Opening Night for Munato Festival

Had a great evening with my closest friends Mich and Rich. Tonight is the Opening of Munato Festival of Sarangani province and Michele and I had planned to watch the awarding of the Best Youth of the Year for 2011 which was bagged by Rich. We were so proud to of her achievements and we made a little surprise for her, a tarpaulin congratulating her award.

The lay-out of our tarpaulin

We came a bit late because Mich told me that the awarding ceremony/festival opening will start at 7pm and I thought maybe I could relax a bit more before our departure time from Gensan to Alabel of 5:30pm. Rich told us that it will start at 5 but as we always know about Filipino time, we predicted it will start late, maybe around 6 to 6:30pm. Well, as I've said, we came late and we were worried that Rich will be offended since she told us that we're her only friends who'll witness her awarding. We know this is a very special night for her and we hate to spoil it. But fortunately, she still welcomed us warmly. As we looked for her in the crowd, the lighting of lanterns started and I was amazed to see the lanterns lighted by the various groups that represents the population of Sarangani Province. I just took out my camera and started capturing the scene that left me breathless for a moment. 

Munato Festival: A Sky Full of Lighters

Upon seeing this, I can't help but remember the lyrics in Bruno Mars' song Lighters. I deeply regretted that I missed the lighting and released of 10,000 lanterns in our city oval a week ago. Rich and Mich had witnessed the 10,000 lanterns so I'm pretty much the only one among us who was awestruck in watching the magnificent lanterns that brought light to the evening sky. Personally, it was more amazing to watch that a fireworks display. I can feel the serenity and peace that was brought by the lanterns to my core as the November air touches my face in front of the capitol. 

Releasing of Lanterns marks the opening of the Munato Festival

Too bad I wasn't able to witness this. I have no idea that this event will take place on that particular night.

It was the first time for me and Mich to enter the capitol so we were a bit excited. We headed to the elevator and we were amused to find out that they have their own elevator (pardon me with this but we don't usually ride elevators since Gensan doesn't have tall buildings due to the kind of soil that we have as what my professor engineer had said and most of the buildings here had only 2 to 4 floors so we're really not used to riding elevators and instead we use stairs). However, when we started to ascend, I felt very dizzy as if I my body was shook by an earthquake. When we got out of the elevator, it felt like I'm floating and still dizzy. After a minute, I finally recovered. We asked Rich to wear her Filipiniana (Filipino gown) so we could take some snapshots of her and of course a group photo of the three of us. 

Mich, laughing while going out of the elevator. I know she felt dizzy too that's why she's laughing, hehe

In the comfort room, Mich helping Rich with her Filipiniana.

 We came in to the office of her cousin who's a staff of Vice-Governor Steve Solon. Rich changed her outfit to Filipiniana and we gladly took photos of her while holding her award. I will ask Rich for copies of the photos since we used her camera. 

Rich, in her Filipiniana attire

Mich, holding Rich's Best Youth of the Year Award

As we finished out picture taking, we headed down to the capitol grounds were the flea market and the food stalls are located. We ate our dinner, buttered chicken, grilled Tilapia, and a huge chicken barbecue. We ate heartily and Rich even ordered chocolate and buko pandan gulamans. I was also a bit surprised to notice bottles of wine lined up beside the foods and I was amused to find out that food stalls are selling wines.

Wines, what are you doing here??

Wondering who's Mich textmate, hmmm..

Look at my earrings, fabulous.

 We left the food stall with a newly refueled stomachs as we headed to Glan's cottage. Again, we were amazed by the simplicity yet unique design of the cottage. Upon entering the cottage, we were welcomed by the product displays of the municipality of Glan. Actually, the main attraction of Glan is not the products made in their town but the beautiful white-sand beaches of Gumasa where a number of beach resorts are now starting to improve their facilities to catch up with the demands and standards of tourism. Barangay Burias, still under the municipality of Glan had also their fair share of white-sand beaches that are virtually virgin, untouched by strangers. Glan has a huge potential when it comes to its tourism. They also boast a coastline of Mangroves, just a few kilometers before entering the town proper. I always love to come back and visit Glan whenever I had the chance. 

Gumasa: Boracay of the South

This was from Sarangani Magazine. This was actually taken during our first visit to Gumasa. The people in that hut in the middle of the sea were my American uncle and my cousins.

I like the size of the town where people are friendly and know each other. It looked like everything is just a walking distance. And before I forget, Glan also able to preserve its history through the old ancestral houses that lined up in front of the town's public market. These houses dated back to the time of the Spanish and American occupancy. 

After Rich had put some additional designs and attraction to their cottage, we decided to take a look on the other cottages of towns that comprises Sarangani Province. Too bad my camera was already lowbat and Rich's camera was also used by her cousin who happened to be attending the capitol's employees/gala night just in the nearby capitol gym (just a very short walk from Rich's cottage). We decided to call it a night at 9pm after we finished visiting all the cottages. We rode a habal-habal to Gensan and we are planning to come back again tomorrow for the Pearl of Sarangani and to capture more photos of us. I really had fun tonight with my friends. Until next time, goodnight!! =)

PS: To anyone who doesn't know what habal-habal is, this is a habal-habal:

Fortunately, only the three of us were the passengers, four when included the driver. =)

*****

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