At 6AM in the morning I hauled myself off the bed with the foreboding feeling of dread. I haven't slept the previous night due to chicken overload (Max's freakin' chicken fest) and now had to drag myself through an ocular trip.

After getting lost a few times, we arrived in Philip sanctuary in Antipolo. The owner welcomed us with hot coffee, suman, and an exotic fruit called "Marang" It was like a cross between langka (jackfruit) and atis (sweetsop) . The owner was an old agriculturist who never ran out of stories. We found out the place was built in memory of his soldier son who's been killed by abusive military cohorts and subject of a complicated human rights case. Despite such tragic story however, the old man remained jolly as we waited for our guide.

Prior to this trip, when calling up LGU's and tourism officers in Rizal, I always said we're looking for forests that are "troso-level" with big trees you can't hug. Though only some areas had such requirement, the place was forest-y indeed. If the trees could talk it'd tell me, in gay tones,"Gusto mo ng gubat? Gutso mo talaga ha?"

We traversed through the reforested grounds for about two hours, while raining. We looked silly going through the forest in our chuck's, holding on to trees to avoid rolling down the slopes with an umbrella in hand. I never got the chance to hit the beach the summer nor climb caves, this ocular/nature trip made up for the loss. I should have worn my hiking sandals.

I compartmentalized the grounds into four categories. (1) The Twilight areas: It was just like the location of that sappy vampire movie, promising for those panoramic panning and canopy shots. (2) The tall grass areas: Grass height goes from waist-level to head-level. "Pure shores" played in my head while walking. I pictured Leo walking beside me, it was like that scene in The Beach where they see a vast field of doobie except we we're scared to get bitten by sakes. We saw none but knew and were informed there were snakes in the area, and musangs, and other wild creatures. Rar. (3) The Avatar area: just because it was on high land and had a view of the terrain. (4) The hostage areas: places that make you ask where the hell you are, and give an automatic flash-forward with you in your ripped clothes chewing your shoelaces and contemplating on eating your colleague. There were a lot of this kind, thank God our guide knew the forest like the back of his hand.

We were drenched in sweat and rainwater after the hike; we were fed yet again with fresh fruits: Rambutan and the notorious Durian. I knew that smell and that a lot of people hated it, but I never got to taste the fruit til yesterday. Our DP told me that people who can't stand the smell suddenly find it intoxicating upon tasting the fruit. He was right. Before we can even say our goodbye's, two women came with big bowls--the nuns who were visiting the place sent over lunch. It was the first time I tasted food cooked by nuns which were said to be delicious, and indeed were. We feasted on dinuguan, nilagang baka, and afritada while watching the nuns prepare for the zipline. I couldn't stop laughing with the image of flying nuns, zipping through in their habits/ flying penguins!

We joined them by the zipline posts after lunch, and upon their urging, decided to try it too. Our PM chickened out while a 74-year old nun had two turns, hilarious.

We had to leave after that as it was getting late. The owner gave us fruits to take home. We all agreed that this was the best ocular so far. We didn't expect such accommodations, the food, the nature trip, the warm people--all for free. Then we went back to a rainy, noisy, and heavy-traffic-infested Manila just in time for a typhoon. Wonderful.