Climb 013: Spiritual Journey in the Sacred Mountain

DESTINATION: Mt. Banahaw a.k.a. The Holy Mountain 2,158 MASL
JUMP-OFF POINT: Brgy. Kinabuhayan, Dolores, Quezon
SPECS: Major climb, Difficulty 5/9, Trail class 3
CLIMB DATES: November 20-21, 2010

Climb 012: Three-peat in Pikoy

DESTINATION: Mt. Palay-palay a.k.a. Pico de Loro 644 MASL
JUMP-OFF POINT: Magnetic Hill, Ternate, Cavite
SPECS: Minor climb, Difficulty 3/9, Trail class 1-3
CLIMB DATES: November 6-7, 2010

Climb 011: Two Hits in Batumitam

DESTINATION 1: Mt. Batulao 811 MASL
JUMP-OFF POINT: Evercrest Golf Course, Nasugbu, Batangas
SPECS: Minor climb, Difficulty 4/9, Trail class 3
CLIMB DATES: October 30-31, 2010
DESTINATION 2: Mt. Talamitam 630 MASL
JUMP-OFF POINT: Sitio Bayabasan, Brgy. Aga, Nasugbu, Batangas
SPECS: Minor climb, Difficulty 3/9, Trail class 1-3
CLIMB DATES: October 31-November 1, 2010

Climb 010: The Buttertoast Encounter

DESTINATION: Mt. Tapulao 2,037 MASL
JUMP-OFF POINT: Brgy. Damapay-Salaza, Iba, Zambales
SPECS: Major Climb, Difficulty 6/9, Trail class 3
CLIMB DATES: October 22-25, 2010

Climb 009: Conquering the Cow's Hump

DESTINATION: Mt. Bungkol Baka 551 MASL
JUMP-OFF POINT: Sitio San Pedro, Brgy. Iba, San Jose, Tarlac
SPECS: Minor climb, Difficulty 3/9, Trail class 1-3
CLIMB DATES: October 2-3, 2010

1st Trip Abroad: The Siamese Encounter

DESTINATION: Bangkok, Thailand and nearby towns

Travel Dates: September 5-8, 2010

The first idea was to have sibling-bonding moments in Boracay, Cebu, and Bohol for 5 days. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, that plan had been scraped off to my dismay. Now only have I realized that when a narrow window closes, wide doors open... Thus, my Visayan tour had been replaced with an out-of-country adventure!

As the dates draw near, threats about not pushing through with it had presented themselves. But, alas! My mom's prayers had been heard. She was actually more excited about the trip than I was. She'd call from the US from time to time to make sure that I had prepared my stuff for the said trip.

I had to miss a fun climb in Mt. Romelo for this trip. But it was all too worth it. ;)

My sis arrived from LA at 6:00am of September 5th, Sunday. We fetched her from the airport and brought her to our new residence for her to leave her luggage. Then, after a few minutes and a bio break, the two of us had to leave for our Bangkok Trip which was scheduled at 12:15pm.

We arrived at Bangkok around 4:00pm. Once at the hotel, we immediately left and looked for a church so that we could attend a mass. We did. Unfortunately, we didn't understand the sermon for it was spoken in Sanskrit (Old Siamese language). We had no choice but to listen and guess which part of mass are we in and answer in the language we know best--ahem, English. ^_^

Later that night, we went around the street market and some decent stuff to buy for Ate Leda's business. Then, we had all-u-can-eat seafood grill dinner at the rooftop of Baiyoke Hotel. I guess we had too many food and have had too many choices for shopping that we got so exhausted. Or was it jetlag?

We started our second day in Bangkok a little too early: 4:00am because we knew that it would take us long to shower and get our hair done. Call time for the city tour was at 7:00am. We were ready after 20 mins of buffet breakfast. Too many choices, and we could have as much as we could, but we had to hurry down. :'(

We were supposed to go to many places in Bangkok but some of the attendees weren't able to make it and we waited for too long, we had to cut the tour short and visited temples, instead. I knew I wasn't dressed for temple tour, so I had to wear my sister's jacket in some occasions.

