23 October 2010

It all started sometime in August, when I received a call from mom saying her office mates are going to grab the discount tickets for Zoobic Safari and that she got me a ticket, too. One of the reasons why mom loves to tag me in her office affairs is so she will have a photographer, but because I also love coming with her to such affairs so I could take pictures and see places, it was basically a give-and-take thing. The tickets can be used anytime until December, and since there was long weekend (barangay elections), they decided to do the adventure Saturday of that weekend.

Typhoon just passed by, but rain or shine, they said we will push through. Not everyone joined the adventure, so they just used two vans. Mom and I rode tita Merlyn's van, and we were with her family (husband - driver, teenage son, daughter, a toddler son, and her daughter's child), and mom's officemates - tita Cora E., Cora T., Lilia, and Neri. We arrived in Subic late, because there was a miscommunication. We were told tita Cora E. decided not to come, but a few kilometers away, we received a call from her saying she was at the meeting place. We decided to travel back so that she can still come.




We arrived in Subic around 9:30am. We were supposed to the Aeta Jungle Survival trip while the other van did the Ocean Adventure, but they called us saying it was raining in Subic, and that they wouldn't do the Ocean Adventure anymore. Since they will head straight to the Zoobic Safari, we all decided to do it together, so we can go home earlier.


We were blessed that the rains have stopped as we start the adventure. We were all praying for weather to be nice to us, and seemed the heavens have heard us. Before going through the adventure, we were given a little talk and some entertainment first.


The whole adventure lasted two hours. A few stops here and there... although I felt a little bad that they didn't distribute the people in the little jeepney. All of us had to fit into the jeepney, while the other group of just 5 members had a jeep all by themselves. I wasn't able to take pictures well, and this picture above was the closest I have been during the Tiger Safari. Gloomy weather plus low lit environments plus no flash photography equals a set of not that good pictures. I did enjoy the whole adventure, though.


Since we were separated into two vans, and since our companions had some packed lunch, we went to find a place to eat lunch. We went to Morong Park (if I remember correctly), and feasted on the foods. It was great to eat adobo during a rainy day!

We received another call from the other van telling us they were in Pure Gold already. Part of this Subic trip was for them to buy imported goods, so knowing they were there already, we quickly followed. Mom was like a girl in a big toy store... she wanted to put every item in our cart, but I was her "conscience." The frugal in me kept telling her of the price conversions, so we ended up buying just a few items. Although, my mom was really good - she was able to put a can of corned beef hash in the cart without me noticing (we had two different canned corned beef in our cart aside from it).


The two vans left separately. Our van wasn't traveling fast because there were kids inside... so we really took the time chit chatting, sleep, or eat. Somewhere in Guiguinto (Bulacan), we stopped for a toilet break, and noticing it was already around 6:30pm and that we still have quite a long way to go, we all just went to eat dinner, too.

A bad thing happened: when we all got back in the van, tita Neri looked for her bag and it was missing. Tita Merlyn asked all of us to go out of the van so we can check the floor, and she realized her bag was missing, too. The whole deal of the van being robbed was a mystery - we truly couldn't decipher how it happened, but even if there were three bags missing (the young boy's bag full of clothes was missing, too), we were still thankful that not the bags didn't have that much important items - although tita Merlyn lost her digital camera, and that they had to renew all IDs missing.

We got home late at night. Mom and I were really thankful for the experience.

This was the first time I set foot in Zambales. That's a new province crossed out in my list. Wee!

*** Jenn ***