Saturday, July 5, 2014

Batanes 05102014 Day 3

Day 3 was spent both in Sabtang Island and Batan Island. Since we slept very late due to the summer heat, we weren't able to catch the sunrise in Sabtang. I myself forgot to set my alarm. When we woke up at 6AM, the sun was already up. THAT. EARLY. hmph.

We hired a tricycle to get us back to Nakabuang beach to fully enjoy the place all by ourselves. It was the best thing we did during the whole trip because it wasn't that hot yet and we took a lot of photos of ourselves. I did get some sexy pose ideas from my buddy. It seems she's an expert in that.

Since I prefer to savor the beach lying on the sands under a shade, I lay down under the arch and just watched the clouds go by. Moments like this, when you don't think about anything and just appreciate the beauty of nature, are far too precious for me because I'm always living on the highway. Cloud-watching has become a sort of stress-reliever as I contemplate on my being a drifter, on adopting the way of the white cloud. (see  bottom of this post)

lunch at Nakabuang Beach part 2
 On the way back to the town, we passed by a construction site. Curious, I went down and asked around about the construction, hoping to gain insights on the Ivatans' modern construction process. I was able to chat with the owner and she said that they're building an inn for tourists. Awesome!
a new inn in Sabtang is already in the works. Can't  wait for this!
 Our last stop before we went back to our host's house was Sabtang lighthouse. The area where it stood is already considered private property so we had to pay P50 to enter. It breaks one's heart to see the walls of the structure vandalized. :(
Sabtang lighthouse
 We did some shopping when we got back to Batan. Prices are shockingly high but this is because it's hard to transport goods to Batanes. We decided to cook dinner for ourselves that night.
little kid got extra excited upon seeing colorful fishes. YUM!
 And we explored more of Batan, ending up near Batan port. We checked out the artsy store below where I bought my only souvenir for this trip: an artist's map rendition of Batanes (P200). Sadly, since the approach is artistic, the map was not scaled. What I liked about it though is that the paper is used is water proof


 I forgot the name of the fish that we bought but I chose it because of its size and color. I'm quite adventurous when it comes to food and colorful ones attract me. (Mental note: stay away from colorful mushrooms since these are most probably poisonous.)

We didn't find any ginger in the house so what I did was to just boil the fish in hot water twice to ensure that there would be less smell. I also rubbed it with salt and pepper. (I really don't know what I was doing but we needed to eat and well, rubbing fish with salt makes me feel like a chef...)


My buddy, on the other hand, cooked pinakbet. We forgot to buy rice but I was able to find uncooked spaghetti in the cupboards. Pinakbet pasta below:



The Way of the White Clouds
-Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
 “Just before Buddha died somebody asked him:
When a Buddha dies where does he go—
does he survive, or simply disappear into nothingness?
Buddha is reported to have said:
‘Just like a white cloud disappearing’.

A white cloud is a mystery—
the coming, the going, the very being of it.
A white cloud exists without any roots—
it is an unrooted phenomenon, grounded nowhere,
or grounded in the nowhere.
But it still exists.

A white cloud really has no way of his own.
It drifts. It has nowhere to reach, no destination,
no destiny to be fulfilled, no end.
You cannot frustrate a white cloud
because wherever it reaches is the goal.

Hence, I call my way The Way of the White Clouds.”

No comments:

Post a Comment