sun sun sun here it comes

i've written briefly about carlos, the american guy over in romblon who has become a good friend since i've been back. he's here on holiday and actually lives in new york, which makes for amusing conversation. his family owns a house on romblon island, and last weekend he invited scott and i to stay there and said he'd take us on a bit of a tour and to a few beaches. romblon supposedly has really nice beaches, but i usually just stay in town and worry about internet, so haven't visited any (well we did visit one on australia day, but not the best ones).

it was a great weekend. and carlos' house is ... really nice. scott and i stayed in the guesthouse:





yes. the guesthouse. my room was probably bigger than my entire house back in long beach. and i got a few hot showers and let me tell you, there is nothing in the world like a hot shower. i think that brings me grand total for the past six months to fourteen. glorious. i'm going to stand in the hottest shower ever when i get home for a good four hours. wash off all the permanent grime and dirt that has likely accumulated on my body in the past six months. and then soak in disinfectant and kill anything weird that i've probably acquired in the past six months. and soak all of my belongs in disinfectant and get rid of all the mold growing all over everything.

anyways (how's that for a tangent?), it was lovely. our first day we visited bon-bon and tianbian beach, which are really close to each other (that's the same little islland in both pictures).



[bon-bon]


[tianbian. yes, same little islet in the background as at bon-bon]


so unbelievably pristine, with white sand and clear water. and absolutely no other people. what a wonderful thing to lie on the beach with a good book and occasionally wander down to the water to "cool off" a bit. ahhh what a life. the first night we had dinner at his place and had a bottle of real red wine and real chocolates and good music and conversation and it was just fabulous. what a wonderful break from long beach – it felt like momentarily stepping into another world (and sort-of was in a lot of ways).

the second day, we walked from his place over to a secret beach which was ... gorgeous. absolutely beautiful. and so secluded. we bbq-ed fish on the beach and ate off banana leaves and with our hands in "traditional filipino style". haha, i love it.





wonderfully relaxing weekend.