I found the time to get away from it all.
Pagudpud the second time around hasn't lost its charm. (Will it ever? I don't think so.) The weather was incredibly perfect, too. Our prayers worked. (Thank you to the One who watches over us.) :-)
Rory, Ramil, Marnie and I met up at the bus station Friday night, despite gloomy weather reports and incessant drizzling. We mostly slept during the long trip which was punctuated with timely pit stops for going to the john, stretching our legs, and finally buying bibingka and Vigan longganisa somewhere in Ilocos Sur near Vigan.
We arrived at Pagudpud a little before 8 in the morning. At Papa Nard's, the small short order resto beside the terminal where we had breakfast, the nice bus conductors warned us of tricycle drivers who might take advantage of unwary tourists (that's us)-- we were probably the only tourists around at the time. And we looked like it, too, when we went to the market to buy food for our day-and-a-half stay there.
I know how to haggle and shop in Ilokano ("Awan tawad manong/manang?" --hehehe), but I am too scared to receive a reply in a language system I don't understand. Kaya nagpanggap akong Tagalog na nakakaintindi ng Ilokano para di kami tagain sa presyo sa palengke. Hehe.
Our rooms at Northridge Resort were ready when we arrived in Saud. I called the landlady to ask for the rates and haggled for a huge discount. We started unpacking as soon as Ate Tess and I agreed on a price (and a good price it was). Rory and I claimed first dibs on the use of the two bathrooms. Heh heh.
We toasted all our hides in the first two hours of beachwhoring. Tanghaling tapat ba naman kasi! Heh heh. (In that weather who would have thought that the rest of Luzon is drenched in rain?) We had most of Saud to ourselves, except for a handful of daytrippers and reclusive visitors. It wasn't a good time to swim in open water at this time because of the choppy waters, but we had lots of fun "body surfing" while audibly whooping over huge waves. Too bad there weren't any hot surfer dudes around. Hee.
After a while I found the heat unbearable and I went back to our resort and fell asleep on the patio divan while watching Conan O'Brien on satellite t.v. Then all of us spent rest of the day and night lazing around and eating. (Sarap kumain sa beach!)
We went swimming again after breakfast the next day, ignoring protests of our sunburnt skin. After packing our bags and getting ready for our trip back to Manila, we had late lunch of sautéed canned tuna and rice (the resort owners left a little past noon, and therefore no one left to cook our food for us). While waiting for our tricycles to take us to the bus terminal, we spent several P5 coins on the videoke machine, our musical careers bookended by Mandy Moore songs. Hehehehe. ;-P
Back at Papa Nard's, we ate early dinner and played cards while waiting for our bus. The Southbound trip was not as pleasant as the trip going North, the bus was effing freezer-cold and we took every opportunity to keep ourselves warm (or rather, thaw) during stopovers. And it was raining as soon as we left Ilocos Norte all the way back home. Bleah.
*****
It feels weird to come back to a wet, wet city. I wish we stayed in Pagudpud longer, but work beckons. Sux. Until the next time then. A happy thing to look forward to.
(Photos to follow when I see Rory again.)
No comments:
Post a Comment