We made it!
As mentioned, we came back from Tablas Island in Romblon Province earlier this week. It was one of the best work trip/vacations we’ve taken, mostly because the ‘work’ part didn’t impede upon the vacation part too much. When we were working for a website together (my husband and I), and when we would take on projects for the Department of Tourism, we were able to go to some fantastic places, but it was hard work. We stayed in some pretty shady places (which always had the Travel & Living Channel, and we would huddle together in our twin bed dreaming of tapas and art in Barcelona, or being in a cool ass villa in the Maldives or Bali) and went around in some crappy ass vans.
On this Tablas Island trip, we ate well, slept well, listened to some pretty chill music, and got a chance to hang out with some pretty cool folks (Mr. and Mrs. Matschuck, the owners of Villa M), not to mention that I was with Jay and one of my best friends in the whole wide world (Chesa, who’s leaving this week for 2 months, whatamigonnadowithouther???) in a villa. Not bad for a work trip :).
BUT if you had to ask what the worst part of the trip was (aside from getting heat stroke, totally my fault for not hydrating properly and for thinking that I can still drink to my heart’s content the night before and go to a street festival in 100 degree heat the next day without breakfast; one of the many things I used to be able to do in my 20’s but clearly can no longer do in my 30’s), it would have to be the boat ride from Caticlan to Tablas Island. The direct flights to Tablas were full so going there we had to take the pump boat (M/B Asherra), to the island. The waters from Boracay to Tablas are so incredibly choppy, it was ridiculous. The first 30 minutes were smooth sailing, we even fell asleep, only to wake up to the noise of at least 50 people puking at the same time.
Not pretty. Very scary.
So to counteract our motion sickness, we left our seats and went out to the lip of the boat, without our sunscreen (which we couldn’t look for - made us sick to rummage through our bags), got pretty wet from the seaspray, but we definitely welcomed the view of the horizon and the fresh air. We came away sunburnt but so happy to be alive! I kissed the cement when we docked in Looc :).
No really, I did.
If y’all care to see more of Jay’s shots from the trip, click here to view his Mobile Me gallery. Enjoy! I’ll post the link for the Villa M website once Jay and I are done working on it. Promise.
A contemplative, grateful and peaceful Easter to all!
