Pangamihan-Lake Casuy: Hoorah

I almost picked up a fight with a “parking valet” this lunch. You know one of those guys who pretend to look after your motorbike or car when they are not really doing anything at all. How can a guy who has never had a motorbike in his life, never rode one, never had a driver’s license, and does not even have a shirt on know more about you on how to park your bike properly?

They do not even own the street where you park on so why do we have to pay them? They get five or ten pesos by doing some hand gestures, half of them I don’t even understand. I earn every money that I get by actually doing something. There are people near the place I live who earn five pesos by carrying 25 gallons of drinking water to your doorstep. And they actually help.

Sometimes these parking valets would be hovering around even if there are already traffic attendants collecting 15 pesos for parking fee. You’d have to pay 10 pesos more and that’s 25 pesos. I get 24-hour unlimited prepaid internet for 50 pesos and even if the service sucks that allows me to download at least one movie. Their help does get me anything at all.

The carton they use to cover your seat when the sun is high is not even worth ten pesos. If you ever pay, you should take the carton home with you.

**

I think I took a wrong turn when I was trying to find my way to sanity. I'm only glad that this wrong turn does not involve a bunch of wood-inhabiting, dentally impoverished, and misleadingly portrayed red necks. Anyway, I don’t have a camera anymore so I barely blog. To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland: “What good is an outdoor blog if it does not contain pictures?”

**

I rode the Pangamihan route yesterday. The drop off point is at Gaas, just along transcentral highway. I used Russ’ bike for this ride. I have a love-hate relationship with that bike. I love it so much when I’m riding downhill but I brutally hate it when I’m doing climbs. But everything feels worth it when it just tears thru rain ruts, and I’m not too good at taking care of myself but that bike does it for me when things get a little out of control. Summary: Fox Float RL and Jamis Parker make a really good pair.

Pangamihan is mountain barangay in the midpart of Cebu City. Along it runs a dirt road which plunges all the way to Toledo, in a sleepy lakeside barangay called Casuy. Not too many vehicles pass by in the area and so nobody bothers to take care of the road. After rainy days, you’ll get ruts that eat up the road from all directions. It’s a major test of cornering skills and judgment which I have none and which I pretend to have. My favorite part of the area is that place we call Windows XP. It’s a meadow that looks like that default Windows XP wallpaper. It wasn’t so green yesterday though, but it’s still as breathtaking (because the climb there is quite steep).

Once you reach the bottom of the descent you’ll have to tread thru a river which also doubles as the main road. From Casuy, it’s a slow decent to another barangay, I forgot the name. And from that barangay is another half hour of pedaling thru a flat, endless fire-road. The boredom makes you suicidal.
When I reached Toledo City, I went to this place called Sangi where the buses are. I paid 50pesos for the bike and 60pesos for myself. Some smart guys asked me why I’m boarding the bus when I could have pedaled all the way to the city. Those people cannot tell one bike from another so it’s a question I prefer not to answer.

Le Mon

I’ve been away from my computer the most of this month. Last week I went to Malapascua with my friends and I was gonna write about how dirty and inners of the island is. Also was gonna say that no part of my expectation told me that the beach would be splayed with sharp pebbles and the sea would be still shallow even if you are several meters far out.

But then again, compared to where I spend most days of the month, the place is a paradise. I just wish they do something about the drainage system in the inner barangay. But then again, I could not speak for the whole island. We only covered the southern part of it. I’m curious what it’s like up north. It’s a good reason to go back up there.

I didn’t do my usual research when I went up the island because I was with friends and I planned to spend the time sleeping (I didn’t want to do all that exploring and stuff). I did get some good sleep. I even took an afternoon nap by the seaside, under the shade of course. I’m not European enough to want to spend the whole afternoon bathing in the sun.

Malapascua is located nearly 8 kilometers north of Maya, a barangay in Daanbantayan, Cebu which is also the final stop for Ceres and Rough Rider buses. You’ll never miss the jumpoff point. 24 kilometers to the east is San Isidro, Leyte and some 22 kilometers of blue to the west is Batbatan Island (I’m not sure what exactly is in the Island. I’m trying to do some research but my Smart Bro connection keeps failing me. It’s more primitive than the dial-up I had back in highschool. At least that one was consistent). Check out this grab from Google Maps

The fare from north bus terminal is 170pesos, Maya to Malapascua’s southside is 80pesos per person, 1,200 if you’re taking the whole bangka to your group. Food is difficult to find in the island. If there are, it’s not that good or if it is good, it comes with a good price (which is natural because it is an island).

I’m supposed to do some philosophizing to make this blog entry more interesting. But then again, who wants to figure life out when you’ve got a long stretch of white sand beach all to yourself.

When life gives you lemons, make Mojitos shots out of it.

