Last Sunday, I set out on an adventure with nature and went to the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife. Not having any forms of exercise for almost a year now, and being a lover of trees, I decided to volunteer myself and accept the challenge of playing an app-based adventure with other bloggers at the park located at Q.C.
Arriving at the place was a challenge in itself as I just had a general idea of where the place might be but as I was running late, I had no chance to check it thoroughly on the net. I ended up getting off the jeep at Q.C. Circle and walking for miles under the glare of the early afternoon sun till I reached the park.
The park charged an affordable rate of P8 per head for adults and P5 for children.For the game itself, we downloaded the Cyburban app on our phones and were faced with numerous challenges to complete. As I arrived late, I was slow to digest the mechanics of the game. Good thing I sat next to PromdiBoyAdventures, who not only arrived early but also good-naturedly and patiently helped me set up my phone for the game. It was then that I decided to make it my game plan not to lose sight of him as he seemed quick and smart, and I figured that I will fare well in the game if I just imitated everything he will do.
The first set of challenges involved working out with the Halcyon gym team. I did well in the sit-ups, jumping jacks and squats and I was especially proud of myself for doing the squats quickly and without a peep as the girl next to me winced in agony at each squat and complained melodramatically that it was so hard to do. She must have never commuted in her life, as I felt that the stairs in the overpasses and MRT's of my daily commute to work has buffed me up for the challenge that was doing numerous squats under a time limit.
However, there was this one challenge where after briefly touching my toes at start and end points, I was required to run quickly for 4 rounds. I would have been fine with that but I was a bit miffed by the lanky curly-haired AmBoy coach for that challenge because instead of telling me right off the bat that I did not start on time and that I better just stop and wait for my turn, he just let me complete the run alongside PromdiBoy and then -whilst my tongue was still hanging out from fatigue- announced that I shall repeat the challenge as I did not start running the precise second he said "go". To top it off, he did not even let me catch my breath and I have to double the challenge I just did! Oh well! Charge it to experience to take my time so I don't have to repeat anything again!
Other challenges include picking up trash such as leaves and filling up a bag with them to help the environment, walking in three's or four's on a banner that needs to roll as you and your team mates move forward, taking a selfie with one of the animals, meeting other bloggers, playing siato and eating exotic food. I got a bit excited when I noted that the coach manning the siato challenge was taking note of the scores. Siato involved hitting a short stick with a long one, and as my short siato stick landed far far away from where I hit it, I was pretty sure that I can be a contender for that if ever they give out individual awards for each challenge. It brought me back to a time when I won the "longest flight" category for a paper airplane contest we had for Aerospace Cadet of the Philippines in high school. I was sad that I did not get to try the exotic food which featured frogs and baluts. It was the time that I got lost in the park and when PromdiBoy found me, they had already cleaned up the booth serving the frogs and baluts. :(
At the end of the day, my new found friend PromdiBoy ended up bagging the first place for scoring the most points in the Cyburban game with 700+ points. I only had 500+ points. We celebrated PromdiBoy's win with bright purple and yellow dirty ice cream from a vendor whose ice cream cart reads "Makajos". :)