The tour was fun. Got to see lots of golden Buddhas. I learned that there were too many versions of them. It was like being in another dimension. I was there but I don't seem to be. It was like a dream. My most favorite part of the tour was having to ring too many bells. Each bell promises a wish bound to become a reality. I wished for too many things but the bells seemed more, I had to repeat some of my wishes. ;)

Another exciting part was touching the belly of the fortune Buddha with our wallets. The ritual promises not running out of money.

The most interesting part of the temple tour was being mistaken for a Siamese Actress. I seem to have lots of doppelganger nowadays. Ha! Ha!

Our tour ended just before lunch so we had our tour bus bring us to the Paragon Mall, a Greenbelt-type mall in Bangkok. After having Thai lunch, we toured the city by foot. We passed by MBK, Isetan, and many other malls. We stopped at Isetan, where an altar of the four-faced Buddha stands. It is believed that the said Buddha would grant his devotees success, fortune, health, and happiness. My sister paid respect.

Right after, we decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up. Then off we go to the street market again. Before calling it a night, we had soup at a Thai Eatery.

The following morning had to be started as early. It's the Elephant Tour Day! We didn't know that the Elephant Village was very far from Bangkok. It took us around 2 1/2 hours to get there. The travel was worth it. We first went to a sugar factory to learn the process of making Thai sugar made from palm fruit. Then, ooff we went to the Elephant Village where we saw many houses built for the elephants. We rode the elephant for 600 Baht per pax. The next stop was the floating market. Being aboard a motorboat was fun. The last time I had a similar experience (without the life vest) was when I was in high school. I enjoyed shopping for hats!

We had a few more kilometers to travel before we reached the Elephant and Crocodile Farm. We watched an Elephant Show there are the sumptuous buffet lunch. Then, there was this Crocodile Show which was as entertaining. Afterwards, we visited some jewelry factories and leather stores before going back to Bangkok. I was so glad to be back in Bangkok as it was going to be my last evening there.

A few more shopping and after taking a shower, off I went to the airport which was a railway ride away. It was raining hard but the railway system made it easy for us to get to the airport without having to ride a cab. I was aboard PAL flight bangkok to Manila at 11:00pm of September 7th. At 4:00am of the following morning, I was already back at the Centennial Airport...

Climb 008: The Cristrav (Mis)Adventure

DESTINATION: Mt. Cristobal a.k.a. The Devil's Mountain 1,415 MASL

ENTRY POINT: Sitio Parang, Brgy. Sta. Lucia, Dolores

EXIT POINT: Brgy. Tala, Rizal, Laguna

SPECS: Major climb, Difficulty 6/9, Trail class 3-4

CLIMB DATES: August 28-29, 2010

Five times that I have planned to climb the mountain I was most mystified in... Even with my eldest sister bashing me from climbing Pico in the midst of a crisis, I still left and climbed Cristobal. Despite my mom and my other siblings' persistence that I should engage in gardening instead. I don't know. I just can't let this climb pass me by.

I'm getting used to being the only "rose" among the thorns. Tommy wasn't aware that it was going to be a traverse. Doing the climb the traverse way is making the trail's difficulty level higher by two points. From difficulty level: 4/9, it becomes 6/9.

The way up was just like the Tarak climb. Easy at some points, and almost impossible at some. There was a "face the wall" portion wherein one had to face the wall in order to cross that very narrow path that can only accommodate half the body. There's the "lambitin" portion wherein one has to hang on to a tree or choose the easier way. Melle and I chose the more difficult choice.

There were three or more groups who climbed with us. One of them had 30 climbers with them, most of whom were newbies. We requested to advance from them but they won't let us. Later, I learned why. The camp site wasn't that big to accommodate all of us, so they had to trick us to get the better area. Shame on them to use such a sneaky way!

