hofuf trip - day 1

as i said in my last post, here's the story of the al-hasa trip we made last weekend, told in pictures.

so yon nga, we spent wednesday night in khobar (mark and ren's apartments) to get a headstart early thursday morning.  pero hindi pa rin nakaalis ng maaga coz everybody lacked sleep from the chikahan and bonding activities that kept us up until around 1 or 2 am.  what activities?  ahhh... watching tv! hehehe...  anyways, we took off from khobar at around 8:30am and after more than an hour on the highway, we reached al-hasa.  pic above was taken while we were waiting for our host to fetch us from the meeting point. matt's preparing his camera and gears while ega (can you see him?) is just getting out of his car. 

matt's passengers tito bong, marvin, alec and marco (or whatever can be seen from his head... hehehe) didn't want to get out of the car coz of the heat.  it's only 10am and i think it's already past 40deg!

mommy weng keeping sofie cool inside their car

after our host fetched us from the meeting point, we were whisked away into his farm.  the trip is all too exciting, what with that small feeder road that looks like you're being led away far from civilation.  but after a few minutes, alas, there it was! a cool, quiet and welcoming farm draped with the comforting green of the dates trees. in this pic, tito b strikes a pose along the pathway that leads to the farther side of the farm

i took this pic from the point where i took tito b's pic above.  this time i'm facing the entrance with marvin's back, matt teaching marco how to use the high-tech camera, john chilling out beside a decorative well while ega (that far again!?) is just making his way through the gates.  just beside the well is the saudi traditional house which we used as our base.  while on the other side (where matt has his back turned) is the indoor pool

there's a small playground for the kids

and that's the pool just starting to fill up

husband and wife (ricky and weng) getting a crash course on dates production from our host

and here's our lunch just about to be devoured by the hungry weekenders  (i guess you'll understand why i don't have pics of the actual lunch...hehehe)

ricky relaxing inside the traditional saudi house where we spent most of the afternoon waiting for the sun to go down before we head off to jebel gara.  this room, by the way, looked like a refugee camp during the night.  we all slept here - laxamana family included.  though the cariaga family (na humabol at around 1pm dahil nagagalit si vince for being left behind by the troops) as well as the lichauco family opted for a bit of privacy on the other room (where we had our lunch)

maccoy and pops minus alec na ayaw magdidikit sa mom and dad nya dahil busy sa kaka-explore nong farm!

ahhh.. finally here's a closer look at ega!

the two missus minus the abaya

maccoy:  hirap, naiipit ang tyan ko

me:  ako rin! hahaha!

sinong nagpa-iyak kay sofie!!???  hehehe.. this little girl is still cuteness delight kahit umiiyak.  she knows i'm taking a pic kaya she's peeking with one eye through the gaps of her fingers! hahaha! 

after the jebel gara trip and a quick trip to the fish market/grocery store for dinner, it's time for me to take a dip in that oh-so relaxing pool.  we then had our late dinner (almost 10pm) then off to bed for the next day's activities.  pics of that second day following... soon!