St. Augustine Church, Paoay Ilocos Norte

It’s been almost a year since me and my Boss’ Luzon trip but I have never written about Paoay Church. Does writing about churches take as much time to build them? I used to be an altar boy, everybody has been at one point in their life. But it feels so distant now, just like one of those hazy memories of a lazy Sunday morning.

What I remember most about Paoay Church is its cleanliness. The big blocks of stone, which heard thousands of desperate prayers, and the confessionals which were silent ledgers of sins mortal and venial, come second to my recall.

The church of Paoay is in…guess which town? Paoay, Ilocos Norte. I’m not really sure whether churches are named after towns or if towns are named after churches. Surely it’s not as easy as figuring out whether sons are named after fathers or the other way around. I did not bother to find it out.

Paoay Church is a low-lying architecture, it’s as if it is genuflecting to its own architectural grandeur. But it is in fact built the way to withstand earthquakes and the earth-shaking sins of the faithful.

I’ve just confirmed that Paoay Church is actually named St. Augustine Church so I guess that answers my own question. I hope answering my own question is not as pathetic as talking to myself. Which I actually do whenever I blog. I blog to make it look like something but really, it’s just talking to oneself and letting others know about it.

The inside of Paoay Church is not as remarkable as its exterior but it’s still worth going to the place just to get an idea what heaven feels like after you die (in case you never make it). The grounds are just so clean. Also, there’s a tennis court right at the back of the church where high school students play. If I had a son and he cuts class to play tennis, I really would not mind.

I Feel So Close to You Right Now

I’m writing bec I want to file a complaint to humanity. Apparently, some of our members here are teaching our kids to run when they cross the street. While I was riding my bicycle yesterday, a boy nearly got hit by a motorbike because he ran to the other side of the street. I blame this on stupid adults. I’ve seen them tell kids to run when they cross.

Like in this school where my sister used to go to. There’s this guy who is supposed to be some sort of a traffic officer. When there are kids who would want to cross, he would tell them “Dagan dayun, dali” (Run, hurry up). Apparently, this guy is a genius who has came up with a mathematical formula for accident avoidance: time spent crossing the road is directly proportional to the probability of an accident. That is not how it works, smart guy.

Let’s teach our kids to just walk. Awareness of their surroundings is more important than trying to avoid getting hit. They will not have to try to avoid to get hit in the first place if they don’t cross when there’s an incoming vehicle. I know this is pretty common sense to some parents but for some, and even for those supposedly traffic enforcers, they find this a bit too difficult to understand. I made a safety acronym after my first name, BAL, to help our kids.
Be aware of vehicle speed – let drivers who drive like morons be morons. don’t get in their way, wait until it is all clear Anticipate – always think that there is incoming traffic, no matter how quiet it is Look – left and right, and walk across.

***

 I also want to complain about this song “Feel so Close” by Calving Harris. It runs for 3mins and 25secs and it has the same lyrics. And somehow, I’m so into it. I hear it in my head before I go to sleep, I wake up to it, I sing to it in front of my electric fan. The song itself is the force field. But the redundant lyrics is not so bad. I mean, nothing can get worse than “Ice, ice baby.”

A song with the same lyrics running for 4mins? I mean, the phrase itself does not make any sense. Should adding disco rhythm to it and repeating it for four long minutes lend it some special semantics? Here’s what makes it worse: “Ice, ice baby” is sang by Vanilla Ice. I know some of our folks here have partied to that song, no offense to them. But I just don’t get it so somebody explain it to me.

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 In this part, I’m talking like it’s Thursday. I know it’s Saturday but the photos came in late so let’s pretend that I’m some time-travel guy who can do narrative-backdate. Exactly a week ago was my last day in Velez Hospital. I had pneumonia. I carried it for a week without knowing it. I thought it’s just cough. Then my voice became hoarse.

I went to see a doctor to complain about my throat. Turns it there’s something else going on. I was diagnosed with moderate-risk pneumonia and bronchial asthma. A couple of days after I was released, I went back to riding my mountain bike and a day later, I’m back to playing football. I’m just glad that my body is very responsive to the treatment I had.

I was spent four days at the hospital, lying down most of the time, watching TV shows with painstakingly long narratives about air crashes and some crime-solving for murders that happened decades ago. There’s also this show about a nurse who fell in love with an inmate and helped him escape. They caught again anyway. I would forever remember my hospital stay for cable television, interns who come in every hour to get my vitals, and my blood pressure which is always at 110/70 even if they took it all the time.

I am happy to be riding again and just this morning, I did a long trail ride again. I have not done this in two months. I love how the trail pumped adrenaline into my blood stream like it was an unregulated IV. I love how my breath is taken away, not by asthma, but by the dreamy landscape. I love how I no longer have to worry if the nurse is inserting the IV right. I already had the mosses under the tires to worry about.

Route: Taptap-Kamandagan-Kanirag-Dita

Ride type : Pedal-all-the-way

 

Thanks to Russ for letting me ride his Jamis Parker.