We had a faster pace than the rest of the group and we really made it a point to go faster for us to be able to get a good spot for camping. Well, our groupmates arrived a little later than we expected and they went looking for us as we went looking for them and it took a while before we found one another.

They were pissed off, having had to go through the 30 minutes of waist-bending on the "talahiban." They did so twice. We did so 6 times. But we didn't complain and they did. Well, we were in it for the sacrifice. As one climber puts it: "Mountaineering is the art of suffering." I agree.

Everything went well, but we had to leave the tent we pitched at the peak to join the rest on the other side. We left them early morning the next day to break camp and wait for them at our camp site for the descent. It took them 3 hours to get there. We thought they'd be there a few minutes after we left their camp site. Still, we didn't bulge.

I call the first few minutes of the traverse "the athletics portion." Wilson, Tommy, Bert, Khen, and Jay took turns in assuming a diving position, butterfly position, and other awkward positions due to countless falls. Minor injuries were common. I fell on my butt twice myself. The trail down was 80% steep and it was slippery and muddy.

We got lost many times, especially in the grassland. That's when the distance between us and other groupmates really heightened. They were late for 3 hours to get to our exit point.

We came in contact with the Pinoy Trekkers and joined them for the swimming galore in a resort near the exit point. Since it took a while before our groupmates arrived, we had to wait for them at the bus ride.

We knew that on their way to the exit point, they'd be bashing us for having left them, and we were not mistaken. There was hostility when we met at the bus stop.

Not that I am bitter about them calling us "ataters," it's just that I feel bad having them feel bad about us having a different pace than them. I was expecting them to respect our pacing as much as we had respected theirs. They shouldn't have used it against us. They were as lost we also were. They were on a better state because they had the food with them, they were all males, and they had another group joining them.

Well, that's just it. Some peeps would get messed up in the head when things go wrong. People tend to look for someone to blame.

I was somehow relieved to have fixed things with them before the climb ended. The nasty talks after do not matter. "We should be mature about it and we should not hold negative feelings about a climb." I agree, Omee; I totally agree."

CLIMB 007: Pikoy Revisited

DESTINATION: Mt. Palay-palay a.k.a. Pico de Loro 644MASL

JUMP-OFF POINT: Magnetic Hill, Ternate, Cavite

SPECS: Minor climb, Difficulty 3/9, Trail class 1-3

CLIMB DATES: August 14-15, 2010

I had always made it known that Pico de Loro would always be my favorite mountain, it being my first love--my first climb. So, when the chance of climbing it again was presented to me, I had to grab it even though I was in the midst of a crisis. I felt like I needed that climb. Six months ago, when I first climbed it, I was black and blue. Six months later, I was black and blue again. But this time, I made sure it will be the last time I'll be climbing a mountain with bruises all over my body.

With us were new recruits--Janeth, Mitch, and Kim. Tommy and Jonah came with us, as well as Wilson. Melle acted as the trek lead. When we reached the camp area, we decided to go to the peak. Unlike our fist visit, the grassland was greener this time and the wind was gentler. Melle went to climb the rock formation. I wanted to climb with him. He didn't entertain the idea, and instead convinced the other men to climb with him. I was greatly frustrated. One of the motivations I set on my mind in revisiting Pico was conquering the rock formation which I found too scary to climb.

I didn't like how our trek lead pointed out my clumsiness and weak upper torso to justify his refusal to allow me to climb the formation. During the socials, when I was already tipsy (or was I drunk?), I let out my anger and frustration. When I didn't get him to listen to me, I went to socialize with another group who were willing to listen. Now I know I was being silly. I regret having displayed such silliness to our newbies. Aaaaargh!

The following morning, our trek lead and I were still not talking to each other. I climbed the rock formation with another group. Too bad the thick clouds wouldn't allow the peeps from the other peak to see us. They weren't able to take clear pictures of the four of us. Conquering the rock formation aka "dakilang bato" brought such pride. We could see the envy in the eyes of people left on the other peak. It was just not absolute because I knew I pissed off someone by conquering it. We had to wait for a few minutes for the clouds to go away and for the peeps from the other peak to take a good photo of us while there on top. We waited in vain.

