Over Empanada, Okoy, Burgers and Hell-ish Stories – My Key Takeaways from Our North Adventure (Last Part)

Cheese and Rice. This is an overdue post but let me explain.

I actually have a draft, but then I got sick for the whole week, and then the laptop that I was using suddenly crashed the next. Whew! What crazy weeks I had. I am yet to retrieve the files but that might take up another week so I’m making a new one. Sounds good? Great. Let me start.

If you haven’t read the first and second part, please click the links.

As I have said, this would be the last part of our North Adventure.

We got so tired that we woke up late. Lucky for us, we were still able to avail the breakfast. You can say, we had a brunch. It was ok, but it wasn’t as good as our dinner! Fair enough. After all, I wouldn’t want to fill my stomach so much because well, we’ve got miles to cover for the day – literally.

After our breakfast, we decided to head back to Vigan for a simple reason – to try out their empanada and okoy. It was a good choice by the way.

Authentic Vigan Empanada and Okoy.

And then what?

Oh gosh! What now? We were running out of ideas, seriously. Maybe we were just too tired to think or the heat of the sun exhausted our thoughts. I wouldn’t know. But then we went to Baluarte. I’m not much of a zoo – fan, but what’s there to lose?

Quick flash back. I went there a decade ago and was privileged to see the interior of the massive house at the top. My dad even had a close encounter with the tigers. When I say close encounter, I meant exactly that.  

I wasn’t really impressed, but the ice cream made up for it. After finishing the cold treat, it was time for us to leave. But of course, a little ‘pasalubong’ shopping wouldn’t hurt. We had a quick stopover at Marsha’s Delicacies and realized, the money spent for bagnet and bibingka was more expensive than the cost of our trip. 🙂  Oh and by the way, Kuya Regan was still with us. Our friend turned local tour guide is highly recommended. BWAHAHAHA

On our way home.

SURF SHACK, LA UNION

On our way home, we had our dinner at Surf Shack La Union. Oh holy bread crumble! We ate like there was no tomorrow. It wasn’t intentional. We were caught off guard and was in shock seeing their food servings. ANG LAKI!

Massive serving!

NO TO SCARY TALES

Anyway, we tried to wake up our senses on the road by telling scary stories. But we had to stop after a few. You know the feeling that someone is watching you and ‘gulp’ any moment would pop right in front of your car? That was what I felt. And well, Cha felt the same so we opted to talk about positive things.

NEVER AGAIN WILL I START A SPOOKY CONVERSATION. NOT WHEN YOU ARE AN ALL-GIRL TRAVELLING GROUP. NOT WHEN IT’S ALMOST MIDNIGHT. NOT WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING AT TPLEX.

LIFE TALKS OVER FRAPPE

Our last stop was at Starbucks in NLEX. Cha and I, being the older ladies in the group, gave few lessons in life to Carie and Honey. Specifically about work – life balance and happiness. Not that Cha and I are expert on this. But you know, we’ve been through a lot and I can say we have the license. Don’t get me wrong. I learned a lot from the young ladies too. But let’s just summarize the learnings at the end of this post.  Again and again, it was a meaningful conversation.

And as we had our last gulps of fattening beverages, it marked the beginning of a real friendship.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNED

Cha and I work from home, Regan works for the family business, while Carie and Honey work in the confinements of an office. And as much as we are all similar in some ways, we still have different views about values, happiness and how to take up life’s challenges.

Key Takeaways from Honey

This brainy girl knows things from ‘aardvark to zucchini’. She is our walking encyclopedia. But that’s not really what made her likable. Apart from being very smart, she is a very responsible sister to her younger brother. Well, you all know I’m a young mom, right? But I never thought that Honey is acting like one too – and started it even while she was still in school. To my surprise, she is handling it pretty well. In fact, better than I do. And I am definitely inspired.

Key Takeaways from Carie

I have worked with Carie for almost 2 years and I must say, she’s a workaholic.I treat her like my little sister who, at times, acts like the older one. If you want to know my deepest darkest secrets, you can just torture her (haha). But what I like about Carie is her dedication. Man oh man. She carries her work at home – on a weekend. Aside from that, Carie’s self – control is just amazing! That’s something that I am still learning. Maybe I should get tips from her, right? She’s very responsible and I am sure to see a very bright future ahead of her.

Key Takeaways from Cha

The only married lady from the group. What I like about Cha is her stubbornness. Or maybe it’s a trait youngest children have, right? (haha) Actually, it’s not really stubborn. It’s more like, knowing what you want and sticking to it – regardless if other people say NO. Her stories from the past inspired me so much. She had her share of heartaches, trips and bruises along the way, but she managed to stand up – gracefully I might add. Her insights about choosing lifelong partners made a ‘mark’ too. Her maturity is just beyond our years. And her kikayness is contagious. She’s the perfect epitome of ‘Bawal malosyang’!  Ok Cha, I will put on some colors from now on.

Key Takeaways from Regan

Back in college, it was rare that I would talk to Kuya Regan. His ‘hiphop’ look was quite intimidating *laughs*. Well, I don’t think we even talked before, right? So it came as a surprise when he started talking about ‘love’ during our booze session. I said to myself, “He made sense”. I honestly thought I couldn’t get anything from a rich kid who has everything in life. To date, we still haven’t figured out his real age. But I bet he looks younger than the numbers because of his positive attitude – which I need to be consistent at.

So ok? It’s not a bad idea to invite friends from different groups. I would actually recommend it to everyone. You’d be surprised how they get along. We might do it again, but please girls, no more white ladies and freaky stories on the road.

