Clingy Tours is composed of a circle of friends in Los Baños that couldn’t get enough of Facebook and Twitter; they also go out at nights, text, do and watch gigs, and go to sleepovers. They also travel to islands for a change.

Anawangin Cove is located in San Antonio, Zambales, Philippines. It is one of the many half-a-virgin islands tourists flock to during summer. It’s so remote that not even cell sites can penetrate the force in the area.

Our boat took almost an hour to get to Anawangin. We passed by different islands on our way.

We pitched our tents then I cooked lunch with a portable LPG cooking set. We spent the entire day eating, singing, swimming, and taking photos. During the night we set up our camp fire. We also had a mini gig as half of Juniper Face the Corner started singing and people around us started listening and wanting for more.

In the morning, Kimmy and I went swimming in the rocky part of the cove (that would be the right side facing the sea) while some of us hiked to Mount Pundaquit. I pretended to be a spelunker since there were boulders there that formed a shadow and it looked like a cave. Some of us also went to the deeper parts of the sea. Gah, pro divers.

We had our early lunch since we were going to Capones Island. The waves were insane en route to Capones. Our boatman must have had a need for speed, braving every big, salty wave that slapped our faces. Unfortunately I was at the front.

When we reached Capones, our boats didn’t have enough parking space so we waited for other boats to leave the area. Again, unfortunately, Capones was on low tide so our we had to jump to the sea. Big, slippery rocks got me injured. At least big waves brought me to the shore.

Capones is famous for its lighthouse. Also known as Faro de Punta Capones, the lighthouse serves as a guide for fishermen in Subic and Zambales.

Capones is also known as a graveyard for footwear. Apparently, a lot of people who braved the island lost their slippers/sandals/shoes. Anyway, it was getting scorching hot in the island. There were no trees and canopies so we had no choice but to climb the hill. That was the point of the trip anyway.

I’m not a big fan of hiking, but because I was peer-pressured by my clingy friends, I did so. In my flipflops and swimsuit. It took us half an hour to reach the lighthouse, which is on top of the hill. The quarters, which used to house the guards of the light house, has been left abandoned. It was like a small labyrinth since there were a few dead ends. After a few tries, we finally got to the foot of the lighthouse.

Any first-timer would surely freak out on the spiral staircase that swings as you move up. After many steps, we reached a wooden ladder that leads to the narrower part of the tower. Our guide said we need to keep going since there’s a big reward at the top, so we did. Anyway, after that wooden structure was a steel ladder that leads to the more narrower part of the tower. But wait, there’s more. A thin steel ladder gets one to the top of the lighthouse. It wasn’t easy climbing to what seemed like a fireman’s pole but when we got to the top, yes, the reward was big!

At the top we got to see South China Sea. We got to breathe fresh air, and of course, we got to take cover from the sun.

The lighthouse is still functional. One can see from the smooth lenses that the tower gets spic-and-spanned. It’s just that nobody bothers to go up there every single day anymore, which is great for humanity. That thing is solar-powered.

We got back to our respective boats after a series of photoshoots. I forgot to bring any camera so other people did the shooting.

Capones is just a few minutes away from Pundaquit, Zambales, where we set-off to Anawangin a day ago.

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There were a lot of life lessons that we learned during our vacation at Anawangin/Capones:

1. We can subsist with very limited resources: cold water, ice, aircon, and beer;

2. In the absence of electricity and network coverage, we were able to do what our ancestors did: talk.

3. Anybody can steal a bag of cold water from an ice chest because he/she was parched.

4. It’s great to be detached from the society at times (I’m antisocial so I do that often.)

5. We all had instinctive survival skills (I can jump off the boat with my life vest on!)

6. We can pitch tents on our own (because others were busy with theirs).

Here, photos!

The universe (this universe) didn’t allow me to retain the previous contents of this personal blog so I’m starting from scratch, with a look and feel that delights me. If there’s human intervention with the destruction of the previous st.net, may the gods bless his soul. It opened doors for a newer and better me.

Out with the old and in with the new. Yah, so let’s see: I’ve had enough baggage with the years’ worth of contents of the old st.net and I’ve somehow mismanaged some posts. I also don’t like its pretentiousness (actually I was being pretentious), blogging in different styles and shit. I also became motivated to draw my own banner and a kick-ass blimp:

For roughly a month now, I have been carefully selecting the best theme, deciding on what to draw, and coming up with new ideas to put here. The first two were successful; the third one is still in progress.

I thank Jean Claude Gregorio and Rafael Deramas for helping me tweak this tricky theme. Both of them get a bottle of warm beer. On me.

I inserted some 90s references on the banner. Hit me up if you have an idea so you’ll get a warm bottle of beer, too.