Bakla Ako, May Reklamo?

A few weeks ago, my friends Tin, Will, and D invited me and the rest of our colleagues at work to a hiking/camping trip to Anawangin. The photos Tin took on her previous trip looked so amazing that I actually considered going with them. But after finding out that there was a possibility of not being able to take a shower or the absence of a real toilet to answer nature’s call for me, I declined. Another reason was that I did not have the right gear for outdoor adventures like that.

I’m Gay, I Saw, I Conquered!

And as luck had it, the gods from Columbia Sportswear must have heard me talking to myself about the lack of gear. A few weeks after the hiking trip I missed, I received an invite from Columbia Sportswear to join four other bloggers (Phoebe, Jayvee, Nina, and Ferdz) on a “leisure” hiking trip. I was a bit hesitant at first but Ernie convinced me into going. And that, my friends, turned out to be one of the best (if not the best yet) decisions that I have made in 2008!

The whole experience started with pulling out clothes from Columbia Sportswear’s Gateway Branch two days before the hiking trip. I was given the freedom to select items from the racks on my own, as long as they matched the general description on the checklist of “bare necessities” for the trip.

Dino de Leon, Brand Manager for Columbia Sportswear, was kind enough to help me out in selecting from their overwhelmingly beautiful, stylish and functional apparel and equipment. While doing the shopping, the goodlooking Dino (yes, he’s cute and has a girlfriend, lolz) made sure I chose items which were right for my body type and suitable for the hiking trip. This sure is one cool way to “test drive” their products!

Here are the items that I ended up with:

Friday morning came and I could contain my excitement no longer! I asked permission from my boss for me to leave earlier than usual so I could prepare for the trip. At 5:30 A.M., I rushed home, took a shower, changed into my Columbia get-up, took my One Ton Cyberpack (which has been packed with all my stuff the night before), and rushed to Starbucks 6750 – our meeting point. We left at about 6:30 A.M onboard a van.

Since I have been up all night at work, and since I have not had enough sleep in the days prior to Friday, I decided to take a power nap inside the van. When I came to, I was quite worried and thought I was going crazy for outside the van was a town that had Candelaria, Quezon posted on establishment signs. I turned to Dino and asked why we were in Quezon when we were supposed to be in Batangas. As it turned out, the road through Candelaria was a shorter one compared to the normal route for Batangas.

We arrived at the white beach resort town of Laiya in San Juan, Batangas shortly after 11:00 AM and had lunch at Tita Pilar’s.

After lunch, we all boarded the van and headed to our jump-off point, which was not too far from Tita Pilar’s. There, Dino gave us pre-climb instructions, warnings, tips, and reminders. We were also told to do some warm-up stretching exercises on our own for us to avoid injuries. Since there wasn’t any stretching exercise specified, I decided to do my usual stretches – a mix of Broadway Jazz and Soccer (yes, I was a member of the UP Mindanao Men’s Soccer Varsity Team!) warm-up and stretching exercises. I think most of the people who saw me got bothered at the sight of me doing my own stretches. Wanna see why? Here’s why:

Stretch AJ!
photo courtesy of Phoebe

After stretching, the adventure that changed many of my perceptions about life began…

More photos and the story on the hike up, the stops, the campsite, the hike down, the beach, and the ride home in the next few posts!

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