Lonewulf's Den: SALT & SPICE: Mission Accomplished

(recounting mode)

It is my last night and I’m in my hotel room. I couldn’t sleep. Luckily, my mindless switching of channels led me to a few interesting treats:

A reality show about a daring man undertaking dangers (and survival) of the Earth; in the current episode, I watched him run inside a tunnel while an oblivious full-speed train chased after him. He narrowly escaped, and I know I was supposed to be at the edge of my seat rooting for him to live. I wasn’t. Next channel.
Fullmetal Alchemist! Yay! Wait, Hohenheim versus “Father”? This is it! This is the better F.A. series that featured the “actual” ending in the manga. Fullmetal Alchemist; Brotherhood, was it? Not a fan of manga? Okay I’ll stop now. Next channel.
Another anime. Nice girls with big boobs and a smirk-y eager main character. Wait, was that blue flying cat Happy? WAAAAAAAGH..!! Fairy Tail! I never knew it has an anime version. And the animation is really good. I recently started reading this manga when I got bored waiting for new Naruto episodes. It was interesting and very funny. You should read/watch it!

Okay, so I’m done with the TV and it isn’t even midnight yet. I’ll head out now, maybe grab a quick snack somewhere and take a stroll along the shore.

Lonely full moon by the shore

Uhmm.. yeah.. I am in Bora (Boracay) now and I’m on a mission. Basically, my mission is simple: it is to come here alone and have fun. And so far, I think I’m on track. Tomorrow I’ll head back to Manila, but before that, I still have a couple of things to accomplish: go to the grotto at the end of station 1 strip, buy some souvenirs, and get meself a big box of calamansi muffins (I know! Yum). So far, I think I have achieved travelling alone and having fun.

*cassette rewind sound effect*

Before going to the airport, I did a last minute workout (as if!) at home, in the attempt to have a Diether Ocampo bod, which is obviously the only appropriate outfit in my destination. Don’t worry, I didn’t achieve it. And because of that workout, plus my snail-pace packing of things and a misunderstanding with the cabbie, I missed my flight by less than 10 minutes! Just great. I had to purchase a new ticket (sans the promotional rate) after convincing myself hard that I had to push with the trip.

Lesson learned: I am pretty hard to convince.

As planned, I had dinner by the Bora shore in an all-you-can-eat buffet with live band. Yes, my first meal in Boracay was dinner since my new flight was delayed for at least four hours. I know, I am just the lucky type. So anyway, I settled with a normal buffet because I can’t find that amazing seafood buffet where we dined on our first night here.

Ooops..

Okay, I’ll be more honest now. I’ll tell you my real mission in this trip. It is to create new memories in this splendid island. I mean, our memories were good. However. Those memories make me really sad whenever I think of Boracay, especially as I made an oath to go back here every year. So I have to create a new perspective of the place; something that wouldn’t include you.

I had a really early breakfast the next day (compliments of Boracay Courtyard), so that I will have a lot of time touring around. My first To-Do was to ask around for tour rates and haggle for group packages. This was in preparation for my and my Street Jazz brods’ and sisses’ Bora trip this coming September. And just as I finished asking for the rates, it rained really hard. Perfect time for me to swim! While in the water, I met a college friend, Tasha (who we fondly call AJ Boobs back in the campus, for obvious reasons, shhh.. I believe she didn’t know about her alias). I also met a friendly stranger Alquin who took me to a food hub somewhere along the island’s main highway. We had a really cheap but tasty lunch there.

That evening, I trekked the whole stretch of three stations, and decided to loiter at Guilly’s. There I met a firedancer and his friend. Both were locals and both are very friendly. They kept me company and introduced me to other locals there. This part was the meat of the trip. I really wanted to meet a lot of people, hear their stories, and savour the moment of being in a different place. Actually, you’ll learn a lot from them. You’ll also get a lot of insights, including some realizations on their lives that might be helpful and applicable on your own. We all drank and danced like fools. We hopped onto a club called Paraw, where music was a lot better and people were a lot crazier. I had a freakdance with a pretty lady, who I guess was as drunk as I am. And just when things got steamy between the two of us, my people grabbed me as we were moving to another place. Whew! Close call.

And now, here I am… at the shore, eating shawarma. It’s funny because I really like beaches and I really like eating shawarma. I thought combining the two would make me very happy, but it didn’t. And I know the cold breeze should be freezing my muscles by now, but it doesn’t. My cheek muscles do tingle though. Fuck! This is the only shawarma in the world that tastes more salty than spicy, if you get my drift.

“Kain tayo shawarma, Uno.”

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For Mariel, my Street Jazz sis, who repeatedly asked me about the pictures I took in my trip, here’s the mishmash: