Trifter

I spent the Holy Week in Batangas upon the invitation of my best buddy Levi who was staying with me for awhile in Carmona. Levi was staying with his niece, Rowena who have settled with her family in Batangas. When my other friends found out about my plan, they decided to tag along. We left for Batangas on the early morning of Holy Thursday.

I and Levi were constantly on the phone a few days before we left so I thought nothing would go wrong even if that was our first time to visit the place. I meet up with Jolina, Aldous and Danny at the Robinson’s Transport Terminal in Palapala, Dasmarinas, Cavite and upon Levi’s instruction; we boarded a van to Balayan/Calatagan, Batangas. I asked the conductor who happens to be the wife of the driver to drop us off at the waiting shed in Aguha then we proceeded to take a power nap since it was only 4:00am and my companions left Manila at 12:00 midnight. I texted Levi that we were on the way and a few minutes later, he texted back to call him when we are in Nasugbo. Every now and then, he would call to check where we were and I had to ask the lady conductor since I was not familiar with the place so I thought it was all systems go for us.

Lost in Batangas

On the road, the lady conductor was telling us that they have already transported several batches of vacationers to Nasugbo and Matabungkay the past few days. I told her that we were also going to Matabungkay Beach. Her husband driver overheard us so he confirmed our destination. I said Balayan because that’s where our host lives but we are going to Matabungkay. He must have been confused so he confirmed if we are indeed going to Calatagan or Balayan. I said Balayan as per Levi so I called Levi where he was waiting for us since we have seen directional signage of Matabungkay Beach. One male passenger asked us where we were supposed to drop off so I told him our host is waiting in Aguha. But Aguha is in Lian not Balayan he said. However, we were already approaching Balayan which is the opposite way before we were able to confirm that we were indeed going to Lian not Balayan.

Balayan, Batangas

In other words, we ended in Balayan while Levi was waiting in Lian. Furious, I called Levi and asked around how we could go to Lian. It turns out, Lian is still several kilometers away and there are no more public transports available due to the Holy Week. We did the best option available. We boarded a tricycle going to the terminal but again, there were no more jeepneys around. I asked Levi to fetch us in Balayan but his friend has no driver’s license and he could only fetch us at the nearest Barangay. According to the tricycle driver, we would spend as much as P250 pesos going to Lian but I protested that that is more than the van fare we spent from Palapala to Balayan. Levi let me talked to his friend on the phone but I could not comprehend his instructions since I am not familiar with the place so I asked him to talk to the tricycle driver and negotiated to take us to Barangay Malalay for P100 pesos.

The road to Barangay Malalay was rough and uphill that after a while, our tricycle gave up. We have to get off while the driver fixed the motor. Being the happy troopers that we are, we did not let this dampen our spirits. We made fun of our situation and took photographs on the road. Luckily, the motor was fixed and after a few minutes, we resume our trip along a never ending sugarcane plantation. We get off a few times especially on steep portions so our tricycle could resume. We thought we would spend the whole day on the road.

Finally, after almost an hour we arrived at Barangay Malalay where we were met by Levi’s friend. A few minutes later, Levi arrived with Rowena’s father in law onboard a motorbike and we ganged up on him for the wrong instruction. But we don’t want to take Levi’s life on our hands so after a lot of apologies and kamustahan, we resumed our trip to his place. Jolina rode with Levi on the motorbike while the rest of us rode on another tricycle with Rowena’s nephew in law. Again, we have to negotiate an uphill and downhill provincial road along endless sugarcane plantations and mango groves.

Finally after another 30 to 45 minutes, we arrived at their place which is situated along the road. We were met with questions and friendly faces including Rowena whom I have not seen for almost 2 decades. I told Levi that he will be nailed in the cross at the Senakulo for what he did to us.

Rowena have married with five children and have been living at her in-laws’ compound in Barangay Umba, Lian Batangas for fifteen years now. Her husband is working as a utility man at the Philippine Air Force in Batangas. Over coffee and boiled ripe bananas, we told our hosts how Levi’s wrong instruction led us to Balayan instead of Lian as planned.

After settling, Rowena accompanied us to the market to buy food and drinks for our beach picnic. We cooked pancit, fried ripe bananas, steamed cassava rolls with filling, broiled bangus and others. After our power nap, we headed for Matabungkay Beach with Rowena’s family and in-laws on board an owner type jeep and two more tricycles. The beach was overcrowded with vacationers but we were lucky to have found a vacant place with a videoke all for ourselves.

We were able to catch the sunset at Matabungkay.

And as soon as we have settled, we clicked, drank, sang and swam away at our misadventures. We enjoyed so much that other people began to crowd at our place while we enjoyed the karaoke. We even record the deed on our video camera.

When we were all drunk, we headed for the beach and took endless photographs with Aldous’ waterproof camera. We had so much fun and then we resumed drinking again. However, exhaustion and the effects of wine took over me so I did not know what happened after midnight when my companions wanted to hook up with young boys. However, they were not lucky and were not able to hook the boys. We left at about 2:00am and slept until about 10 am the following morning.

After lunch, we had halohalo at the store by the roadside and made bets on who gets whoever goes by. When we were sated, we took a power nap before heading for the road again. After saying goodbye to our hosts, we left at about 5:00pm for Manila. Levi went with us because he will start working at Jolina’s restaurant.