One of the first things I usually tell potential dates is this -- that I am afraid of the dark. Most times it is the benign fear that accompanies not knowing, and some times it's a more paralysing fear, the fear that accompanies nightmares, and trauma, and anxieties come to life; often it is met… Continue reading Choosing courage
Category: Mountaineering
Kota: Tips and Tricks (and Stuff I Wish I’d Known)
To the Filipino hiker, Mt. Kinabalu isn't as hard the way conventional Filipino mountains are hard. Where Filipino mountains rely on natural trails (a root becomes a step, a branch, your foothold), Mt. Kinabalu is 80% stairs. This means the best way to train for Kota is not exactly to run hills, or to climb… Continue reading Kota: Tips and Tricks (and Stuff I Wish I’d Known)
Kota Kinabalu
It’s been more than a week since the Kota Kinabalu experience, otherwise known as that time I stuck with a booking I made one month into the semester because I was already tired of the academic workload. And really, every time I close my eyes, it’s still the chilly air I feel, and the gentle… Continue reading Kota Kinabalu
Great Balancing Act
The end of every year shows Twitter in a flurry of activities: people tweeting about the things they're grateful for; about things they wish they had done, or done better; about lessons they learned or lessons they wish they were taught. On my part, I decided to go on a sharing spree about the good… Continue reading Great Balancing Act
Of family
I write this sitting next to 3 other people poring over their journals, scribbling furiously to translate into writing the words playing around in their head, some resorting to doodles only they can understand: an attempt to remember things -- trips and falls, bumps and scratches, summits and jump offs. I write this slumped… Continue reading Of family
The world is our playground and we will always be home
You found me Where will we go from here I swear I belong This is where I belong Where do we go from here? Keep me It was the second night of the usual vacation festivities -- intoxicated bodies in swimwear, hair tousled by the breeze, the smell of salt clinging to our… Continue reading The world is our playground and we will always be home
Subterranean
The thing I like best about science is the fact of its humility. Sometimes it tells you things: big things, small things, medium things, and then, when pressed for explanation, it says, "But no one knows why this is so." My favourite manifestation of this is that trivia about ducks. Apparently, according to that magazine… Continue reading Subterranean
On Independence
Bakun is a relatively small poblacion in Benguet, and, like many of the towns in that part of the county, is quaint, quiet, and quite wonderful. (I like alliterations, so sue me.) --- On June 12-14, a group of acquaintances-turned-friends and I decided to climb three mountains dubbed as the Bakun Trio, famously called as… Continue reading On Independence
Birthday Realizations
It was 7:23 PM when it hit me. After months of getting horrified at the mere thought of being 21 (also known as becoming legal worldwide), I realized something. I'm actually not that scared. --- There were 13 of us in the jeep, 14 if you count the driver, and we've just climbed 3 mountains in… Continue reading Birthday Realizations
Traverse in verse (Balingkilat/Nagsasa)
i. Midnight — clambering on a bus; speedy entrances to nighttime vehicles, people. Dozens: asleep, dreaming, clutching a phone, or a bag, or an umbrella, or a memory. ii. Dawn — a sudden jolt. Arms stretched, waters drank, bags repacked, fist bumps exchanged, dialogues made: “Are you… Continue reading Traverse in verse (Balingkilat/Nagsasa)
Of perpetual finds 