Philippines Travel Blog

I didn’t expect my return to Anawangin, Zambales to be in such a terrible state. My head was like a pimple that’s about to burst, I was awake for more than 30 hours, and I was drunk like a proper alcoholic; having been drinking for 6 hours straight. Ok, perhaps there was more talk than beer, but still, I was pretty wasted.

It all started with a send-away drink for a colleague who was set to fly to distant lands on a Sunday. As Filipinos, it was a matter of national pride for us to make sure that our guest, even to the very last minute, enjoyed her stay in our islands. But since my colleague had been working her ass off for our company the whole time she was here, she really didn’t have time to see the sights. She only allocated a day (Saturday) for her shopping ritual.

So after work last Friday, we were pumped to give her a good time, drinking, a little crash course on Filipino humor and of course, Filipino hospitality. We were determined to make her drink until the sun comes up. As nightshift folks, our drinking started at around 1:00AM and by the time it was around 7AM, after a whole lot of talk and more beer, some drunken guy asked our visitor point blank if she’d rather spend her last Saturday in the Philippines shopping or sprawled in a tropical beach. She said beach. A show of hands ensued and it was agreed that four drunken colleagues will be heading out to Zambales to take her to Anawangin. Unfortunately, one of those who raised their hands was me. I didn’t really wanna go but seeing that most folks were raising their hands, I decided what the hell, might as well go crazy for once.

We didn’t pack for anything. We just followed the road and took turns driving. We reached Subic around 12 noon and bought our swimming outfit there. We then proceeded to drive to Pundaquit where the usual bancas are rented to go to Anawangin. We parked our car in Canoe Beach Resort and arrived at Anawangin Cove around 2PM.

Without even putting on a beach towel (I had none), I crashed on the sand and started snoring right away. My colleagues were happily swimming while I passed out under the shade. I woke up an hour later and saw them drinking some more. A lot of looks were thrown our way not because of my unbelievably good looks but because our colleague from distant shores was in a string bikini and she looked absolutely like those models you only see in glossy swimsuit magazines. I couldn’t really care less as to how she looked (rrright), I was too concerned about my hangover and where I could score some aspirins to cure it.

It seemed to me that Anawangin is no longer the secret spot that it used to be. There’s a store selling stuff there now. The creek and the pine trees are still there, but there are more tents pitched unlike the last time I visited it. I’m not really crazy about its beach, but for a quick getaway, it’s still pretty much acceptable.

After three hours in Anawangin we went back to Canoe Beach Resort to retrieve our stuff and go back to Manila. By some inspired move, we decided to stop by the new Marquee Mall near the Clark Exit in NLEX so our colleague was still able to do a little shopping.

We arrived in Manila around 12midnight. The other guys still wanted to go to Fiamma and Embassy but I was literally bombed so I begged off. Not that I enjoy going to those places anyway.

Going to Anawangin in a drunken stupor was really irresponsible and stupid though fun and enjoyable in a painful way. But I guess it’s alright to do these kinds of things every once in a while if only to confirm that we are still in charge of our individual lives.