Kanakbai, Mati with Batch 2006

I celebrated Christmas of 2014 with some of the greatest people I know. I may not always get to hang out with most of them but it’s always great to see the faces of the people you spent four years of your life with in high school. I am so glad that despite most of us going our own ways, we can still find time to get together and talk.

This is a photo blog of the activities we did on that two-day, one-night stay at Kanakbai, Mati.

The Grocery

A couple of friends and I did grocery shopping the day before the trip. We were accompanied by two of the batch’s culinary school students, Diana and Gianne! Yang2 was there mostly to stop the guys from buying… the expensive stuff. Like, japanese rice. Haha!

Some of our haul!

Day 1, the Road Trip

We had an early start on that day. Davao to Mati is a 3-4 hour drive and we didn’t want to waste any of our time. The waves were waiting! We were divided into three teams: Team Levi, Team Nesty and Team Kingsley, based on which car we were riding to get there.

The drive was faster than I expected. We got to take photos at two stops along the way, too!

My first time seeing the Sleeping Dinosaur. An island that looks like a sleeping dinosaur that people pass by on the way to Mati. Can you spot it?

Kanakbai Resort

And just like that, we’ve arrived! The place was breath taking.

We were the masters of two of these buildings for two days and a night! It was a very nice feeling for me, to be surrounded by the trees and the grass, away from noise of the city.

To hear and feel the wind and the waves, and to see them crash along the shoreline. It was refreshing. It was my first time to ever go to Mati so I still got excited about the large waves their beaches offered. And were they large! It was a non-stop, natural wave pool!

But before we could enjoy the wind and the waves, we had to prepare our lunch!

And after getting stuffed, everyone was too full to dive right in so we played games for a while.

And others slept.

At The Beach

After a good rest, we head out to the beach to ride the waves!! We didn’t have surf boards, though. I was very excited to try surfing for the first time but better luck next time… Also, I didn’t bring my camera out but here’s a few photos my friends took with their cameras. Credits to Jed and Kimberly!

Night Falls

And all too soon, night time came. We all had a nice chat here and there.

And then it was dinner time. We had a delicious dinner courtesy of our cooks, who were joined by Nesty! He served us barbecue and paksiw! Both were delicious!

Gift Exchange

Then we had our exchanging of gifts, all the while drinking beer and wine! It was a fun way to exchange gifts because before we gave the gifts, we had to act out who our manito/manita was! Mine was Nikki and the one who picked me was Kimberly.

The Hunger Games

After everything was done, we decided to play a game of Head’s Up! Dividing the group into two: Team Winner and Team Loser. Members of both group were decided by a game of Rock Paper Scissors!

Presenting:
Team Winner