A Short Escaped in the Bukid

Being under pressure from various reasons may it be from home, work, relationship and studies does truly brings a lot of stress. Due to the suffocation and exhaustion that we are feeling caused by stress, we do a number of things or go to different places in order to unwind and relax. In this way even though for just a short period of time we are able to escape from the things that is causing havoc towards our mind and body.

I myself is not an exception from this nerve-wrecking stress. Recently my mind is bombarded with problems that I have little to no control to. Due to this overwhelming turn of events, I sometimes have a hard time sleeping at night. I did a number of things to at least lessen the stress that I am having. I tried reading manhwas/manhuas, stream videos on YouTube, listen to my favorite artists, binge watched anime series and even cleaning the entire house. But it only did the bare minimum. I tried opening up to a friend about the situation that I am currently into then she suggested that we visit her older brother’s farm to unwind and relax, which I swiftly agreed. Then by the following week, we went to her older brother’s farm.

The travel distance from our starting point which is our school to the farm was approximately eighteen kilometers. By traveling riding the bajaj re it took us thirty minutes, then another five minutes riding the single motorcycle from the national highway going to the farm. Overall the whole time we were traveling along the highway I felt a great sense of relief. Seeing the beautiful scenery of the sea from our left-side and the green landscapes from our right-side as well as the fresh air away from the polluted city felt really calming. It also made me notice the places, landmarks and buildings I wasn’t able to notice often when riding a bus or multicab. Since the bajaj re is running smoothly and not too fast.

By the time we arrived we were greeted by my friend’s sister in-law. Her sister in-law welcomed us warmly to their house. Their house is situated near the hillside, thus it gave us a good view of the river and coconut trees down below as well as the deep blue sea from afar. Since we arrived by noontime, hence after introducing and exchanging names we then prepared for our lunch. For our lunch we ate rice, pancit bihon with corned beef and for our drink we had pineapple juice. It may look like a simple meal but since we ate it outside with the beautiful 180 degrees view of the hillside made it extraordinary and tastier. After eating we decided to rest for a while before taking a stroll down the hill. While resting under the cotton fruit tree we talked about many things such as how excited and nervous we are for our OJT and the likes. After digesting the food that we had ate, we then change our clothes as well as our footwear and went down the hill.

The journey down the hill was quite terrifying for me. Not only because the hillside was too steep that we need to be very careful with our steps. But also because I have a fear for steep slopes and stairs. I develop this fear when I was young where I almost fell down from the hillside while walking up going to my grandparent’s farm. If it wasn’t for the tall grass that I was able to hold on swiftly while I was falling, surely I would end up down the river below. Going back, thankfully after a very thorough and careful journey going down we were able to safety reach the foot of the hill. In there we took Instagram worthy pictures of ourselves as a group and individually then we went to the nearby river afterwards. Since the current was quite strong we decided to not take a swim, instead we sat down on the rocks by the riverside. The crystal clear cold water from the river was so enticing that we decided to roll up our pants and soaked our feet into it. As we soaked our feet into the water we felt a gushing refreshing feeling, it was so good that we soaked not just our feet but also up to our knees as well. After soaking for about fifteen minutes, we then went back up the hill to my friend’s older brother’s house. Since the sky was starting to go grey which is a sign of heavy rain. As hard it is to go down the hill it was even way harder going up. It was so hard that we did multiple stops to take a break and catch our breaths. By the time we arrived the rain began to pour. As we wait for the rain to stop we stayed at the house terrace where we played card games in order to kill time. We even played truth or dare which was very fun and intriguing. For we were able to know things we never knew or knew little about each other. Such as about our crushes, relationship status and the likes. Of course as we were playing and chitchatting we were also munching boiled unripe bananas matched with sautéed shrimp paste and tomatoes as well as buko lamaw.

It was almost night time when we went home, but before that my friend’s older brother as well as her sister in law gave us unripe bananas and papaya as pasalubong. After saying our thanks and bid our good bye to them we then rode a single motorcycle going down to the national highway. Since it rain hard the road was quite slippery which made it harder for us to go down, but thankfully we were able to go down safely all thanks to manong driver. Overall the visit was fun and worth it, not only because I was able to relieve my stress but also because I was able to make new experiences and memories with my friends which I will surely keep with me.

Here are some of the pictures that we had taken along the trip. 📸

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