this is a backtracking entry: the travel story when we went to the Philippines, which i’m slowly posting in to this journal. it was written on 8 November 2008
despite the cute crib, aina couldn’t stay asleep towards morning. we ended all got up early. that’s okay, though. it leaves us plenty of time to pack and aina to watch children shows on TV. the room came with complementary breakfast, so before checking out, we took their buffet type of breakfast, which was quite yummy. aina didn’t like any of it, though…
on the way to the airport, i witness a stray dog got hit by a car. and the damn car didn’t stop! no one stopped to help the poor dog. it totally ruined my mood… i couldn’t stop crying. i guess the dog reminded me to koda, whom i missed. i was all sniffly and sad all the way to the airport.
at the airport, we met up with Cia, who was my co-worker when i was still in NYC and essentially the planner of this vacation. aina got a big orange and green stuffed turtle toy from Auntie Cia! we were also introduced to Cameron and Veronica, who will be our travel companions for the next 6 days. yay!
so, where are we going? we’re taking SEAir to get to Siargao, a small island with awesome wave to surf. there is only two flights going in and out of the island per week, using one of those little propeller planes.
the thing with traveling with small planes is there is always weird regulations surround it. for example, when we were checking in, we had to weigh not only our bags and stuff, but also ourselves! so after the bags lifted out of the scale, we all take turns standing on the scale and being weigh… at least they were quite discreet about our weight and didn’t shout it out loud to the other person who was entering the data into the computer.
during our wait for boarding, aina decided to poop. i was worried about the hygiene condition of the bathrooms in the airport, but surprisingly, they weren’t smelly at all. they even have a foldable changing table on the disabled bathroom… too bad it was tick-infested. i had to change aina’s diaper really quick while shushing the ticks away. ick!
we finally boarded the plane around noon… the tiny propeller plane fits 13 rows of 3 seats, and it was full! there are people from various nationalities. they are all excited and couldn’t stop talking in their own languages during the flight. it was fun and quite hectic… aina was totally confused. unlike us, the adults, the poor baby wasn’t quite as happy as us… in fact, she wasn’t happy at all. she had stuffed nose, watery eyes and painful ears. and she ended up crying the later half of the flight, adding more noise to the already-noisy cabin.
the view from the top, on the other hand, were amazing… turquoise sea with reddish islands and mountains, bordered by white beaches… there were spread of land marshes as we passed one of the largest land marshes in the Philippines. it was just spectacular.
after passing islands over islands, we landed in Siargao in their super tiny airport. it was the smallest airport i have ever been to.
you see, the left is arrival, the right is departure. the walled room in the middle is the restroom. the rest is open-air. so cute! and even cuter, before the plane landed, there was this guy riding a bicycle on the landing strip, shooing the pigs away from the landing strip… he then rode back to the airport building (seen above), parked his bike and grabbed his sign thing to land the plane.
amazing. i have never seen anything like that.
more photos of the trip: Cebu 2008, Siargao 2008 and Bohol 2008
Philippines trip entries:
– day 1: to Cebu
– day 2: fly to Siargao
