live to die another day

I was supposed to climb Mt. Banahaw covertly. yes covertly. when I ventured into Brgy. Kinabuhayan Dolores, I met with my guide and we were instructed to go pass by the Barangay Hall to register our climb. Unfortunately, we were instructed to hire a Barangay Tanod to accompany us at my expense. And the only available place would be Tatlong Tangke, a short hiking trip far away from the peak -- a walk in the park. I was asked if I had secured a DENR permit to forego the Tanod from accompanying us and to be given the go signal to climp up to the peak (Durungawan area)... and so I traveled from Kinabuhayan Dolores to Tayabas and then to Pagbilao, wasting around two hours looking for that permit. I was able to pinpoint where to find that permit, it was only 10 minutes away from Brgy Kinabuhayan. At the end of the day, after carrying my hiking pack I was dead tired. The next day I was supposed to go back to Kinabuhayan to secure that permit. It was too much strain on me physically.
Thus today I officially end my Banahaw Walkabout plans. Although if you look at it, the setbacks are exactly what the risks are. But I'll concede this battle to fight another tomorrow.
I'm thinking about taking pictures of Manila's destitute population... at night. I don't really need to go that far. Makati has its share of that populace. Too much hypocrisy with the high-rise buildings around the Glorietta area. Alternatively, I'm thinking about a 'corporate' social dancing DANCEabout.

the mystic MBA

the recent weeks have been plagued with scandals. this country basically eats scandals for breakfast. and im sick of it.
B-school on the other hand is too fast.. or perhaps i'm getting slower. too many deadlines have gone by and i've forgotten about this blog. anyways, im looking forward to our one week break next week. i'm doing my walkabout trip to Banahaw... yes its pushing through. i've contacted someone to guide me through the mountain covertly. but i'm going there alone. im not sharing the risk of going there. furthermore, from a project management perspective, everything falls into place. from the setbacks to the opportunities, the consequences and risk factor... that's why i must go... and find the mystic in me. there are reports of NPA activity though. That doesn't really concern me as a civilian. there are lots of people from the University of the Philippines who have gone to the mountains in protest of the government. And these are people who have first-class college education. I am not an enemy thus I do not feel any conflict with them or with any of their beliefs. I'm still trying to clear the plans with the contact... so for now, they are but plans....

2 weeks notice

my walkabout just flew away!
in 2 weeks we will be having our first B-school break for this year. and in 2 weeks i'm supposed to lead a team to scale Mt. Banahaw-- considered a holy mountain where mystics, cultists and mountain hikers frequently scale to meditate and commune with nature. Alas, I guess I didn't do my homework that early. Mt. Banahaw is closed to the public up to next year. Apparently they closed it because a lot of visitors were polluting the area. And so with 2 weeks notice, I am left without any walkabout.
B-school has been uneventful except for deadlines. It seems our WAC adventures have stopped. It seems that unofficially we only have 12 WAC cases instead of the planned 16. I actually love the challenge posed by WAC, but then again there is too little time left for the weekend to de-stress so we may start fresh the next week. The past few weeks has been like a train ride to wherever. So many stuff to read. Wednesdays feel like Mondays and Fridays like Sundays.
And so back to my Walkabout. I'm not looking forward to doing a Ballroom Dancing Workshop. For me its too boring. But I may be looking at it from a different viewpoint. We'll see...