Weekend 1

This past weekend started out pretty uneventful, Saturday it rained so I just walked around the malls, after walking for several hours I finally headed back to the hotel and went to sleep. Sunday morning and woke up to no rain and pooled a few of the guys together and headed outside of Manila about 1.5 hours south to a place called Hidden Valley Springs in Laguna. On the way there I saw many things that I had not seen ever before, i am guessing it is pretty similar to mexico with houses or huts made out of whatever can be found from piles of garbage. Lots of houses were made out of pieces of metal just pieced together without running water and kids running through the streets duty and wearing shorts and T-shirts of places they would only dream of going. Many times I felt very fortunate to live in a place in which I didn't have to worry about if I was going to get a bath or have something to eat.

Once we reached hidden Valley Springs the land was lush with greenery and plants I had only seen in nurseries. Banana trees and coconut trees grew all around and the air smelled clean which was a first in over a week. We breathed deeply and listened to the sounds of birds as we drove into the park. Without doing much research and only going off what the hotel door man had to say I had no idea of what to really expect. After entering the park, we received our tickets for lunch and began walking to the pools. As we walked I was amazed at the pants all around me. After we reached the pool I was a struck at the wonders of nature and how things can change so dramatically by just driving 1.5 hours. After taking some pics of the pool area I finally gave in and bought a swimming suit that reminds me of an old woman. But I found that it was well worth it. The pool was just about body temp and all naturally heated and so relaxing. We stayed in the pool for what I guess was over an hour just floating around and enjoying the beauty around us. My boss was with us and he joked about putting a call center poolside. Wouldn't that be a nice business trip?

After swimming we changed and got the buffet lunch that came with the package. It was pretty good except for a few things that I reflused to eat, one being OX tribe, which is Ox stomach. Oh my not my idea of dinner.

After lunch we headed back to manila and on the way back to the hotel we stopped for fresh coconut water and meat. That was the best.

Next we stopped at a place our driver felt was a good place to get handy crafts. There I picked up a few more things to bring home. After that we went back to the hotel and fell asleep after an eventful day.

Oh man did it feel good to leave the city behind.

Due to the large amount of photos I have decided to place them on flickr in hopes of managing them.

Some of these were taken though the cars tinted windows as we drove so it isn't my best work.

Hopefully tomorrow the temple!

Here is a link to the photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/supercalla/