When I climbed down and went back to our camp site, they already broke the camp. Our trek lead was trying to piss me off, I know. My belongings were scattered all over the place and five of our teammates had already left for the falls, our next itinerary. I actually blackmailed the couple, Tom and Jonah that if they left me at the camp site, I will go straight back home. What a jerk I had been!

Well, they waited and I was glad!

When we reached the falls, I wasn't speaking to any one of those who left me. They tried to talk to me, I stayed silent. After hitting the water, I found my temper cooling down. Maturity kicked in. I started talking to the guys, including the trek lead.

I ended up leading the team to base camp 1 and to the jump off point. Trek lead started talking to me but we hadn't discussed about the issues raised during the socials. It was a few days later that we did.

It still turned out to be a great experience, despite the mishaps along the way. Nothing and no one could ruin the moments I spent with Pikoy--my one great love. I would continue to bring newbies there so that they will experience what I had.

We passed by Ate Beng's house in Dasma, Cavite to have our post-climb socials. Hyago, Mervz, and Ayie from the Tarak climb joined us. We also met a new climb associate, Khen. We had so much fun!

Climb 006: My First Major Climb

with Tribung Kalat & Sosyal Klaymers
DESTINATION: Tarak Ridge 1,130 MASL

JUMP-OFF POINT: Brgy. Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan

SPECS: Major climb, Difficulty 4/9, Trail class 3

CLIMB DATES: July 31-August 1, 2010

My first major climb started as an invitation from Sosyal Klaymers--the group we met in Mt. Kalisungan. Wilson made a positive remark about the climb and decided to choose it as his birthday climb since we had also been planning for one. Melle, aka Assault Summit Boy, also expressed his excitement about the said climb. Thus, we confirmed with only three initial attendees. Lloyd was supposed to have another climb on the said schedule, but it was cancelled. He decided to join as well. On Wilson's birthday dinner in their house, Kim confirmed and the couple Tom and Jonah also expressed their desire to join. We thought they weren't determined, but the next day, they have already finished buying mountaineering stuff. Excited? Harhar!

And so, on July 31st, there were 12 of us: Melle, Wilson, Kim, Jonah, Tommy, Lloyd, Hyago, Ate Beng, Ayie, Mervz, Julius and I.

I shall never underestimate the power of networking sites as we were able to coordinate with one another through it. Only two of the Tarak Team members are unreachable through FB: Melle and Ate Beng.

Friday night was to be spent at Tom's and Jonah's place. Lloyd, Melle, and I slept over. The following day, we would be heading for MOA Supercat Terminal where a ferry boat awaits and it shall bring us to Orion, Bataan in less than an hour. The two guys only had two-hour sleep, sharing Gin Bulag aka Cuatro Cantos. We joked around the following day saying they each had Dos Cantos.

The couple, Kim and Wilson, were the first ones from our group to arrive in the terminal. Hyago and Ate Beng had already been there. The three members of Sosyal Klaymers were having a breakfast at a nearby McDo resto when we arrived. A few minutes later and after introduction and phototaking, we were aboard Supercat.

We arrived in Orion around 11am and soon we were headed for Brgy. Alas-Asin riding a rented van. We compressed ourselves, all 12 of us, so that we would only pay for one. we registered at the Brgy Hall and found out that there were 27 others who've gone ahead of us. We had quick lunch in two of the carenderias nearby, then left for the trek at 12:30pm. And the 5-and-a-half-hour journey began...

The first part of the climb was walking on an inclined concrete road that led to a grassland and later, into the woods.

It was cloudy but considering the fact that it was high noon, the atmosphere was so humid that I had to inhale two puffs of my asthma remedy after 10 minutes of trekking just to get by.

