Rocks and Waves: A Trip To Manay, Davao Oriental, Philippines

I don't know what came up to my best friend's mind but she insisted with going somewhere to relax. She probably missed me so much :P (She lives in a city 4 hours away from me and we only see each other once or twice a year). Well, there is a beautiful island just 15 minutes away from my city but these bastards decided to go to a place 5 hours away. I'm cool with some adventure so count me in!

On October 9 at 3PM, we started the long ride to Manay, Davao Oriental which is in the Eastern part of Mindanao, Philippines. After hours of the butt-aching ride, we finally got to the place at 9PM. We ate our dinner and they took out the alcohol where uhmm... I puked out some calories that I should have saved for myself to gain weight... and some asshole miles away just laughed at me. :)

I woke up early the next day and since the rest are still sleeping, I sneaked out and walked to the beach.

Beautiful, right? Photos above are taken with my phone because I'm clumsy I didn't bring the camera at the beach and left it at the rest house. :P

The next photos are taken with my Nikon D3200 though.

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After eating breakfast, we went to the market to buy some food for lunch.

_{This "fan" is used to shoo away the flies. :D}

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And here we go with the cooking.

Well, they tried to use these but they were having a hard time maintaining the fire so they gave up and just bought some coconut charcoal instead. (And I just took pretty pictures)

_{Pork marinated in soy sauce and some spices. Yuuum.}

We also prepared a Filipino traditional food, Kinilaw. Yup, that is raw fish with vinegar, cucumber, calamansi, ginger and onions. It tastes really good!

_Juuuicyyy.

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After lunch, we went around the area to look for a perfect spot to swim. Since the waves are strong and the place is rocky, we have to look for a safe place to swim... You know, a place where we won't bump our asses to some rocks or get sucked by a rip tide.

First stop, too open.. no shade. So we took pictures instead.

_{Just some high school friends on a vacation.}

_{This is Joyce, my best friend for 8 years now.}

We went to another area. Well... waves are stronger and we didn't have the balls to swim in there.

Moving on, we found the perfect spot.

And some pictures.

_{Want some coconut shell?}

_{Wanna go inside?}

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After taking a dip, we went back to the house and ate dinner. I took a picture of the beach and tried to get that misty look of the water.

_{Not good yet with photographing scenery since I am going out just now. Sorry. Lol.}

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We set a campfire at the beach with marshmallows, hotdogs, alcohol and some life drama.

This was a perfect night. A fire surrounded by good friends, good food, and a sky full of stars. We also saw a couple of shooting stars. There was a firefly lurking on us too. Probably listening to us reminiscing our funny and awkward moments in high school.

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I took some pictures the next day. (And that includes a self portrait, of course)

I really enjoyed this trip. I don't know when will the next trip with my friends be, but I will always treasure this day.

-travelingblade