Happy New Year, everyone! 2022 is here and our journey in Hive continues. I said goodbye to December 2021 with a somewhat bittersweet yet thankful heart. December has always been a month of parties and celebrations with each weekend booked for Christmas parties and get-togethers. But for 2021, most of my plans after the 2nd week of December were scrapped because of the typhoon.
I was still able to attend a few get-togethers during the early days of the month. One of them was a Christmas Party for my girlfriend and her college friends. They always have an annual get-together around the end of the year. This year, all her friends were present since they also attended the baptism of the baby of one of her friends.
We booked a place in the mountainous part of Cebu City (Buhisan) called Chateau Blanc. I will be writing in a different post about all the activities we did but I feel like a separate post would put justice to the amazing views that the place had to offer. Everywhere you looked, there's so much awe. The highlight of the place is its infinity pool overlooking the mountains of Cebu and the wide sky.
Getting to the place is quite difficult. The drive from the city center is not that long but the road going there is narrow, secluded, and can become dangerously steep and winding. The most difficult part of the drive is the final road getting to the place. It was so steep and winding that our skilled driver had to assist one of our friends in climbing the road.
But after overcoming the long and winding road, the first views you see are breathtaking. The clouds that day were mesmerizing and the pine trees on each side of the road were very welcoming. Bougainvilla shrubs were also on the sides of the roads and behind them, you could see the green rolling mountains in all their glory.
The house had a balcony and after setting our things, my girlfriend and I went up to the balcony to witness the amazing views. We just stared at the scenes before us and let them fill us with awe.
In one of the podcasts I listen to, one of the topics discussed was the power of awe and how it can increase happiness. All you have to do is take a few deep breaths while appreciating the marvelous details of the scenery and nature around you. The experience grounds me and reminds me that our world is so much bigger and so much more beautiful than we allow ourselves to see.
The house has an infinity pool facing the mountains and some of our friends quickly took a dip. They soon regretted going into the water because it was ice cold. Soon, they were shivering. My girlfriend and I were in charge of the food and we still had to cook our dinner so decided not to go swimming yet.
Before heading to the kitchen, we took a few more minutes to marvel at the views of the pool that looked like its water fell down into a cliff.
At night, we could see the lights from the houses down the valley. My phone doesn't take the best night mode photos but you could see specks of white light beyond the outlines of the mountains.
The water in the pool had turned extremely cold and it didn't help that winds were strong outside. I tried to do some Wimhoff breathing to help me adjust to the cold.
We booked the place for an overnight stay and I was excited to see the sunrise. I woke up early and tried to look for the sunrise but heavy clouds on the horizon blocked most of the sunrise. I was able to snap photos of the sunrise as the sun emerged farther from the horizon. Again, the clouds, looked divine.
There was no fog and I could see the mountains so clearly from our room. The winds were pretty strong and it made the morning cold. We all hoped the pool would be less cold in the morning but it looked like that wasn't the case.
We looked at the mountain directly across the pool and we wondered if people could hike up there. At night, that mountain was completely dark and we imagined how exciting it must be to camp on its summit and look at the stars.
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After taking one last swim in the cold pool, I spent some time just enjoying the views one last time. The house had big glass windows and some of the shots below were taken through a glass window.
The sun was out and everything was bright and clear. I took my last shots of the pool and you can see that the bubbling pool and the water spouts(?) were turned on. You'd think the bubbling pool is a warm jacuzzi but it's still ice cold.
The colors of the mountains became saturated as the sun illuminated them. After a few minutes, the clouds became darker and the winds weren't dying down. Rain was coming. I took the last few shots of the pool and the mountains before finally saying goodbye to the awe that the view from the house on top of the mountain gave me.
That's it for now! I promise I'll show you more details about the house and the things we did during our stay. We cooked so much food, made a bonfire, took part in a (fake) proposal, played games, and more. Stay tuned.
See you in the next post. Cheers!
