

pineapples and watermelons

and hotdogs and marmalades!

nyam!

not really something that could turn our knees into butter, right?

So where did we go? We insisted to find some dolphins and after almost an hour of hunting and hoping for dolphins to come out and sail with us... we gave up. Our first stop: Balicasag Island. I had so much fun feeding the fishes with some onion flavoured skyflakes! And it felt so wonderful to be swimming, head to head, with them! I almost didn't want to leave or stop swimming with them. Heheh... Too bad we didn't have an underwater camera to capture the moment with them fishes. :( Anyhooser, here are some photos of us in the island:

getting ready and securing ourselves for a rough sail!

the island and the guides: the locals who takes the

guests to the fish sanctuary via banca at Php150.00 per person

and that's good to sawa. makes it all worth it!

taking a break and I say: GOD BLESS AMERICA FOR LAY'S! :D

The Boyfriend striking a pose with the locals

random photos from Balicasag Island. :)

Our next stop: the Virgin Island. I heard a guide from another group of guests said something about the original name of the island but I guess I was too taken by the sight of the place that it didn't really register at all. A little background on the Virgin Island? It is said that the island may be 250 meters and 50 meters wide during low tide. And it looks like this:

yes, like a desert with an oasis! :) and that's Yo right there.

this is right at the middle of the sea -

so when it's high tide this area should really be filled with water.

the tree that caught our fancy.

we couldn't stop taking photos in this spot! :)

more photos plus the birch tree kid...

isn't she lovely and cute and adorable? :D

these photos were taken by our boatman.

lovely!

After having our fill of poses and photographs we finally decided to call it a day and went back to our resort. I missed the sunset again cuz I fell asleep and woke up at about 9pm this time almost missing dinner! RV, The Boyfriend and I stayed up until about 12 midnight after dinner. Yo was too tired to stay up with us so she retired to bed first. We hung out by the shore and again listened to that live music that was offered by the resort next to ours. And same as the previous night they played some really feel-good music and we all went to sleep with smiles on our faces. Heheh.

On the last day, Monday, August 17, The Boyfriend and I woke up earlier than the other couple - as usual. And I put on the swimsuit that I've probably reserved for this day. I've bought this some months ago and didn't really get the chance to wear it until our last day in Panglao!

Isn't that cute? It's a one piece suit and it's really sexy!

And The Boyfriend, I think, likes it, too. Heheh... We went for a swim a bit and had breakfast. Later on RV and Yo joined us, but Yo didn't spend much time in the sun anymore cuz she said she's too burnt from the swim yesterday. I watched the boys play in the sand and they also built some sandcastles!

hahah! kids!

yeah, I gave them the freedom to feel like kids for a while :)

now they're starting to build the castles!

and I couldn't help disturbing them!

hehe...

The Boyfriend's Pyramids in Bohol

RV's stained glass castle (I made up the name!)

And then it was finally time to go. RV and Yo had to go home first because my trip back home doesn't leave until about four in the afternoon and of course, The Boyfriend had to stay with me. We waited at the Island City Mall and checked out how much they charge for the cinemas. And the moment we found out that the most expensive is only at P90.00 we then decided to give it a go and we watched G.I Joe. On the movie: not as impressive as they said it was. Or probably we were just expecting too much.

So there you go. A share of my Bohol vacay. Whew! Were they very loaded with photos? Not? You can view the rest of the photos in my multiply site: cheezenibbles.multiply.com. Although you will still need to log in to view my photos - I have kept them private since... since! :p

I hope you enjoyed the photos. And you should go visit Panglao, too! There's this 5-star resort there named Eskaya which is really, really nice. You can stay there if you can afford to and it will be very, very worth it! :D

do you need a break?

~tSin