This is my idea of a great trip to the beach:
No crowds, no commercial spaces, no sounds except for the waves.
No pressure to look all pretty and camera-ready, no care if my hair looks like it hasn’t seen a comb for a while.
And no thinking at least for the day.
This was a trip to Crystal Beach Resort in San Narciso, Zambales where we had our company outing for this year. It was a 5-hour drive from Makati and we got there at 10PM on a Friday night. The night was spent (as in any kind of adult gathering) with cocktail drinks being passed around, bottles of alcohol being opened incessantly, and hands clutching cards all while the videoke machine was busy playing. I didn’t stay up to witness my officemates’ drunken antics and collapsed on the foam of the bamboo bed at 2:30AM.
I woke up that morning at 6:30AM, took a cold shower and went to eat some breakfast. I was happy to find there were fresh mangoes for dessert. After devouring longganisa and eggs, I hurriedly drank my coffee and then went to the beach, excited to see what’s in store for me and my camera.
There weren’t any street-sellers here or tattoo parlors nor were there white sand or exotic-looking beach-goers.
It was perfect.
I sat contentedly on the sand and took a few shots of the surfers on their skim boards. I also managed to get some shots of the locals: kids carrying bamboo sticks and fishermen fixing their nets near their boats. There was a little girl in a pink bathing suit, maybe about 10 years old, who was being taught by one of the instructors how to surf. Hmm, maybe I could do that too, I thought.
After a while, my teammate JC and I decided to go back to the cottages. We passed by a hammock in an area filled with trees and he spent a few minutes lying there under the shade.
After having our morning beer, we went back to the beach and took a dip in the water to get the effects of the alcohol out of our systems.
There were dark clouds forming above the mountains to my left. Soon enough, there came the soft rain that covered them completely. We sat under one of the huts and watched as the rain came, softly covering everything. The sound of water against water, water against sand was a surprisingly relaxing, even comforting sound. This and hushed conversations were the only sounds on the beach.
This is “il bel far niente” - the beauty of doing nothing.
Check out Crystal Beach.
