The ConstructDiscourse, Society, Language, New Media, and I

My friends are a bunch of smart people. You can mess with the permutations but to sum it up, we have four cum laude, two magna cum laude, and one summa cum laude graduates (of UP Diliman at that). We have a math professor, two discourse analysts, a software engineer, an EC engineer, a web developer, an award-winning digital artist, a painter, two law students (soon to earn their LLBs), a med student (soon to be an MD), two published writers, a systems analyst, a project coordinator, and two people who can speak Nihonggo fluently. An impressive roster, indeed.

However, we, as a barkada, have one basic flaw. We tend to be brainless when together. Give us a spot where we can congregate, whether it’s over iced coffee or bottles of beer, and every hint of intellect would then slowly fade into obscurity. Then out come the evil monsters spawned by repressing lifestyles and demented childhoods. Next thing you know, you’d think that you’re not seeing what’s supposed to be a bunch of decent young professionals who have respectable careers. Pretty much like how Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk, only with less physical mutation but pretty much the same level of insanity.

So is the tale of our trip to Bolinao.

Being the goody-goody professionals that we are, we pretty much spend our lives stapling our buns on our office chairs, mashing away at keyboards, and delivering top-notch outputs for our respective bosses. Once in a while we oblige ourselves to have chance breaks, meeting out for quick lunches or celebrating birthdays through sporadic dinners, but that’s just about that. It was only this year (somewhere from three to five years) that we finally take a break from work and pamper ourselves with our first out of town trip together.

Destination: Solomon’s Paradise, Bolinao, Pangasinan.

Day 1

While our final tally was 10 (there’s supposed to be 13 + 1 in our barkada), we had to split into groups – one leaving in the morning and another group leaving in the afternoon. Unfortunately, there were those of us who had ogres for bosses and had to skip away just as soon as work ended.

Those trooping in the morning, with amazing coincidence were Team Sugoi – Flori, Jojo, Kyam, Bryan, and myself. We had to take a bus since 1) no one owned a big enough vehicle to use for such a trip and 2) even if we had, I’m the only pilot available (which would force me to protest against driving 6-7 hours). We met at the Victory Liner terminal around 6:30 AM. Amazingly, there weren’t too many passengers shoving off to Pangasinan that day and we had first dibs at the good seats. Bus left on time at 7:30.

We were supposed to play a Bomberman marathon with our DSes but I had to beg off early since my poor eyesight gave me motion sickness. So after an hour or so, Bryan, Jo and Kyam also turned their DSes off.

I wouldn’t know if it was a good thing that the bus featured My Best Friend’s Girlfriend, a prototypical Pinoy rom-com. My sis (Flori) and I got a kick watching it (criticizing the script and the acting) to the ire of fellow passengers (to our guffaws, of course). Bryan was trying to drown everything out playing his DS but I caught him glancing once or twice. (Admit it, bro… :p) Seeing Marian Rivera in a bikini, made me want to commandeer the bus and slam on the gas pedal all the way to Bolinao. You see, we’re pretty much inspired by the VJ Greg viral video to “cling the beaches.”

Bikinis… Mmm…

We arrived at Bolinao around 1 or so. Brett Solomon of Solomon’s Paradise has also arranged their trusty trike driver Mang Cinding to fetch us at the terminal. The 20 minute trike ride was hell too. You see, we guys had to take the torture seat and with the mix of paved and rough roads, to this day, I wonder if my family jewels have fully recovered. Not to blame Mang Cinding as his trike driving was master class.

We were greeted by Brett and Rosie at the resort. Tired and hungry, we just wanted to check in, eat lunch, and rest a bit before deciding to explore the grounds. Until we saw this through the window of the main building.

With our mouths agape, this stupid conversation transpired.

“Screensaver ba yan?”
“Walang gagalaw ng mouse!”

We had a hearty lunch of tender and succulent pork chops the size of liempos and salty eggs with tomatoes. Full stomachs and months of repressed keyboard-clacking prompted us to switch to explore the resort. Token weaboo shots included.

The afternoon was capped by another hearty dinner of inihaw na liempo and yummy veggies and some pathetic attempts at emo-looking album cover pictorials.