***

And after a couple of weeks, I was invited to hold a training for a rural bank. It was so much fun and I’d write about it soon.

Meeting New Friends and Reaching Milestones – Our North Adventure (Part 1)

Last July, I posted some random status on Facebook saying that I want to have a short vacation and if anyone is interested, they could just leave a message.

Surprisingly, Cha, a former block mate from college commented on my post. Well, it started from that. Few private messages and before we know it, we already plotted a date for our North adventure.

Side note: She also works from home so that’s probably one of the reasons why we have a lot in common.

Originally, we were supposed to stay in Subic which is just a couple of hours from Manila. After all, it would be our first time to do such kind of adventure so we figured to start with something near metro manila (just in case something awful happens). Don’t get me wrong ok? I’ve been to a couple of road adventure, but mostly with my family. I think that goes the same with Cha. Since we were just 2, I invited my former officemate, Carie, to join us. Being the ‘I-am’single-I-am-going-to-have-fun’ kind of dudette, she said yes. Little did I know that she was a bit hesitant because Subic isn’t something that tickles her bones.

And then Soul Surfer played on Star Movies.

I immediately messaged Cha and asked her if we could go to La Union. It was way, and I mean, WAY farther than Subic but she said YES. Oh this friend of mine, she really has that craving for a real adventure! In just a second, our plans changed.

What plan?

It wasn’t a plan. We intended not to plan. We decided that being spontaneous might help spice our adventure a bit.

Just so you know, Cha and Carie were total strangers. And so I had to introduce them over Facebook. Oh thank you wonders of technology.

I knew they would get along just because I felt there was something in common between the two.

They are both KILAY, sorry, I meant KIKAY!

In fact, when I asked Carie to check Cha’s account, the first thing she told me is that she loves her eye brows.

I have to admit. I was a bit scared being with 2 kikays because that might mean we would end up choosing luxurious restaurants and hotels. Damn it, this was supposed to be a cheap adventure! Well, I just reiterated in our Facebook group conversation that we have to stick with our budget. I was crossing my fingers that my travel mates would be as cowboy as I am.

On the night before our road trip, I decided to stay at Carie’s place so that Cha will just have to pick us up along EDSA (or as WAZE pronounced it – E.D.S.A).  Out of the blue, Carie dragged me to Starbucks to meet her cousins. And just when I thought there will be no surprises that night, we decided to bring Honey (Carie’s cousin) with us.

We were 4. I was secretly thinking “Oh yes, hati sa apat lahat ng gastusin. ROCK.” (What do you expect? I was really working on a tight budget!) BWAHAHAHA. The universe is doing its magic.

Let me give you some ‘backgrounder’.

Cha : The chic and kikay driver. 

Carie : The workaholic kikay dudette. 

Honey : The walking encyclopedia 

BA : Uhm, I wanted to write something nice but I guess you’d call me bias. So the passenger. The foreigner passenger! Sounds fine?

Cha sent me a message around 3:00 AM that she was already in Magallanes.

What the hell! And the 3 of us in the condo were still in bed.

I texted Cha back. “Yung totoo? Ano yung dina- drive mo, Mirage or Ferrari?”

Anyway, we just washed our face, brushed our teeth, changed our clothes the fastest time possible, hailed a cab and went straight to our meeting place.

When we got there, Carie saw Cha’s cute apple green Mirage. She went down and said “Hi Cha”.

“Wow, close agad?” That’s what I thought!

Anyway, we had some chit chats and of course, turned on WAZE because we are self-proclaimed ‘direction-losers’. I was so sleepy but because Cha and I had to catch up (the last time I saw her was 5 years ago), I had to fight my peepers urge to shut down.

We stopped at NLEX to eat our breakfast and after some ‘calming down’, we hit the road again.

It was our first photo together. We looked comfy already! Parang years of friendship na ang na-establish.

WOOHOOOOOO!!! Let’s go La Union.

I was excited to wear my rash guard and to post some fake ‘surfing’ photos.

After such a long drive (Uhm, they didn’t let me drive out of fear. That’s unfair!), we reached La Union.

ERM.

So this is La Union? Flat. No kickass waves.

Some of our friends already warned us that it wasn’t the best time to visit La Union. It was August.  Apparently, we didn’t listen.  

We expected a Boracay-ish kind of vibe but we were there already so we scouted for some hostels.

It was scorching hot and we found this hostel with all the hammock and bamboo foundations. It was cool for me! After all, I really wanted to try something new. The girls were ok with it as well while Cha was busy with her phone.

“OK na ba kayo dito?” I asked.

“Ok naman.” They said, almost in unison.

“Cha?”

“Gusto nyo mag – Vigan? 2 hours na lang daw yun from here sabi ni Regan.”

It was just noon so we still have a lot of time.

Carie said an enthusiastic YES because it was going to be her first time in Vigan.

I had no choice but to say YES. Besides, Vigan seems to be a great place to relax. Plus, there are beaches nearby so… OK.

We went down and checked the hostel’s comfort rooms (out of curiosity, I guess). But what we saw in the CR’s signage made me decide to get in the car and head North-er!

“Frogs are our friends!”

Oh no! I can’t imagine sharing a shower with a frog! I’m a cowboy and all, but frogs and I don’t get along.

Luckily, I wasn’t the only one. Cha was too darn afraid of frogs too.

We just ate a cheap lunch, went back to the car and Vigan – here we go!

Wait for my next post for our Ilocos adventure. But admit it, this first day was already an adventure of its own, right? RIGHT!