A Different Experience in Anawangin Cove

Who said we are a couple of lakwatsera and lakwatsero? That person was definitely right! after our 3 outings we just didn't have enough. Well... This time we did a little different, opppsss... let me correct that, we try something that is TOTALLY NEW (or at least to me!), something I've been wanting to try yet so afraid that I just can't even last a day. The solids, Jays and Joyce, Kiam and Giselle, Emer and I decided to go camping this time and our destination, Anawangin Cove. It is located off shore of Pundaquit, Zambales with a 30 min boat ride. We travel 4hrs (with an hour breakfast stop) coming from Quezon City. Just a week after Holy week, the gang decided to push through our long planned out of town. Been reading a lot about the said place and I was really really excited. Away from hustle bustle city, the place was so nature, no resorts, no advance technologies, no cp signals and no electricity.
We left our place around 230am, no traffics still. Jays volunteered to drive. We had a quick, excuse me, an hour breakfast at Total Gas Station at NLEX. We reach Pundaquit around 7am, Jays, transact with the boatman and ended up paying 700 pesos for each boat, 1 boat for the 5 of us and another for our things and Kiam. We reach Anawangin Cove 30mins after we leave Pundaquit. When we got there we were amazed, green grass on mountains, pine trees on sands, plus the clear waters of the sea.
Trivia: according to caretaker Marlon, Anawangin Cove is a reclaimed area, the sands came from Mt. Pinatubo's lahar yet still the place is awesome.
There are 2 areas, the P150 side and the 50pesos side. There are already few tents set up at the 50 area, and knowing that it might soon be crowded we decided to stay at the other side, oh by the way, the 150 area got more trees to cover up the heat of the sun. We took few pictures as the guys set up the 3 tents. Get ready of our early lunch, we prepare the food. We had Inihaw na tilapia wrap in foil, lotsa LOTSA kamatis, skinless Longanisa and Inihaw na talong for lunch! all of us got only one thing to say "SOLVE!" we had a very satisfying lunch, and as like I always said there's no way you can beat having lunch/dinner with a group of people dear to you.
We had a power nap after, I woke up around 1pm, the girls got up after few mins. The boys were still sleeping soundly. Kiam and Jays are sleeping on their respective tents while Emer slept at the hammock we brought. While the guys was sleeping there is an instant Anawangin tourist spot (opppsss... kami kami lang ang nakakaalam nun pasensya na!)
The 3 of us decided to take pictures and thanks to Joyce and my tripods we were able to get good pictures with all of us in it. We were like models having a pictorials from different angles, Anwangin is so photogenic.
It was already almost 4pm when we decided to call the boys for a nice swim. While we swim Emer took some pictures, we really had loads of fun, playing and laughing. But because we left all our things inside the tent we just can't leave em too long, so we got up and get ourselves ready for a bath. Girls first while the boys get the ihawan ready. It was the hardest bath I ever had. Kelangan namin mag igib sa poso then bring the water to the self made (by the caretakers) shower room, as in I never imagine myself taking a bath in that kind of place (sorry, medyo maarte), fortunately, there are 2 guys who help us "igib sa poso" and bring the pail near the shower room (? can i call this shower room??? hehe), so we finish taking a bath at the longest time, ang hirap kasi as in super hirap and what's scary is parang people outside can easily see you, so you have to take a bath with your swim suits on. After taking a bath, we went back to our site and took over the ihaw session so the boys can take a bath, it's already starting to get dark when the boys got back and it was only past 6pm. Before 7pm came, the place was already pitch black, the only source of light we got was our flashlights and gasera.
Our dinner was liempo, inihaw na talong (ulit! pero still yummy), syempre we shouted "solved" again after the meal. Getting ready for our inuman session, the guys lit the bonfire, before the session began, we took few pictures (pic addicts kami e, sensya na po) and Emer and Jays dance the hula hula tribe dance (hehe, syempre kami-kami lang nanaman ang nakakaalam nun!) Our liquor for the night is a bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequila and lots bottles of San Mig Light, panghimagas daw according to Kiam (hehe), while drinking we are all playing ice breaker, sharing sentiments, opinions, experience, problems and memories this were the main topics, every answer we shared makes us know more about each other.
Our friendship started with the AIR group, the friendship grows at the end of August 07, the friendship deepened last Nov 2 at our Bataan trip, as time pass by we know that we have each other no matter what happens and this time as we have a camp at Anawangin, we knew we are now inseparable. Our friendship has gone deep, a beautiful friendship that has bloomed, we treat each other like brothers and sisters, I never knew I will have friends from different race (walang masamang ibig sabihin to a) since I grow up w/ Chinese crowed, from nursery to college. I never knew I will feel the sense of belonging to a group of whom I only met a little over 2 years ago (Kiam is not included a coz I met him more than 5 years ago). That night as I got drunk and as we finish our last shot we knew that our friendship will have a long long way to go more laughters, more outings, more gimik and more tambay, there maybe more problems, more tears and more trials but as we have each other we knew everything will be ok.
I woke up 6am the following day, feeling all the body pains, hindi talaga sanay mag tent but heck! so what? anyway, Giselle was not feeling ok, Joyce and I are having a headache, bad dose of hang over, I got back to sleep and around 8am, I woke up feeling great, I ask Emer to help me prepare our brunch while we let the guys sleep further. Everyone was up around 930am, we finish our brunch and pack our things coz the boatman will pick us up by 11am. We left Anawangin almost 12nn, sensya na mabagal magimpake, thanks to Manong bangkero he patiently wait for us (actually, wala siyang choice hehe). got back in Pundaquit and paid the 40pesos parking fee and the 1400 rental for 2 boats. We had our lunch at Caltex NLEX. Reach our place around 530pm. We had more kwentuhan before Jays and Joyce finally bid goodbye.
This trip was definitely worth remembering. Aside from this is my first time to camp, this is also my first time to go to a place where there is no electricity and no cp signals (on any network ha!), it is also my first time to pump water out of "poso", my first time to actually stay overnight at a cove and my first time to get drunk. Aside from all those, this trip is so much fun because of the people we are with, every single person we are spending our time with are valuable to us, every person we came to love and every friend we came to treasure. The whole trip was a memorable trip. An experience to remember and friends to cherish. To sum up, all I can say is "Thumbs UP!"