Travel Footprints

Mr. Roño and i attended a short travel writing workshop at Fully Booked in Boni High Street, Taguig City today. Organized by the Center for East Asian Languages, the session focused on some basic strategies for keeping a travel journal which we thought will be useful as we continue to populate our www.roamingronos.com with our travel adventures.

The session started with a simple lecture on dos and donts of travel writing and then we were assigned some independent work on writing about a ‘dream vacation.’ I didn’t have a particular destination in mind and found it more difficult to imagine a ‘fictional’ travel. So, I scribbled some notes about my last out of town trip. I’m sharing to you the article which was written for roughly 7 minutes before we had to break out into group discussion:

Braving ‘Typhoon Emong’ in Mimosa Leisure Estates

Aside from the lack of internet connection, being stuck in Mimosa due to a typhoon is pretty much like hanging out at home on a severe rainy day. It’s just a wee bit more expensive since it sets you back at around Php8,000 per night. But, we brought books and there’s a cable connection so we were kept abreast with the news. It turned out to be quite relaxing even if there was a big change of plans. If it wasn’t for the stormy weather, we could have done more outdoorsy stuff like swimming or golfing but hey, anything can happen when going out of town. Yes, including a typhoon.

After a rigorous bike ride, checking in at the Hotel Vida in Clark, Pampanga was one of the best decisions for our weekend trip because we love everything about the place!

Hotel Vida, managed by Fuego Hotels, is probably one of the newest hotels in this block and it sure looks and feels new. It was a little disappointing that the only available rooms were two single beds instead of the double bed we requested when we booked our room. The concierge explained that the limited rooms with double beds were occupied by an airline crew. Anyhow, the deluxe room we got was nice. Its design is Contemporary Zen-inspired with a patio and a view of the surrounding vegetation by the side of the hotel.

I like that everything in the room is personalized for Hotel Vida (bath towels, pillow case, etc.) with a superb attention to details. Containers of their bathroom toiletries are all biodegradable. They also put a Ladies Set in the bathroom which includes some napkins and hair clip for swimming.

The food offered in the room service and the breakfast at SALT Coffee Shop were absolutely yummy. We were totally relaxed in our stay and we spent most of Sunday morning unwinding by the pool area.

There’s a MALT Bar by the entrance of the hotel compound for drinks and some cool, eclectic music to cap the night. One-hour massage is also available as an in-room service or at the Ylang Ylang Spa.

Dark clouds above did not dampen the adventurous spirits of the boys after we got down from Sitio Target route. Although it crossed our minds, going towards the 7-km ride to Puning Hot Springs (Station 3) on our bikes was not a good idea. The choices were either to backtrack Sitio Target route or carve a path along wet, muddy and sandy Sacobia River.

Guess where our pedals took us?

The ride along the Lahar Valley was definitely one-of-a-kind. Not to mention that it started pouring rain a little after we took off with this unchartered trail. As we were pedaling, we joked about biking for our lives as we talk about the possibilty of rain and raging lahar coming down to us (yikes!). The Sacobia route was difficult but fun. Imagine biking along wet sands punctuated with several river crossings under the pouring rain. At one point, I couldn’t pedal anymore BUT I remained upright for probably 40 seconds, as if in a stationary bike, because my front wheel was dug in too deep in the sand.

The fun in the lahar lasted for a little more than 6 kilometers. From the Sacobia River, we went up somewhere in the vicinity of a footbridge and was back in Clark through the lesser known but very scenic Gate 14 route. At the end of the ride, we were all a picture of happy bikers!

Photo credits: Lydon de Luna of Team VGB in Angeles, Pampanga