Back to the Philippines after a long time, albeit for a very short holiday.
Nanay's visa is due to expire very soon, and since she's been in Australia for the good part of the last 4 years due to Covid, it was impossible to get her an extension anymore with her current Visa. She needed to go home for at least 6 months. With her health not as good as it used to be, we thought this is a great way for her to re-energise away from the harsh winter weather. Coincidentally, Lani and I have to attend a wedding as Lani was asked to be a primary sponsor by bro Marlo Borrero. And since I needed to go to the Philippines for work anyway, we thought why not do all of these things in one go and bring the kids with us so we can make a holiday out of it? And so we did.
We booked ourselves for a flight to Manila on 10 May. I will be working a few days, then we can attend the wedding on the Friday afternoon, enjoy the weekend in the Philippines, then fly back with the kids on Monday late night. Lani would stay behind until the 24th to help Nanay settle in. It was short, but it was a great opportunity to see our families back home.
10 May, Wedneday
After performing our 6:30am duties, we headed to the airport with sis Maica who was joining us for the trip. the 11:30am flight went smoothly and we landed in Manila just past 5pm . Meet with family and friends (Ka Narsing and ka Bang), and spend most of the night at Chowing in the airport.
After the long dinner, we headed to our accommodation at Eastwood City (Libis). I booked it via Booking.com, not realising that it's a private accomodation, similar to an Airbnb. The host had a few properties, and for reasons I still cannot understand, she moved as at the last minute to a different apartment. It wasn't too bad because if was a newer building and much closer to amenities, but we new immediately that something was odd. There weren't enough beds so they had to bring in a foldable sofa beds for Ethan. And on the 3rd night we were asked to move again to "bigger and newer" apartment in the same building, but it took forever to get it ready, so we had to move to a temporary small unit first, wasted our day there, before finally being able to move to the right one. It was infuriating!
11 May, Thursday
Workday for me. I had forgotten how bad traffic is in the Philippines. Eastwood was about 15kms away from Makati, yet it took me almost 1.5 hours to get there by taxi. Anyway, it was great to finally met my team face to face. Had lunch at Viking which was perfect as one of the guys had his birthday coming in soon as well. Lani and the kids spent the day at her sister's - Teng. She and Erin had their hair done while Ethan spent time with his cousins.
At night, we strolled around Eastwood and had dinner at Popeyes.
12 May, Friday
Working in the morning while Lani and kids enjoy the pool in the accommodation. Then we left past 1pm to head to Commonwealth to attend the wedding and reception. The guy getting married was the son of our resident minister when we were still in Singapore. We were very close to their family that we used to holiday together with them, when we'd even visit them almost weekly when they were assigned to Johor Bahru, Malaysia (a 1-hour cross-border drive from Singapore). And because they were from Singapore, a lot of our friends from there also attended. It was sort of a reunion.
After that, it was just Lani who stayed behind. She needed to help Nanay settle in and do other personal errands as well. We will see her again in Sydney after a couple of weeks.
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