Zambales 2024: An Attempt to Boost Work Productivity On The First Month of The Year

"Tara sa Zambales sa January 6!"

Sabi ng work friends ko sa Telegram groupchat namin.

This was how our planning started two weeks before this weekend getaway. After 30 minutes, we already had one: meet up in Eton Centris at 09:00 AM and go to Liwliwa, Zambales, and just walk in on any of the resorts there. January 06 came. I woke up around 07:00 AM and immediately had my morning coffee. After two hours, I was already at Eton. Since my friends were late, I decided to have a chai latte and flatbread in the nearby coffee shop.

Anyway, they arrived after almost 1.50 hours. Well, I didn't mind waiting for them. I had a book with me, What If It's Us, that I had been wanting to finish so I brought it, anticipating that my friends would be late since two of them were coming right after their shift at work. After 3.50 hours of shenanigans on the road, we're finally at the resort. Since we did not reserve a room days before our arrival, we got the room farthest from the beach. However, this was also a good thing. The place had a poor cellular connection. Since we're near the reception area where wi-fi was available, we're able to access the internet.

We had a late lunch right after checking in. Then, we rested for a bit. Around 05:00 PM, we went to the beach to watch the sunset. While waiting, we enjoyed some cocktails from the beach bar and some pica-picas from the resort's restaurant. We didn't have dinner anymore since we were very full already with the pica-picas that we ordered. Around 09:00 PM, we went back to our room and called it a night because we planned to have an early morning dip. Morning came, around six o'clock, and we were already at the beach enjoying the waves.

After almost two hours, we decided to already have breakfast. I had pancake and bacon which I thought would have been better if the bacon was a little more bacon-tasting. After all the eating and taking a bath, we rested until 11:00 AM, so we still had time to pack our things before we checked out. Less than an hour on the road after we checked out, we were buying ripe and green mangoes for pasalubong. We also had a mango smoothie that's almost puree.

The highlight of this trip aside from having cocktails on the beach while watching the sunset was the Putok Batok Gang lunch before we went home. We were not new to the place because we also had lunch in this restaurant when our team went to Zambales last 2022. But I have to say this, the experience that we had this time was a downgrade of what we had before. We ordered the same item on their menu, a combination of crabs, shrimps, and clams with cajun sauce. But the crabs were no longer fresh when they were cooked because their meat was sticking to the shells already. So eating the crabs was a little unpleasant.

After lunch, we decided to have coffee in Subic, at High Grounds Coffee House before driving home. We were expecting to be in the metro around 06:00 PM but made it before 05:30 PM, just because our friend was driving like a NASCAR driver.

From this trip, I learned na sobrang random pala talaga ng work friends ko pagdating sa mga gala. But this is what I like the most sa circle kong ito. Hindi kailangan ng mabusising plano para makapag-travel. Kahit nga wala kang budget eh, they will cover for you and just pay them back on the next pay-out, minsan nga, pay-outS pa. Also, everytime na kasama ko sila, ang mga frustration ko sa trabaho na hindi ko masabi sa ibang tao, nasasabi ko sa kanila. And I think they feel and do the same. Kung baga, we're each other therapists during our trips. Sa sasakyan pa lang, we laugh a lot already about random things. Random as in random, like out of the blue na ang pasok ng topic ng usapan tapos we'll suddenly burst out laughing.

Sa totoo lang, sila ang isa sa circles ko na everytime kasama ko sila, ang gaan lang ng pakiramdam ko. It's as if nawawala na lang na parang bula ang mga pasanin ko sa trabaho.