The Best Road Trip Ever

A little over a year ago, two friends of mine invited me as well as a bunch of their other friends to go on a road trip in Mindanao.

Dexter and Mia are two of my closest friends from back in law school. While all of us went to the University of San Carlos for college, we never really got to hang out until we got transferred to USJR during our law school days and the rest, as they say, was history.

On March of last year, while I was on the verge of leaving my post as a news correspondent and seriously considering moving to Metro Manila, they invited me to go on a road trip in Mindanao for a couple of days.

I was down for it even before knowing what our itinerary was. Hell, I didn't even care where we're going.

I badly needed an escape, an adventure, before taking a massive step of moving out of my comfort zone. It was the perfect getaway that I was looking for, and I was down for it come hell or high waters.

Little did I know that Dexter was actually planning to propose to Mia on that trip, and I found it really sweet.

You see, Dexter and Mia's relationship had totally blossomed in law school and I was there to see it evolved through the years.

When I first met Mia and Dexter, both of them were in different relationships with other people. The thing was, even though I was aware of that, I could never shake off the feeling that they would end up together eventually and that it would just be a matter of time.

When that finally happened, I was not even surprised. I remember we were at the beach back in Moalboal at that time together with some of our other law school friends.

We were getting real drunk, we were just laughing and acting silly, and out of the blue, they told us that they're "in a relationship". All of us screamed and were like, "finally!!!".

Hahaha I even remember our friend Tiu screaming and cheering his drunk ass off and running directly for the waters. LOL. We had to ran after him to make sure that he would not try to swim for the next island or something.

Just as what we have always known all this time, Dexter and Mia finally tied the knot earlier this year.

Out of all the weddings that I've been to, I could say that theirs is my favorite - it was chill, it was fun, it was elegant, it was real, and it felt genuine. Despite being formal, you could still feel the sincerity of the ceremony, and it didn't feel scripted at all. 

I was part of their wedding entourage and all of us were on this coaster van on the way from the church to the reception when out of the blue, we decided to get some drinks at a random 7/11 along the way.

You can just imagine how it looked with the whole wedding ensemble getting off the vehicle and marching to the store to buy some alcohol and what-not. That was how real it was. LOL.

Anyhoo, back to the road trip. I guess I could also say that it was one of the best travels that I've been in. I've never been good around new people because I'm so awkward and I don't know how to act around them.

For some reason, even though I didn't know the rest of the people that I was with during that trip, I still had fun and they were absolutely amazing. LOL.

To make everything even crazier, I was just told by Dexter and Mia to take a ferry boat from Cebu to CDO and they would take care of the rest. Their friend Ernie would also be traveling from Cebu, so they suggested that I go with him since he's familiar with the trip.

I met Ernie just as the ferry boat was about to leave and found him really fun to be with. We hit off right away and started talking like old friends.

The trip from Cebu to CDO took around 12 hours, so when we got there, Dexter together with his friend and his cousin were already waiting for us.

I was told that we would be driving to Mia's place and at first, I thought it was just pretty near.

After driving for about an hour, I asked how them how far away her place was and they just laughed. Later did I found out that it was an almost five-hour drive away. No regrets though. Everything was awesome and the views were stunning.

So aside from the trip being lit, I also got to visit some really breathtaking places, and made good friends along the way. It can't get better than that eh?

P.S.

Here's my friend's really cute and sweet wedding SDE video. Enjoy :)

#roadtrip #iamizobelle #travelwithfriends #adventure #mindanao