Day 1/2

The second group left Cubao around 6:05 PM (with 5 minutes of Victory Liner’s cranky drivers ranting on schedules due to Jason’s crappy taxi ride) and arrived at the resort at just past the stroke of midnight. After some unavoidable chatter (especially with Chelli the chatter box there), everyone turned in expecting a great day ahead.

Day 2

As expected everyone was just too excited to really get a long-ish sleep. Practically everyone was up and around just as the first few rays of sun hit. A bit of exploring and Jojos crazy antics and we had this awesome collection of cliff shots. And thanks to self-timers, I was able to scoot over and join the peeps.

L-R: Dyosa, Alex, Chelli, Flori (seated), Cheska, Jason, Tina (seated), Kyam, Jojo, Bryan

Okay, so not particularly crazy, until this.

Then this.

Devolution of man.

Another hearty breakfast of bangus and eggs and tomotoes later, everyone was just beach crazy. And as the guy with the itchy shutter finger and cam-whore friends, it was a riot. I won’t be posting all the pictures here but here are some token shots.

Then Brett invited over some kids from the nearby beach to try the cliff out.

The afternoon heat took its toll on everyone with most settling for siesta or some gossip. But just as soon as the hot sun let up a bit. It was back to the beach for everyone. The tide was low then so we got to explore some areas that are otherwise inaccessible at higher tides. And pose and shoot some more.

And yes, the romantic shots are here too. Made me miss Risha all the more.

And yes, there’s the token sunset shot.

We planned a bonfire for the night. Unfortunately for us, an end of summer shower ruined that. Good thing Jason lugged along a Magic Sing to the delight of the ladies. As testament to the brainlessness as result of the beer + Magic Sing + private place + 10 brainy but otherwise repressed individuals is a video clip I took with my cam. Unfortunately, I’m storing it into an encrypted storage with a 20-character long password. Just to protect my otherwise respectable friends. Here’s something decent.

Anyway, for a great sample of how bangag everyone was, click on these play buttons. Sugoi Records presents: and

That beer glass with a straw? That’s pure unadulterated Red Horse. And here’s a shot of Brett whipping up some more drinks.

I hit our cottage for a quick call to the missus just to report that I’m fine and not macking any other ladies. Not that there were for that matter. We were the only guests there save for another couple having a romantic weekend.

A few more hours of making “bulabog the shokoys” with the karaoke (after testing tracks like Always by Bon Jovi, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Careless Whisper, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing… complete with interpretative dances!), everyone slowly turned in for the night. Two were tipsy. One was drunk. And I remained to be the sober guy with the camera.

Just when every one of us was settled, Jojo fired off Willie Revillame questions to Jason who was game enough to answer “Taas o baba?” Yet, no one was brainy enough to philosophize them, save for a quip on “gravity.” Then all was quiet in the boys’ cottage.

Day 3

Everyone hated the final morning there. There was that air of I-don’t-want-to-go-f*ck-work and rightfully so. The early risers – Tina (who had been busy having an emo-Zen moment at the cliff), Bryan, and I congregated at the deck and had some a bit-brainy discussions on being teachers and handling students. Probably the reality of that being our last day there was starting to take effect on our brains. Gone was the bunch screaming “Scaramouche! Scaramouche!” in Bohemian Rhapsody the night before.

After yet another hearty breakfast, a few of us still took a shot at an early morning swim but it wasn’t as good as the previous days’.

We finally checked out after having lunch. After farewells with Brett and Rosie we took the trike ride back to the Victory Liner terminal.

Back to Manila

And on the bus, I was seated next to Bryan. Unfortunately for him, his DS’ batteries gave up on him forcing him to watch My Best Friend’s Girlfriend. Lo and behold he was analyzing the film. For some reason, the distance to Manila was proportional to his brain activity.

I just knew we were back when the first joint we hit after alighting the bus was a McDonald’s. And the final nail to the brains/brainless argument came there. As expected, after some crappy service, we were discussing the Pareto Principle.

Piff. Yup. We were back.

Postscript

It took two long months of preparations (filing vacation leaves, beating deadlines, scouting for places and finalizing the details for the trip) but it was well worth it. I might have wrecked my camera by shooting around 500 or so shots exposing it to harmful beach air but I could only care less. I would probably be able to pay for another camera (maybe not) but hey, the memories? Priceless.

Shout out of thanks to Brett and Rosie of Solomon’s Paradise for being such great hosts! We definitely want to come back.