Grande Island Resort [Backlog: May 26 - 27, 2006]

The island is more of an adventure theme park than an attraction. They offer rides like Manta Ray, Matrix, and Gyro which are speed boat driven. The flying attractions like the flying fish and parachute were not available during our time so we were left with the normal but fun-looking rides. The operators recommended Manta Ray because it has the tendency to "fly" at a certain speed. But one operator whispered to us and recommended Matrix, a three-man ride where you have to lie flat on your belly while you're being dragged by a speed boat. Because rides cost at 500 pesos a ride and of manong's recommendation, Jepay and I chose this and dragged Liezl along. After wearing our life vests and when it was our turn for the ride, manong dropped a warning to "let go" in case we feel we're going to fall.

As the speed boat dragged us fastly taking of at greater speed each time, we screamed to our top of our lungs and clung there for our dear lives. I was about to feel relief after a round of surviving but we were in for a second round. Second round was MUCH faster and being on the edge my legs were waving with the wind and were hitting Liezl, our balance, who was in the middle. I fell to total silence as I was just gripping harder and trying to pull myself against the force of speed, wind and current that were pushing me to the sea. My two mates were still screaming for their lives and checking on me if I'm still with them. As we reached the shore I released my grip and fell to the shore of relief. Our collegues saw our expression and were discouraged to try. But needless to say, it was a great experience that I will only want to repeat after a long time of recovery or after I built up the courage again. The better way to experience this is to release and drop to the sea, but I gave up this idea when I was there. It's true, facing your fear will make you enjoy most out of life.

We also tried Manta Ray after we saw our friends try it. Since we were sitting we had greater control of our weight and it was not comparable to our first ride. It was still great even for only 5 seconds of flying. Our inflatable almost turned upside down, but we promptly recovered. We were able to give the camera to one of the speed boat operators so we had some shots while taking a ride.

Gyro is the monster ride here and no one from our group dared try it. It's a 1-man ride where you are placed in a tube and dragged by a speed boat while it spins. The best way to describe it is to compare it to a washing machine or a blender. Uhh, NO THANKS!!

Other services of this resort include snorkeling and diving but we weren't able to try them anymore because of time and lack of money thereof. We took the bus to go to a beach house in Clark. It was closing to night fall so we just played cards and poker at the table or sing karaoke. There was also a bonfire where we toasted marshmallows. I spent the night at the tent by the shore. Before this, we did something stupid we were shaking and trying to pull the wrong tent only to discover that someone was already sleeping inside.

The next morning I joined Paul in building a sand castle, dipped in the beach, and seeked for a boatman. We were able to recruit a boat at 300 pesos an hour and so we were toured around the islands. We stopped by the rocks that were used by Americans during WWII as a hideout and storage of cannons. The sun was so hot it was able to cook a crab but it was all good Liezl and I wanted a tan. We also noticed that algaes fill the sea and manong boatman explained it was from the fish market. The fish market area was full of boaters with registered bases where they can get fish from. They feed their bases by the bucket to accummulate fishes in their nets so the excess and fish excretions ("fish shit") ends up permanently filling the whole sea even reaching the shore of our beach. After the boatride we were not in our prefered tan but in a dark "sunog" color but we were not mindful of it.

At 2pm we left the beach to go back to Manila. We stopped over Duty Free and Razon's to eat their well reknowned minimalist halo-halo (only lecheflan and macapuno). Upon reaching the city the rain was dropping heavily across Metro Manila, therefore the traffic. I took a cab "24x7" and met Romy who told the whole story of his life and relationships during our 2 hour ride.