To Malasimbo We Go

I went out of town this weekend for a concert called Malasimbo. It's a three-day reggae festival up on a mountain that's located right off of a beach. I went with my cousin Resa, her boyfriend Mike, and a few of his friends for this vacation in a vacation trip.

We took a three-hour bus ride to a province called Batangas. From there, a one-hour ferry boat ride to the beach. When I first heard we were taking a ferry, the first thing that popped into my mind was not at all related to the ferry boat we took.

True to nature I fell asleep almost right away. (Thank you, Dramamine.) I'm not sure how much time had passed before I was abruptly awoken by a man shoving a life jacket in my face. "What the &#*%?" I thought as I looked around expecting to see a scene of panic. But instead I was met with 30 pairs of eyes...all focused on me. With absolutely no idea of what was happening, bleary-eyed & foggy-minded from having just woken up, I couldn't do anything but stare at the man.

Literally. I just stared. And everyone around just stared back at me.

I opened my mouth but had no idea what to say so all that came out was something like, "Uhhmmhhuhh..." I couldn't help but laugh after stuttering because I thought, "Of course. Of course whatever is happening right now is happening only to me." Thankfully, Resa saved me from the awkward attention. She grabbed the life jacket and gave it to me. "Here," she said. "The man is saying you might get wet so sit on this." I had no idea how a life jacket would help prevent any water damage (or why I was the only one who had the potential to get wet) but I accepted the offer so everyone would go back to whatever they were doing before staring at me.

No more than 10 minutes later was there about an inch of water at the floor of the boat as waves outside licked its roof- thank God for the plastic coverings over the windows! I understood why I had been given the life jacket as the people around me started standing up to reveal soggy shorts. Woop woop! Thank you guy who gave me the vest! I called him over for a few more and gave them to Resa & Mike so they could try to stay dry, too. Pretty soon afterwards we pulled up to White Beach at Puerto Galera.