Grekking / Trilling

The assholes have been itching to go on an adventure. And time has finally come for us to. The assholes to go on a trek. Two of the assholes, Michael and Kelly, have gone to this area once before. And although their first tries were filled with hardships and a pair of destroyed running shoes, they still wanted to go because the assholes were now complete.

Trek  or  Trekking is a journey taken usually on foot. It is a way to get out and have your own little adventure. You get to venture out to places not normally accessible to transport. And you get an intense workout in the process, courtesy of all the walking. 

The trek is offered to the public by the Adventure Cafe, which is located all the way up at Balamban. The trip going to Balamban alone will take an hour, and the trek itself an hour and half. At least, that's what they told me. Or, those was measured by optimists.

Naturally, the trek had to start out early. Start out too late, and get burnt in the process. The heat of the sun will likely be a burden. Albeit, not to all. The assholes met at JY Square. It was a common place before we could head out to Balamban. Before going up to the Adventure Cafe, we had bought our supplies, like water, meat, and others. We had planned to grill our food there. A sort of reward for when we get to our destination, The Falls.

After everything was set, we set out to our initial destination, the Adventure Cafe. It is where we will procure our guide. A thought was planned that we go to the Falls on our own, but deemed it too dangerous for the likes of us. The trip to the Adventure Cafe took less than an hour. I didn't actually time it, but I'd think that it was so. The road going there was filled with fog. We literally could hardly see where we were going. I was happy that I wasn't driving. It would have been killer, and it would have been a bitch to my wallet.

Agricultural Beauty

Going there, it's a pretty nice sight when you look outside your window. It's not like to see such agricultural beauty. But then again, I wouldn't know, I'm no farmer. I cannot really judge whether their landscape was better suited for whatever they were harvesting.

The Adventure Cafe looked like a small house. Their entrance was decorated with tiki-like totems to signify adventure, I suppose. It is important to note that trekking is not the only thing being offered by the cafe. They also offer zipline, rappelling, and caving(You go to a cave, complete with a helmet already equipped with it's own headlight.) And for those just seeking to relieve stress, the Adventure Cafe also offers you to buy breakable plates and other dinnerware to throw at a wall. And no, I am not joking.

The Adventure Café

When we got there, we had found out that we could not push through with our plans without a reservation which was to be made three days prior the trip. But it was possible to, only that our only problem was the weather. The trail towards the falls would be very damp because of the rain. In addition to the muddy and slippery terrain, it would have been very hard to see because of the fog, which in judging from where we were at the Adventure Cafe was pretty heavy.

It was about eight o' clock and we decided to just wait it out until nine. And if the road wouldn't clear by then, we planned to wait it out until ten. A quarter to nine and the road remained the same, and we gave up. We decided to just suspend our little trip and just go to one of our houses to eat our meat. My house.

Foggy road

The road was pretty straightforward, but the fog hindered us to drive a little faster. On our way back, we bought corn for us to eat. Martin had an obsessive-compulsive thing about eating corn, as do many others. He ate the corn cob by the row, and I decided to follow suit. Partially because of boredom. And I had managed to do it, and the corn looked clean. I think I'm gonna do that from now on.

Martin choppin'

When we got to my house, we were greeted by my grandmother who was more than happy to let us stay and have lunch there. She even helped out in starting the fire. Even though we wanted to everything ourselves, starting out the fire on our own would have a challenge for us not very well-trained in the kitchen. 

Me grillin'

With everything we had prepared for our trip going to waste anyway, we decided to use everything we bought and/or prepared which included a can of spam. So we raged on, going with Spam fried rice and Grilled pork belly, which we are proud to say to have marinated ourselves. And with Kelly and Martin in charge of the Spam fried rice, Me of the grilling, and Michael of washing the dishes after and occasional photographer, opting instead to play Portal 2. I can't blame him, the game is awesome.

Kelly fryin'

  

THE VERDICT: 

2-kgs of Grilled Pork Belly

Spam fried rice(center) and Sardines (top left)

Our dishes were pretty good. Well prepared and cooked, which was also validated by my grandmother. So you can't beat that. If we weren't gonna climb a mountain of brutal terrain, we were gonna conquer a mountain of pork belly. 

We didn't.