I am now met with multiple backlogs and works from outside responsibility this week and this is, to be honest, consuming my sanity this weekend. Sometimes I would feel nauseous and sometimes I would even want to cry out the feeling of being worried not to meet the deadlines. Last Saturday, I realized that I have to take a break and pause for a moment because I am not doing the things well. It was a stop sign like one in a traffic to catch up with myself. And after an hour or two of chaotic work in our office, my friends arrived, who are also student journalists like me.
I believe we are kindred souls. They arrived in the office with worse aura than me—tired, stressed, and worried for the same reason. What will happen if three insane people meet in an asylum? Of course, they would have a stroll break to somewhere refreshing 😓 And that is what we did last week.
In Bogo City, where our school resides for more than 50 years, there is a pantaland nearby where students after class go and relax their tensed nerves. I don’t know what is in that place and why it actually calms the students, especially me, but it really is relaxing to sit in its road. It is just a simple pantaland and a road full of vehicles running around the area and a sea full of pumpboats sometimes untouched.
We decided to visit pantaland and walked away from the office as soon as possible. It was approximately 7 minutes from our office so we just took a stroll to get there. We stumbled upon a little orchard blooming this kind of flower and it attracted us. We stopped because my friend told us some fact about the flower that it is edible and could be eaten right away. I saw my mother one time making it as a tea also and said it has a lot of health benefits not only for the elders but also for the young ones. It extracts this blue color when put in hot water and it looks like magic fleeing away from its cage the way the color scatters. Anyway, we actually tasted the flower because I was curious and it actually is edible the way it tastes. I am not dead anyway after doing that and even our ancestor could have done that. We are animals after all.
A little while later, my friends asked me if we could stop by an ice cream shop to relax our body with its cold and frigid texture. Fortunately, I know an ice cream shop along the road to pantaland so it is still a one-way stroll. We continued walking and passed by different vendor shops like barbeque and thrift store. I mean... we have a good place actually nearby the plaza that is surrounded by Filipino-coded shops and foods so it is undoubtful that our place is good.
We arrived in the ice cream shop 3 minutes later only to find out that ice cream or sundae is not available because the equipment they use to make sundae is not operating properly. We were disappointed to know since ice cream is our goal to eat that afternoon. But, it is just an ice cream and we cannot just get sad for that silly thing they put in a cone. We asked the crew about their available refreshments and pointed out the Fruit Yogurt Drink. It was our first time trying the drink so we chose the blueberry from the most familiar flavor.
WaCo (Waffles & Coffee) also offers other relaxing foods and drinks such as waffles and fruit soda that are affordable. This is the best go-to place for students because of their budget-friendly menu. They have a cute place beside a road and their mini tables and chairs with fence bordering the shop make it cuter. Aside from waffles and drinks, they also have pizza tasty bites and mini donuts that are also affordable.
One thing I like about this shop is they have daily and different flavors of ice cream. It was pandan and chocolate last time and sometimes it is avocado which is my favorite.
They have this prototype of ice cream and displayed waffles that are placed inside this transparent glass. As you can see in their menu, they have different kinds of ice cream/sundae and drinks. Some drinks are paired with fries while some are not and some ice cream have custom toppings depending on your preference. I enjoyed taking photos of their display since it attracted me in the first place because of its cuteness. A few minutes later, we received our order and paid Php78.00 for two drinks.
Here is my undecided order and it was good even if it tastes too sweet for me.
After the ice cream shop, we continued our stroll and searched for a street food cart. Whilst searching, I spotted this dog in a convenience store with this little kid. She was playing with him and I crossed the lane just to take a photo of this cute dog. She was a friendly kind of dog and her eyes are like a galaxy full of stars.
We found one nearby street food cart, the Zea Snack Corner, and bought tempura (jsjsjs in English). I used to buy from this man last year when I often visited the pantaland and I was happy to taste their foods again on the very day I visited again. We ordered two sets of tempura and ate it right in their cart. The sun was starting to set by the time we ate the food so we finished it quickly to capture the famous sunset in the area.
We continued walking and talking before we realized we are now in the starting road of the pantaland and we just have to make it to the end because that is where the magic happened. We stumbled upon this cart selling balot (a boiled fertilized chicken embryo). Some may find this food odd and disgusting which is actually true but I believe it is so tasteful to eat. It is actually disgusting to see the chick you are eating and some might already have their feathers but I had to strengthen my stamina because I want to eat this kind of food. Sometimes I would just close my eyes to endure the grossing feeling but it really tastes good, better than the street food I ate.
We left the cart and strolled again never knowing what we would see and do in the end of the road. I promise it was a magical and humanistic experience I will forever treasure. I’ll write about it in my next blog and feature the beauty of pantaland where tired souls collectively visit.
If you are wondering why I used ice cream in the title... I have to because it would be awkward to use fruit yogurt LOL. 😅
For now, this is my first blog this week and I was recharged just by a drink and a street food—enough for me to write it here. I hope you’ll wait for my narrative about what happened by the end of the road. Thank you for reading dearest reader! Glad to see you here by the end of this blog.
This is Whosee and see you in Part 2!