Finally in Manila

As we began our descent into Manila, I looked over to my Uncle Roland and saw this huge smile on his face. He hadn’t been back to the Philippines in 34 years. This reminded me of the last time we traveled to the Philippines in 2004. At that point, my mom hadn’t been back since she was 17 and my dad hadn’t been back there since he was 18. I remember watching my parent’s expression settle down. It was like calmness took over them. The tears of joy of being home, followed by some regret seeing how their hometown had changed. I remember my dad mentioning as we stepped off the plane that it still smelt like he remembered it. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to witness my parents going back home and am now glad that I’m watching my Uncle go through those same experiences.

We finally arrived in Manila at 5:00 PM local time on July 14th. Once we arrived in Manila, we were greeted with the heat and HUMIDITY. The heat I can deal with…it’s the humidity that is the problem as you begin to sweat!

We collected our bags and my Aunt Mary (o’ crazy Aunt Mary) told us to put a five dollar bill into our passports so that at customs, they won’t check our luggage. I just rolled my eyes at her.

We grabbed our bags and headed towards customs. Right outside customs, there was a police officer with a sign for us. At that point, my aunt took out the five dollar bill from her passport and handed me the passport. I was acting as our travel guide for the leg of the trip. I handed the customs agents our passports….him seeing that a police was waiting for us, quickly gave us back our passports and told us to move along.

As we walked outside, my uncle saw his sister….thirty four years later, they were still able to recognize each other…and they grabbed each other and engaged in a very long hug. We loaded up the mini-van. Met our driver and piled into the car.

Being in a car in the Philippines is an experience. For one thing, you don’t wear a seat belt. Secondly, outside of Manila there are very little to no stop lights. Additionally, all of the roads are two lane highways.

Manila’s roads are crazy. I would not want to drive in this city. Lane lines are drawn on the ground, but people don’t follow them. If there is space, as little as it may seem, cars will inch themselves through those passageways or merge in front of you. Additionally the traffic itself in Manila is worse than LA traffic. I think it took us two hours to just get out of Manila.

As we then drove from Manila to San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, it was dark the entire trip. I wish we could have seen the country side, but sadly all you could see were things outside of the car. My dad was sitting in the front passenger seat, with my uncle in-between my father and the driver. Every time the conversation died down, my aunt told my uncle to tell another story. My aunt told me later that she was doing this to keep my dad’s mind on something else. The entire trip my dad kept a stern grip on the oh shit handle that by the time we got to San Nicolas, my dad had a huge blister on his hand. He was also nervous about the blister that we had to take him to the doctor to get it checked out.

Anyway…we finally reached San Nicolas at 5 AM on July 15th.

Manila, Philippines