From Dusk Till Dawn at Burot Beach in Calatagan, Batangas

There are barkada trips that you’ll never forget, but I’ll probably remember Burot Beach for all the wrong reasons.

We arrived at sunset. It was a breath-taking view and we only had little time to set up our tent before we rush to the beach and start snapping away. It wasn’t actually the perfect time due to the low tide that made swimming near impossible. But the sunset was pretty amazing, yet I didn’t witness its prettiest phase.

But before all that marveling about the pretty sunset, we had to endure a day of waiting and frustrating heat first. My trip to Burot Beach made me question why I like traveling at all when the comforts of my bed and the warmth of my laptop prove to be a great company as well. We arrived at the van station near Kabayan Hotel in Pasay at around 11AM but we only get to ride the van going to Calatagan at nearly 2PM. We had to endure an excruciating 2 and a half hours of suffocating heat and standing with our heavy bags. It wasn’t a fun memory. One of our friends decided not to go at all and went home instead. I was tempted to follow suit. But I stayed. I’m not even sure if I was glad I stayed since it’s only the start of a series of rather unfortunate events.

Burot Beach is famous for its reddish sunset which I didn’t get to witness since I was too busy throwing up my brunch. I only witnessed the start of the sun setting, then I got too sick to bother. Maybe it’s due to the heat or the long van ride (about 3-4 hours) or maybe I’m just tired. But I threw up a couple of times and slept it off inside our tent. I even got to miss dinner and woke up at 9PM only to witness my friend get sick, too. Good thing I was already feeling better and managed to accompany my Friend-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (hehehe) to the emergency room of a local hospital. It’s a pretty eventful night, full of nausea and intolerable heat and quick trips to the ER.

As Ate Marco put it, it’s the kind of day that tests friendship. It sure did.

It made me wonder why I travel and if it’s all worth it. After all the mishaps we had to go through to reach Burot Beach and to get sick right when I got there, I wondered why I spend time traveling and why I pine so much when I don’t. Almost instantly I answered my own question. I travel so I can live a life well explored. I go to different places so I have stories to tell. I live the comforts of my blanket and my books so I won’t look back and realize I did nothing memorable.

So even though it really felt like I spent more time traveling than spending it at the destination, it’s still a pretty great weekend. We woke up the next day really early. It was already bright outside so I was surprised that it was only 5AM.  We headed to the beach for a quick morning swim before breakfast. The water was nice. We had a grand time laughing and talking. It was a pretty good swim.

Our ride to Burot Beach might be bumpy and we suffered more than we enjoyed the trip, but the fact that there were still good parts made it worthwhile. It’s not the beach I’d go back to (too crowded and expensive and the toilet’s horrible) since there are other beaches near Manila.

But I was with good friends and that is enough.