A long weekend is on its way and I’m pretty sure most of you are already planning on some places to go or activities to try. So let me suggest something… What do you think about paragliding, or flying an ultralight plane, or having a staycation?

I always wanted to try hiking, and that’s a little ambitious because I don’t have the basic hiking knowledge and I never had hiking trainings. Back in January 2014, I thought I can do it because the basketball training I had in collage may still be inside me, even though I’ve already graduated and had never held a basketball for almost a year. Maybe I still can, I thought to myself. So on my birthday, I planned to hike Taal Volcano. It’s a great start because it’s known to be a really short volcano, so I was confident about it.

I invited two of my closest friends who were still active with our sport. It was supposedly my first birthday without my family, because I know my mom is always busy at the office and my dad, then, was at a business trip. But to my surprise, my friends told them about my birthday plan and because I have such great parents, they decided to fly into Manila for my birthday, bringing my younger sister with them. My dad just stayed over the weekend and flew back to his business. My parents give importance to birthdays, that’s why they never missed it even once.

So on my birthday, all six of us, drove to Tagaytay. Mt. Taal is known to be a mountain within a lake so we had to ride a bangka to its foot. Upon arriving the mountain itself, we saw guides and horses. We were informed that we could choose to hike or ride a horse to the top, and if you take a horse, you would have a guide that would carry your stuff for you. Undoubtedly, my mom and my sister chose having a horse, while my dad, my friends, and I decided we’ll try walking.

It wasn’t easy, I’d tell you that, even for me who has been trained for sports, although not anymore active, but still, it’s been less than a year. And the dust is crazy, it’s everywhere! Especially because we’re with two horses. haha. But the view is incredible. What’s nice about walking is that you can just stop for a bit, walk off the trail, and pause to appreciate the view (and take photos of it too). At some point, I borrowed my sister’s horse to take photos. haha.

At the top, there was a stall selling buko juice, and after a really hot walk, it was heaven sent! We continued to walk to the other side of the “summit” and found better views for a photo.

It’s satisfying to know that you matter to the the people who matters to you.