Bora Once More

After cooking breakfast (I missed eating skinless longganisa from Pampanga's Best), I quickly prepared for my trip to Boracay. I made sure that I've got all the pasalubong (or gifts) for my family. Unforch, Kuya's new A&F shirt got included in the stolen goods. Anyhoo, I'm gonna give him my old iPod so that would make him happy.

Left Bulacan around 10:30. Not sure about the traffic situation so I alloted a lotta traveling time. It cost me 35 pesos to reach Philcoa. I immediately found a cab that took me to the domestic airport. Paid 200 pesos for the trip. Along the way, we saw a very thick gray smoke coming out of a burning building--turned out that it's the PureGold mall in Libertad.

After presenting my stuff to Security (Wall·E was getting a lot of attention), I looked for the Cebu Pacific counter. The airport personnel weighed my luggage--18 kilos. There's a sign that indicates I need to pay 100 pesos for each excess kilo. Dayyum! That's 800 pesos. She advised me to pay for it in another counter.

When I got back to her shortly after, my luggage is gone. I asked her where it was. Turned out that it's already been checked in. I'm getting paranoid with this check-in stuff.

Next, the terminal fee set me back 200 pesos. Ugh! Afterwards, I entered the boarding area where fellow passengers are either awaiting their flights or eating lunch. I've got more than 2 hours to kill so I looked for sumpthin' to eat. I found a stall selling home cooked meals. The kare-kare got my tummy excited so I got some. Coke Zero & a bottled water completed my lunch. I was shocked when I learned about how much the lunch is. It's, like, 235 pesos. I said, "Whaaaaaaat?! How come?" The food alone costs 135 and the coke & water cost 50 pesos each. That's freakin' highway robbery. Well, the only nice thing that came out of this experience is that, the food is good.

3 o'clock came and it's time to board. Cebu Pacific just recently offered direct flights to Caticlan. I got a good deal with my tickets. If you book on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, you get the cheap tickets. All in all, I only paid 4700++ pesos, compared to the 8K ticket that I got in December.

The flight time is about an hour. SeAir still offers the quickest--35 minoots. Anyhoo, Cebu Pacific normally plays trivia games to entertain their passengers. This time, they asked 3 questions about some of their flight destinations. The first question talked about this island in Singapore where visitors came by the thousands. I quickly raised my hand and answered, "Sentosa" (I felt like Hermione in a Hogwarts' class). I was correct so I got this orange souvenir pouch. Oh my godzilla, another orange pouch. Y'see, I put the money I lost in a similar container. The other two questions were the nickname given to the next Olympics stadium in Beijing ("The Bird's Nest") and a fun festival in Cebu ("Sinolog").

The Caticlan airport still hasn't improved. They still dump your luggage without any system. So passengers flocked to the receiving spot like vultures wanting to get a piece of their meal. Then you must enter your personal info on a piece of paper and hand it over to the airport crew. It's like the disembarkation thingie that you do in international flights. Not sure why I need to do this every time. They should just have a computer system that tracks this.

I boarded a tricycle that took me to the Jetty airport. Before going through another Security, I paid 50 pesos for the terminal fee, another 50 pesos for the environmental fee and 19.50 pesos for the boat in 3 separate windows. Stupid system.

After the 10-minute boat ride, I reached Cagban. I searched for a familiar face but I had to wait some minoots before I saw Angela and Fiong-Fiong running towards me. Am so happy to see family. Fiona has grown since I last saw her (in December). Still very pretty.

Lance welcomed me to their new house. I gave him Wall·E. Big smile. The new house that Kuya got is very near the school where Lance & Fiona go to. In fact, it's just "ober the bakod" (over the fence). West, our Yellow Lab, is bigger now. I gave him my right hand to lick. Mom gave me a kiss and I gave her a hug. I finally met Disney who's sleeping. Yep, she looks like Lance alright. We also have a new "kasambahay" named Joy.

I distributed my other gifts: 3 big chocolate bags for the family, Vera Wang bag & wallet for mommy, the Disney Princess school and lunch bags for Fiona, Victoria's Secret stuff for Angela, and a nice pink baby cloth for Disney.

Then we feasted on some Goldilock's goodies that I bought at the airport. Mom & I had some coffee while catching up. At 6 pm, Kuya arrived. For dinner, Angela cooked paksiw na bangus (I requested for besugo but there's none here) and ginisang alamang (I missed Daddy's version of this). Kuya also cooked some pininyahang manok.

The kids wanted to play Wii but I forgot to tell them that I didn't bring batteries with me. So tomorrow, Tito Dondon MUST buy some batteries.

Before hitting the bed, I watched "Ako si Kim Samsoon". Too many dayyum commercials. And I noticed in this episode, Regine is crying in all her scenes.