What's the best and most memorable summer vacation for you and why?

[RemD]

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in my grandparents' place. sa balay nga kahoy tunga sa kalasangan.

[rodsky]

My best summer vacation was perhaps during the summer of 1993. My family and I went to Camiguin Island. My folks were college professors supervising a practicum for their Community Development students in a small barrio there, so we slept in the village with the locals and it was quite a humbling experience for me. I mean, we weren't exactly rich or anything, but being used to having things like a clean bathroom and running water, and flourescent lights at night, makes you wish for these simple things in such a rural setting. Nevertheless, we were all very eager to visit the usual tourist attractions while we were there, and the lack of such necessities were no hindrance to our excitement.

On the very first day on the island, we didn't get to do much because my mom and dad were supervising students, but on the second day we were able to visit sites such as the Daang Bulkan (Old Volcano) and we all climbed up the 13 stations of the cross that lined the path up the sides of the mountain. I had a brand new Casio altimeter watch at the time, so I measured the altitude to the last station--it was 350 feet above sea level, suprisingly low, considering it felt like it was taking a trudge up the slopes of Mount Everest.

We also went to the Sto. Nino Cold Springs and Katigbawasan Falls. We didn't get to White Island due to time constraints, but my dad promised to make up for it, by announcing that we were going to Ardent Hot Springs the next day, and try to climb Mount Hibok-Hibok, the dormant volcano. I was very excited about this because it was a chance for me to truly test my new watch's "ascent profile" function--it can basically make a graph of your climb/ascent!

So very early morning the next day, we set off for Ardent Hot Spring, and when we arrived there, my mom and sister decided they won't join us in the climb because they might slow us down, although they were both very fit. So it was up to me, my brother and my dad, to reach the summit. We found a guide for hire, and at around 6:30am we were well on our way, through the tall cogon grass and thick jungle vegetation that flanked the 4-kilometer trail leading all the way up to the mouth of the crater of the Hibok-hibok volcano. I set my watch on ascent plotting/recording and eagerly followed the guide, with my dad and brother taking up the rear.

About a third of the way up, we realized we were high enough to see most of the north-east end of the entire island. We even saw airplanes taking off and landing at the Mambajao airport. We were making good time. However, by the time we reached the halfway mark, it was evident that both my dad and my brother were suffering from bouts of breathlessness, due to the brisk pace that the guide and myself picked to maintain. After assessing their level of fatigue and the increasing heat due to the rising morning sun, they decided to stay put at the halfway mark until our return from the summit. And bidding them good bye and good luck (watch out for snakes! haha), my guide and I resumed our pace.

By the time we reached the very root of the steeper slopes, my guide and I were almost at running/jogging pace. He asked me if I do this sort of thing often and I told him that my entire family was a family of cyclists (all of us had bicycles) and we were constantly used to a lot of legwork. This encouraged him to pick up the pace, to my dismay, because I was already beginning to show signs of fatigue myself. Nevertheless, I just consoled myself with the fact that the faster we went, the earlier we'd arrive at the summit, and the sooner we can get back down to Ardent. The thought of my tired, aching thighs and legs being soothed by the hot spring water was too much to resist, so this thought, coupled with the challenging pace set by the guide, lifted my spirits and soon we were literally jogging up the slopes.

Our rate of climb was so fast that I noticed the sharp change in the graph image on my altimeter watch--we were ascending at a rate of almost 60-70 feet per minute! This made me break into a huge smile, which turned into a chuckle when we overtook a group that left Ardent a full hour earlier, and were gasping for breath just a few hundred meters from the summit. When we reached the crater lip, I looked for a suitable outcrop, handed a camera to my guide and let him snap a picture of me holding a piece of paper on which I hastily scrawled on with Pentel pen the night before, these words: "Top of the World, Ma!" which I planned to give to my mother after the picture got developed.

We then skimmed the crater rim and I saw Lake Venado on the northwestern side, and again I asked my guide to snap a photo of me with this lake in the background. Here is that photo:


I checked my watch, and the climb took only 1 hour and 40 minutes with an almost 3000 feet gain in altitude I had a nice silhouette of a mountain on my watch's altimeter graph.

Going down was easy--we actually found a part of the trail where gravel had cascaded down the side of the volcano. Seeing this, my guide decided to show me a very fast, yet dangerous way to get down--by sliding with the gravel! He instructed me to plant my feet firmly in the gravel and use my other hand (which I covered up with a small towel) to act as a balancer by scraping the gravel as I slid down. We slid and slid for what seemed like dozens of minutes, until he spied the trail to the side again, and despite some cuts to my ankles by some rocks and sharp pebbles, it was one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done in my life--slide down the side of a volcano!

By the time we reached my dad and brother, we found them actually attempting to continue the climb, but when they saw us, they immediately decided to turn tail and join us in the trip back.

When we got back at Ardent, I was so exhausted that I almost wanted to jump right into the hot pools, but I was warned by the guide that doing that could've given me a shock--my body was actually cooling down due to the perspiration and jumping into the pool meant that my body would be subjected to an almost 5 degree increase in temperature and that would've been bad. So I gradually entered the hot water, a part of the pool where my mom and sister were already wallowing in, letting the hot mineral bath soak into my tired muscles and my various cuts and bruises...incidentally my watch also had a built in thermometer and I measured the water temp to be 40 degrees celcius...I immediately moved to a cooler part of the pool, in the fear that I might develop hard boiled eggs

...truly an unforgettable summer for me. I still relive it in my mind every now and then.

-RODION

[|nCuBabE]

katong bakasyon nako sa bohol.. Loboc 400 man to cya.. nice man kaau akong experience gud!

[benush]

summer 2008... kay ng swimming mn sd me sa akong bf alone sa hidden paradise sa san fernando...

nya sa bantayan pud!!!
lingaw kaau ay

[commonsense]

last year man guro to kay nikalit jud mi ug abot ug bantayan. .tapot lawas. .

[cuttie_angel]

last vacation naku was w/ my BF and his officemates last June...it was really fun coz we've tour them around that place and it was nice and cool!!!

[maritess]

baguio last year... i didn't realized i was pregnant then gasipat lang ko...nakuha ang baby. stressed man kaayo ko... sayang jud.

[ramnem]

camotes beaches....

[crinkle]

summer 2002.

sakit kaayo akong paa. but it was worth it...

[ericdamon]

2008.. cge lang ug beach.. wai kaundangan na ni.