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January 14, 2007
The Great Pinoy Adventure -Day 1
Our trip to the Philippines was such an extraordinary experience that I decided to do it justice by detailing the trip proper! Let's hope my enthusiasm doesn't fizzle out like what happened with the other travel logs :p
Day 1:
Noticed the amazing landscape that is the Philippines from the air and kept snapping pictures. J's Dad (henceforth known as JD and his mom will be JM) pointed out the long snaking road. It was actually a river until Mt Pinatubo erupted in the 90s, now it's a tunnel of lava and soil.
Uncle Jerry, who is essentially JM's younger cousin, picked us up from the airport. He is a funny, friendly man who really loves his food. J & I would get to know him better the next few days and come to really like him and enjoy his company.
We went to Shoemart (owned by Henry Sy - richest man in the Philippines) for lunch and to buy J a barong (he bought a green one!) for the wedding before our suuuuupppper long road trip. Filipino food was interesting...but little did I know how much I would learn to fear it as the days passed.
We managed to squeeze alot of luggage and all of us into Uncle Jerry's Pajero. Not the most comfortable arrangement but definitely better than a jeepney!
We finally reached San Fernando, La Union at 9pm after more than 6 hours on the road! This is where J's aunt, lives with her children, domestic help, adopted boys and 3 dogs. Everything was still confusing and everyone scary and alien to lainey. But it's time for our Christmas Eve dinner which was lovely (first day of Filipino food only) and after which we got dressed for Midnight Mass.
Unfortunately, it was in Ilocarno (the dialect in that particular province), so J & I left after 10 minutes and went for a walk around the province with Uncle Jerry instead.
The firecrackers and random bombs and what-nots proved to be very disorienting for a very tired lainey who was very out of her comfort zone and feeling very scared. So we hurried back to sleep. Shower in cold well water made me more uncomfortable and even though J & I had the guestroom (the only airconditioned room in the house), I couldn't imagine staying in this little house in the province for more than a night. And we had to stay for three nights!)
Posted by lainey at January 14, 2007 09:35 PM