Eversince I saw Vanessa Redgrave as Gueneviere frolicking in the movie version of Camelot as she sang this song, I instantly decided I loved my birth month, and that I wanted to grow old as gracefully as her.
I'm partly glad the month has come. There are quite a lot of things to look forward to, aside from turning 32: more work, more opportunities, the possibility of travel, fixing the home, and even -- dare i say it?--enrollment! (I am targetting that I will finish my MA this year).
Not that the past few months haven't been uneventful. We travelled to Samal Island recently to attend a wedding. It was a simple, elegant ceremony that was very heartfelt and familial. It was the best kind, really. You felt more welcome. And your presence is really felt. I can't wait to have the photos developed, and I'm planning to have them framed and give them to the newlyweds.
Samal wasn't too bad, but I felt like the stay was incomplete, since we weren't able to explore the town at all. We arrived by ferry (10 minutes, P150.00 for a special trip) from the Davao Insular hotel and got to the island a little after lunch. Time was limited, and public transport was almost non-existent. We couldn't risk walking outside the resort either because there weren't any streetlights (in fact, there were no real streets...just dirt paths) and hardly anybody on the road when we peeked out of the resort gates. We pretty much stayed in our room and read/watched TV.
We stayed at the Blue Waters resort. It was ok. The accommodations were rudimentary. Two beds,a tv and a bathroom. There wasn't even a phone to call housekeeping. I don't even think that service existed. The amenities were very basic, but they were enough.
We had to order food from the front desk. Then "waiters" brought the food up to your room--piecemeal. It was funny actually, because it took them 5 trips to deliver a simple meal of fish, gulay, rice and fruit. The food wasn't all that spectacular. It was standard lutong bahay fare, but only slightly more expensive. Still the prices weren't so bad: we spent a total of 1,800 on meals for two days and two nights. I think they're more used to the day-trippers who rent out the small kiosks overlooking the seaside while they have their lunch. It was quite surreal for me to see the set-up still existed: it had been ages since the notion of a picnic/day trip with your own baon entered my consciousness. I was slightly pleased the practice still remained with the locals.
The beach was just a tiny pocket of sand, about 6 yards wide and 3 yards long, before your feet touched the water. Though it did have an infinity pool, I would not recommend wading in it on a Sunday afternoon because of all the muck that builds up from the people who keep spitting and dragging in mud from the grounds into the pool. Wait til they get it cleaned up, which falls on a Monday I reckon, and then you can soak it up then.
I wish I did have something remarkable to say about Samal, but I really don't. The local government should introduce some sort of shuttle for the resort visitors so that they would be able to explore the island more. This in turn will give the city impetus to develop various spots on the island for tourists to visit. Make it accessible, and everything else will follow.
I guess that gives us another reason for to go back and rediscover Samal, sometime in the near future.
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