I was gone for a while, but I'm sure nobody noticed

Went on a trip down south to explore other parts of this country I live in. Over 1300 KM for the round trip.

The first part being a 12 h drive from home (Alabang, Metro Manila) down to the southern most city of Luzon island (where we are) in Sorsogon to have dinner at the house of my Moms aunt ... yes, I was shocked my self too when I found out what we'd be doing there. Slept over basically.

The next day, back tracked about 4 hours of the drive the beach town of Donsol where we went diving (well- read that as snorkeling really ) with the Butanding the local name for the Whale Shark _{scientific name: Rhincodon typus} which is pretty much a really big fish. Basically paid a courtesy call to the local conservation office, charetered a boat to take us to the dive spot and once they spotted one it was time to jump into the water. Now, I'm a shitty swimmer and an even worse at snorkeling but for the adventure of it I got into the water too (and drank quite a bit of the goddamn salt water) but it was well worth it! From seeing nothing but green emptiness of the deep see the Whale Shark just appeared from under and past right next to me- like inches away- the guide pulled me to the side to avoid the fins- the baby we saw was about 18 ft. long or roughly as big as a Full size Chevy Wow! It was an awesome experience. those interested can learn more by clicking on THIS link.

After the dive experience we drove some 4 hours or so again to Legaspi to check out the awesome Mayon volcano and play around in some of the ruins near it. Then things got interesting... my mom had booked a Pension house for us to stay in for the night there- at least thats what we were told. Apparently she had someone book it for her and when we got there they had no idea who the hell we were (and their rates sucked) so, we figured that since we've done the whole see the Volcano and play around in the ruins thing there was really no reason to stay (also funny because we HAD no place to stay ) Made the decision to instead drive down some 4 hours to the next City of Naga which was right next to the target for the next day and try and find accommodations there. As luck wiuld have it we found this newly opened 5-star hotel to stay in... and the rate was even less the pension house

Day 3 was spent at Camsur Watersports Complex or CWC which is- and I quote "is home to the best cable wake park in the world! " - nuff said.

All in all the sights and everything was fun... but what really made the trip for me was the driving. Of the 1300+ km's of driving about 85% of that is mountain road. fucking awesome mountain road!! It's corner after corner after corner of awesome road. Each and every corner would be labeled as either "sharp corner", "dangerous curve" or "accident prone area" - or in some cases a nice combination of all three that you'd stop and think how they decide if a particular corner is sharp or dangerous? the other 15% of road would be split between a few hundred Km's of arrow straight 2 lane black top cutting through rice fields- maybe the kind of road where the engineer who designed the road came to work with a hang over- took his ruler to the map and penned a straight line though it and called it a day and a few hundred km's of coastal highway. Would have loved to have Lancer-chan on such awesome road, but for a trip like this- we for one would not fit- had the whole family of 7 and that far out in the provinces theres no High Octane gas... only premium at the most and I have to work out some bugs from the new rear end still (have a bad feeling I managed to break the diff while "testing"). So for this drive I had our more than competent Hyundai Starex van- I've mentioned this on in the past- 2.5L Turbo Intercooled Diesel, 5-speed manual, Cold Air Induction, Limited Slip diff. Rear Wheel Drive- and equipped with an awesome set of (ahem! factory installed) lights- 2 H2 fog beams, 2 Haligen H4 main beams and 2 auxiliary H3 high beams- in the house it's 2nd only to Lancer-chans (Aftermarket) lighting set up. Given though we were not able to really push on the roads it was enough to make it enjoyable- just kinda had to back off when the people at the back started feeling nauseous

On the way back, we were a bit late of checking out of the Hotel, combined with missing a turn for a diversion road that led to a 1 hour back track we hit night fall in the mountain passes of Quezon Province. These mountains are known to be "mystical" whatever that means. I see my self as a skeptic with that kinda stuff but strange things did happed. The first was when we stopped at around 7 PM just before entering the mountain roads. My Dad had driven the first leg and I was to take over for the 2nd half of mountin driving at night. Stopped at a Shell station in a remote town to rest a bit and pick up some fuel when the van suddenly would not start- like we had a flat battery or something- but the horn and radio worked but strangely the lights din't either. Checked the fuses and the wirings and found nothing wrong. Jump started in by pushing the van (thank God for Manual Gearbox ) and every thing was OK... took it to a shop this morning and found NOTHING wrong. Strange gremlin indeed but even stranger was while driving the mountains I passed through what looked like a fog or maybe smoke that actually stuck to windshiled. Trying to wash it off with the washer and wipers that spray a special solvent only made it worse- so bad infact that I had to pull over and try to wash it off with a rag and some water- only yo make it even worse. giving up on the idea of washing it off there Ion the road I figured I'd drive it with my head out the window to the next towns gas station where we could better sort things out- then as quickly as it appeared the windshield started to clear up It's subject to debate as to what the Hell that was but my sister and I kinda figure that the only reasonable explanation were going so fast down the mountain we ran through a Whitelady (a spirit that takes the form of a lady dressed in a white gown thats usually seen walking around empty roads at night) that we din't see. The paranormal stuffs (Ectoplasem maybe?) smeared over the windshield and it took a while for it to reconstitute itself back? Whatever. Next time though I'm adding more lights to Van should we have to drive there again

So there. Interesting trip which provided much needed relief from the stress of day to day work. I've left links to the places we went to so that if ever my writing about this interests anybody theres contacts and info as to how to get there. Drop me a line if ever and we'l meet up if I have time I'll sort through the pics and post 'em later. I gotta call it a day for now 'cause I've got work tonight.