Day 2 - OFF TO BICOL (NAGA)

Had an early start today – left for the airport at 4 am for our 6:45 flight to Naga. Renne and I couldn’t sleep anyway, so getting up at 4 wasn’t hard at all. Claire and the kids woke up pretty quickly as well, and we were all ready by the time Tita Gina and Tito George picked us up. The Air Philippines terminal was big and very similar to any US airport – actually even better than LGA. The ticketing agent processed our tickets and baggage – but the weird part was she didn’t even ask for ID. How’s that for security? We had to pay a terminal fee of P200 – and I thought it was weird that no fee was mentioned when we purchased the tickets. What if I didn’t have cash? Anyway, we were all starving and decided to buy food – good thing they had Goldilocks, Red Ribbon, Mister Donut and other stores at the terminal. The flight boarded on time, and we were led to a bus and walked up the stairs to the plane. (editor's note: before then I had never boarded a plane by stair. It was cool, it kind of made me feel like The Beatles, except there was no crowd) The flight attendant gave their usual safety instructions – most of which we couldn’t understand because she kept pausing and was half giggling while she was talking. The flight was about 32 minutes (I think it was longer than that), and 5 minutes before landing, she announced - “Ladies and Gentlemen, the pilot would like to inform you that we will be having a hard landing due to a very short and wet runway”. It was bizarre! We all kind of looked at each other in bewilderment and wondered what to expect. What came 5 minutes later was something we will remember for a long time. Talk about hard landing! We touched down, sped on the runway, and the pilot did such a hard stop that we all jerked forward! (We were moving so fast when the landing gear touched down that I didn't expect it. I was looking out the window and it looked like we were just descending a little bit and then BAM! and less than a second after we touched ground the pilot hit the brakes. We slid for about 10 seconds which felt like forever and the noise of the friction kept getting louder and louder. Tita Claire regrets looking out the window because there was so much smoke coming off the side of the plane) Rachel and I found a plate of “pancit” by our luggage that rolled over from 3 rows behind us. We all looked at each other and started laughing. We had never experienced anything like it! It was raining outside and we descended down the stairs with umbrellas provided by the airline for every passenger (I thought it was thoughtful of them to have umbrellas, but it's the Philippines, so this probably happens often).

We were met by the hotel van pick up (The van we rode wasn't supposed to pick us up but we convinced it to anyway. It was supposed to pick up some guy named Oliver Tayo, whose last name we were making fun of.) and when we got to the hotel, Tito Abe and Tita Dolly were already there to meet us (they rode a bus the night before). (I keep on expecting the hotels we go to to be so much bigger than they actually are. The room we had is actually really big, but the building looks so inconspicuous, at least for a hotel.) We rested for a couple of hours, then headed to the Panicuason Hot Springs. It was a 45min ride from the hotel, and the resort was nestled within Mt. Isarog. On our way there, Tito Abe gave very strict instructions to Robert and Rachel – “do not follow any short creature if they entice you to go with them”. (I think his exact instructions were: "If you see any small weird people, don't follow them. And even if you do, don't eat what they give you.") WHAT?!?!?!? (That's exactly what I said when I saw how much punctuation you used) We all stared at each other and wondered what it meant. Apparently, Mt. Isarog is notorious for having fairies and mythical creatures like dwarves and elves and there have been many cases of kids being “enchanted” by these creatures and disappearing forever. Another instruction to me – “wrap your children in a white light – a prayer of protection that can never be broken by such creatures”(Tito Abe told you this? Because it doesn't sound like something he'd say. Unless he cracked some joke afterwards)Yikes!!! (That's exactly what I said when I saw how many exclamation points you used) I completely forgot about these folk tales! Although I can’t say that I completely believe in them, you better believe I prayed over Robbie and Rachel before we reached the mountains and a kept close eye on them at the resort! (My mom's not superstitious; just paranoid)

The resort was beautiful! The place had cottages with picnic tables, and pools that were naturally placed to take advantage of the springs from the mountains (You know, people told me otherwise, but I really doubt those springs are natural. What with the fact that their temperature seems to be controlled, and also probably because there were two guys building a jacuzzi right next to one of the pools). It was surrounded by lush greens and fascinating flora and fauna (Fauna? Like what, spiders? Sure, I guess, but they weren't the most fascinating things there), so it was a treat just trying to discover the different flowers growing everywhere. There were butterflies and dragonflies around too, and if there were monkeys swinging from the trees, it would have been the perfect jungle paradise (Also you'd have to lose the screaming kids.) The pools were different temperatures, from hot to cold, and Rachel had a great time moving from one pool to another. The only thing that was sort of inconvenient was that there were no food facilities (and you know how we are about food!) so we had to bring our own lunch (McDonald’s which BTW also had the rice wrapped in paper with their Fried chicken meal) (The mayo is weird over here. Just thought I'd mention that.) We Spent about 4 hours (Two of which I spent unsuccessfuly attempting to draw a portrait of Tita Claire. I guess that just isn't my thing) at the resort, then headed back to the hotel to rest. The kids slept right away; Robert didn’t even wake up for dinner (I do remember waking up for 10 seconds and somebody saying something about Carbonara, but I went back to sleep thinking I'd be awake in like 5 minutes but when I woke up it was like 6:30 in the morning. Oh well.)

Renne went out to dinner with a long lost friend (This makes it sound so much more dramatic than it actually is. Maybe they haven't seen each other for like 20 years, but long lost? Hardly.) and Claire and I bought food at the hotel restaurant and brought it back to the room to eat there. After dinner, Claire and I scheduled a massage (P500 – that’s about $10 for one hour – complete with hot rock treatment – how much better can it get?). The masseuse came at around 8:30 and I was already half asleep by then! Claire ended up cancelling hers because the masseuse was late and wasn’t there yet by 9pm, and she was already exhausted. She canceled by calling them on the phone, and we had a very funny conversation after. She claims that when she hung up, I asked her why she was speaking in Tagalog. And when she explained that she was talking to the front desk, I got annoyed because I still didn’t understand why she was speaking in Tagalog. I guess I was so asleep that I didn’t even remember that conversation. (I laughed the first time I heard this, but hearing it now, and I think because it's in English, is a bit strange. I think when the conversation is in Tagalog it's much funnier. I'd say the humour gets lost in translation, but that would be corny or something. Whatever, I digress.) Anyway, I’m not surprised about what I said because many times since we came, I had to remind myself that I was in the Philippines and that it was normal to hear people have conversations in Tagalog. =)


Written by Joy Vinluan, edited by Robbie