I was praying for rain, my companions weren't.

After about an hour of walking into the woods, we saw a semi-concrete infrastructure. That's when we met a no-nonsense woman, Aling Cording. She was motherly accommodating, she spoke Cebuano, and she was expecting us to give them money. She even showed me her husband's gangrenous wound on his foot. I had no smaller bill with me and my companions left without us discussing about the amount of money we would hand them, so I left my raisin loaf. I was so touched when she said, "Dili na ko maulaw, kaunon na nako ni ha?" (I will not feel ashamed anymore. I shall eat this now, alright?) I was in tears as I walked away...

A few inclined steps away from Aling Cording's, we found a clearance--a great view of the Mariveles Ridges! It was breathtaking! We decided to stay there for a while.

Soon, the rain fell. I felt relieved. Although it was going to be muddy and slippery, I preferred that over dehydration and asthma attacks which had slowed me down in the past climbs. I was wearing the hood of my rain gear at first. Later, I decided to take it off as I want to feel the raindrops on my head. Dang, I had never felt refreshed!

A steep cliff was to be crossed and the newbies had a hard time getting through it, but they managed. Kudos to Mareng Jonah and Pareng Tom!

The wonderful Papaya River presented itself to us and we were all mystified. The rain was about to stop and we stopped to rehydrate ourselves from its abundant flow. The water was pure and clean and it tasted good.

We only stayed there for a while because we would be having a night trek if we stayed longer. It would be more dangerous to have a night trek on the slippery cliffs. Two more hours of climb. The trail was accommodating--giving us the roots, the vines, the stable rocks that we needed to cling on to, to be able to push ourselves upwards. There were times when I had to deal with the trail alone. I would stare hard on the things around me. I felt that my senses were becoming more and more receptive. While I was staring hard at a rock, I was able to sense something. After a while, I felt as if I could actually see the rock staring back at me. I took a deep breath. After a while, I could actually hear the trees breathing with me. I savored each rain as its drops touched my face. After a while I could actually feel the raindrops kissing me on my eyes, my cheeks, my lips--!

I was tired, yet I was at peace. I was overwhelmed. I was in one with nature!

We reached the peak at 5:30pm. Melle and I were the first ones in our group to reach the camp site. We immediately pitched the tent at once because it was so cold at the top, the fog was beginning to eat any trace of warmth. By the time our companions arrived, I had already changed into dry clothes and was claiming heat inside our Johnny Walker tent.

After everyone had pitched his tent, dinner was being prepared and socials were held first with Mervz as the tanggero. We had vodka with strawberry juice as the chaser. When the sinigang na baboy was ready, we had no choice but to pig out. The result? Most of us got sleepy and were unable to join the socials part 2.

It wasn't easy getting up early the next morning. The place was cold and covered with fog. Melle woke up the earliest and the rest followed. The noise from campers talking outside the tent woke me up and the other sleepyheads.

After breakfast, we started the descent. It was more difficult going down than it was going up. The fear of falling off the cliff fogged my mind. Only the determination to see my own house once again kept my mind focused. Any miscalculation on the step we took would cost our lives. As we moved downwards, the trail was becoming much much friendlier and less scary.

We settled in Papaya River and had our lunch there. Immediately after lunch, we took the remaining distance and headed back to civilization.

When we reached Brgy Alas-Asin, we found the place where we had lunch the day before. There were isaw, adidas, and helmet on skewers being displayed. It was a barbecue festival for Melle, LLoyd and me!

We were so full when the others arrived and then, it was time to head back to the Supercat Terminal to catch the last trip to Metro Manila.

We reached MOA at around 7pm and so we decided to have dinner at Gilligan's. The four others had to leave early, so only the eight of us had a sumptuous meal together. It was a friendship climb worth remembering.

The post-climb dinner ended with a plan to revisit Pico de Loro on the 14th. Hope it pushes through. I can't wait to conquer the Parrot's Beak this time...