September 3, 2022
I was thinking about having a holiday when I coincidentally came across a new contest announcement of Hive Learners Community and the topic for these 2 days is about the best and worst holidays.
Reminiscing on the past, the best and worst holidays happened when I worked in Cebu Philippines. Of course, it does not include my best holidays here abroad. There are also the worst holidays that happened here. But these memories are with some of my friends, so I opted to choose these holidays back when I was still in the Philippines.
Hive Learners W25E3: The Best And Worst Holiday
THE BEST HOLIDAY
It was the year 2013 when I was assigned to work in one of our company's branches in Cebu Philippines, specifically on Bantayan Island. It's one of the most beautiful islands in our country and a lot of tourists and locals are visiting this island. The clear water, white-sand beaches, and beautiful resorts are what people want to see on this island. That also includes the local seafood recipes.
On one holiday, we were given a chance to enjoy a whole day break and so my friends (my co-workers) and I opted to go for a trip. Since we were on an island, we did island hopping and visited a neighboring islet which is a popular tourist destination in Cebu, the Virgin Island.
It's not an island for virgins though 😅, but it was named after its pure white sand and crystal clear waters that seemed to have been untouched. We did enjoy our whole day trip and had a lot of fun on this island. Aside from swimming we also had snorkeling. Nowadays, the island already has bars, cliff jumping, and other forms of adventure.
After our island hopping, we went back to Bantayan Island and visited a bar. We did karaoke, food trips, and other stuff until night. So far, this was my best holiday in the Philippines. In case you visit our country, you should add Bantayan and Virgin Islands to your itinerary. There are a lot of places to visit to have fun.
THE WORST HOLIDAY
This also happened in Cebu. Each year we have a Company Party in the city where everyone needs to attend and it's all the company's expense, from fares to food, and lodging. We did enjoy that day as we also had a chance to roam around Cebu before the party started at night, we had a food trip, and more chitchat, jokes, and laughter. We seldom had that kind of holiday, so every time it came, we make sure that it will be worth it. It was a party and holiday at the same time.
(need to blur photos as I have no permission to expose their faces here. The one revealed in the clear part is me.)
The next day, we needed to travel back to the island to resume our work. From the mainland, we have to travel by bus to the pier. From the pier, we would ride a ferry to Bantayan Island. Unexpectedly, a typhoon came and all sea travel was suspended.
We stayed at the pier for long hours waiting for the sea travel to resume but to no avail. Thus, we were stranded. The seafarers in the area informed us to just look for a place to stay for a night as the typhoon was getting stronger. We did as told before lodging houses become fully occupied.
It took us a while to look for an available room as most rooms were already occupied. We were all worried that we might sleep in the pier area with the typhoon, lol. What worried us more was when we saw the dark horizon in the vast ocean and it looked like a strong storm would cause havoc in the place. A lot of thoughts ran into our minds, "what if there'll be a tsunami? What will happen to us?" This was one of the questions we thought of as the place where we stayed was just along the pier facing the sea. That night, we were uncomfortable and worried about the circumstances that might happen with the typhoon.
But God was with us. The next day, things were back to normal and the typhoon left the island premise. The travel resumed and we finally traversed the sea back to our place safe and sound.
That experience taught me that, "Not all days are happy days, some are stormy. Those things are inevitable and will come at no time to test our resiliency. But we Filipinos are resilient and different unforeseen calamities made us stronger and more resilient to withstand any storm, may it be literal or figurative.
This is a Filipino trait I brought here abroad. A lot of storms came and living alone away from home is tougher. I need to withstand any storm and challenge alone. But this strengthened my resiliency and became a persevering person.
(All photos are mine)
