In The Presence Of Giants

Here's an article, "In The Presence Of Giants", by Ria Lu, about her trip to Donsol, from The Sunday Inquirer Magazine. An excerpt:

"I’M not particularly adventurous or athletic. I’m usually more interested in the art scene of a place than its thrills. But when my sisters voted to go to Donsol to swim with whale sharks this summer, I thought it wouldn’t be so bad. Feeling lethargic these past few months, I thought a change of scenery would do me good.

It was also good to get away from Manila and its heat for a while. I’m always excited about going to places I’ve never been to. But I must admit, I was not as excited as my traveling companions about swimming with the biggest fish on earth. I couldn’t quite see what all the fuss was about. If one wanted to see a whale shark, one need only go online and search. There are a lot of pictures out there of the butanding, as it is known locally.

But I couldn’t really say that aloud and burst everyone’s bubble, could I? Not when my sisters were so looking forward to seeing whale sharks. And not when my cousin kept jumping off her seat and shouting, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” every time our spotter thought he saw something. But I’m getting ahead of my story. Allow me to start from the beginning."