Thursday, June 23, 2016, airport in Manila, Philippines
We are here!
It is 2:14 p.m and we have spent the day so far in the airport. We chose to fly into Manila, and, without leaving the airport, take a smaller flight to Busuanga. Packing limit for our check-in luggage was 20 lbs. Hard, but not impossible, it turns out. My family poo-poohed my choice to bring my hair dryer and straightener (along with a 19 lb. power converter), but hey, I have my priorities straight.
Arrived at 11 a.m. from a comfortable China Airlines pair of flights – one for 12 hours. They fed us well – a breakfast at 5 a.m. and a lunch at 10 a.m. With such a long flight, watched several movies, including Eddie the Eagle, based on the true story of a British Olympic underdog from the 1988 Calgary games, who competed in ski jumping after practicing for a year. The kids are so cute, especially Wesley – he was so friendly to his seatmates and made friends by the end of each leg.
We went through customs first, with Sierra having a question on her visa (because her missionary visa expired), then she was motioned through. It is 86 degrees here, which isn’t too bad, really. There are puddles on the airport runways, so it must have been raining.
A little hard trying to get all our cash for our Kawil tour guide through the ATM machine. Maxed out our debit card allowances for the day and fortunately Sierra had her debit card. Then we went out to catch the shuttle only to be herded back in, go through security and enter a little fenced yard for the shuttle.
Spoke with a lady with stilettos, red lipstick and Jackie O sunglasses originally from Aklan but now lives in LA., and she extolled the virtues of Boracay – the night life! So we said politely that we may have to try Boracay sometime. Sierra spoke to her in Tagalog – so proud of how fluent she was. The security at the airport made me think of my brother Lizor in his uniform and made me miss him. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. You’ll never get lost around here.
During the shuttle ride, we passed jeepneys and banana trees. Wesley was very excited about being able to pluck bananas off the trees if he is hungry. I have never done it myself before, but I didn’t want to disabuse him of the notion, he was so excited. We checked our bags in, and went on to our terminal, where we looked forward to lunch.
The food court is a lot more colorful than what I’m used to in the States. No predominance of burgers here or no-soup foods, though there is Jollibee – more about this later. Lots of ramen soup choices, Filipino food of at least two dozen varieties. The Filipino home-cooked food sounded so yummy, but we decided to go fast food and eat at Jolibees. I had spaghetti (Filipino style), a Yum burger, and halo-halo sundae. Wesley had a Sarsi Rootbeer, chicken joy, rice and spaghetti. Drew had an adobo burger, Sierra had chicken joy and spaghetti. Sabrina had a burger steak, Shanghai rolls and rice.
First meal in the Philippines at Jolibees, the Philippines’ answer to McDonalds
“Yum” burger alright. I love the taste of Jolibee. And the spaghetti is sweetish. Fun to have halo-halo, too. *happy sigh*. It’s so fun to be here again. The kids were so cute about their meal. Everyone was so excited. My favorite photo is of Sierra looking so happy having a Jolibee meal.
Towards the terminal, we passed a couple of little food booths, again with rice and complete ulam or side dishes. If I lived here, I’d always eat out, if it weren’t more expensive than cooking in. Though it is still pretty cheap. It was 132 pesos for my meal, which is about 3.50 dollars.
I was going to buy a Goldilocks ensaymada, but I decided to wait until we are leaving the country. I was full and it will be fun to have some for pasalubong and for snacks.
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