Of jellyfishes and non-alcoholic drinks

We went to Morong, Bataan yesterday and stayed there overnight. The trip from Pampanga to Bataan took about an hour and a half. We drove through SCTEX and Subic, then finally to Morong. The place we stayed in was one of the villas in Sunset Shores. It's quite big (six or so families were inside...) with two storeys, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining area, and a sala. Upon arriving, we unloaded the luggage and, as soon as I could, I went to the beach. Guess what? The shore was strewn with dead jellyfish! There was even this guy in the water who threw them into the shore because they might hurt swimmers. At first, they were fun to look at because, well... They look like UFO's and they're squishy. But after some time the fascination began to wane and they soon became annoying because of they're always around. Hehe...

Sometime in the morning, we saw a guy swimming far away. We were quite amazed, really. It looked really deep in there. When it was evening, though, we saw that there was a strip of land far away from the shore during low tide. O.O

I swam at around 3 PM. At the pool, mind you. The sea was a tad bit too scary because of (1) jellyfish, (2) strong waves, and (3) the salty water. Okay, so the jellyfish aren't the poisonous kind but it's still freaky when they cling to your legs, eh?

Before sunset, my sister, Jenus, Kim, Gerald, PenPen, and I tried to catch these little crabbies. We caught a lot of them and put them in a plastic cup. But it was tough work. We had to be real quick because the crabs were quicker. If we let them out of our sight, chances are they'll be burying themselves into the sand. Anyway, Gerald, Kim, and PenPen found a sea cucumber washed up on shore. It looked real ugly. :P But we took pictures of it. Meh.

In the evening, after dinner, the adults took out two bottles of sparkling, non-alcoholic drink. It had two flavors: apple and berry grape. It tasted fine and we had fun taking pictures of ourselves pretending to be drunk. :D

The next day, I woke up quite early because of a pain in my right leg. (I always get it when I lack calcium.) It wasn't as awful as before but it still hurts. I tried walking but my right leg wouldn't work so I had to amble on with my left leg as the only one that worked. My right leg was soon cured (by itself) and we headed to the beach to see it at low tide. The strip of land was still there and we might have gone there if we hadn't been in our PJ's. There were fewer jellyfishes along the shore. We walked to the far west of the shore and found a lot of nice shells. We also saw a "real" crab in the water but it walked away when we came nearer. We also saw the first jumping fishies and we fairly shouted when we saw it. :D

Another highlight of our last day in Morong was the boat ride. We went to the Pawikan conservation area. There were only four of them and they came in different sizes (ha!). Next, we were taken to a snorkeling area. (I took a few pictures of the corals underwater!) It was really dizzying on the boat so I went into the water. It was sort of scary at first because it had a depth of approximately 7 feet (what the boatmen said). Another thing that added to the scary factor is the view you see when you look down with goggles on. It was REALLY scary with all that stuff down there but when you get used to it, it's okay. We even let go of the bamboo on the boat and floated (with the help of life vests, of course). It was pretty nice and it's my first time to swim in deep waters. I didn't have any encounters with swimming jellyfishes which is just as well. :)

All in all, we had fun with the whole of tropang Clark. With thanks to Tita Esther and Pastor Art, it was really really fun. :)

[It felt good to be near the sea, mates.]