Down South, Day 1 – August 18, 2023 (219/2023)

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him, all creatures here below

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

Making this quick. Just wanted a record of what’s been going on since the last time I posted.

I made my way to our common meeting place at August 16 past 9pm, the van arrived, and the Mindanao team set off a little past 10pm. I decided to ride out the rough, unsleepable drive down Marcos Highway. We had a bathroom break over at Shell, right before entering the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).

I think I was able to get a bit of shut-eye through the expressways. The driver preferred New Wave and 80’s music to keep him awake, and while it was fun for 10 songs or so, I eventually decided to use my earphones to listen to some Praise to ‘meditate’ to. We stopped over again at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), and while I thought this was going to be a bathroom break, we happened to stop at a gas station where the only restaurant was open was a (cue angelic voices) Subway (/angelic voices) – hey, say what you want about that place, it still holds a place close to my heart; the Subway melt, to be precise. With chipotle mayo. And, bonus, they had hot chocolate. I had that instead of stuffing my already fattening body with a very tempting chocolate chip cookie – You know, the less mass-produced, bigger kinds of cookies.

Anyway, we headed out again, and I expected our fearless driver to pass through EDSA or take the Skyway to traverse the great Metro Manila – but to my surprise, this one decided to duke it out with the trucks and took the side roads, going through what I recognized as the Quiapo area, through Roxas boulevard, and before we knew it we had made our way to Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Terminal 2.

We waited a little bit for another friend of ours who was not coming from Baguio but advised he would join us at the airport… but then we eventually decided to go through security and make our way to the gate. Things I’d like to take note of: (1) Nobody asked for vaccine cards, and contrary to what was advised, nobody asked for us to wear face masks either, (2) there are more dedicated charging stations, and (3) don’t trust the public wifi – I didn’t use a VPN but a virtual machine to surf on instead.

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My seatmate was gracious enough to grant me his window seat, and though it was only an hour-long flight, there were a lot of pictures to take. It’ll never grow old for me – just the fact that for a small period of time, you were above the clouds instead of beneath them. Anyway he went ahead and tuckered into Agents of SHIELD while I shot away.

…I do miss flying. To be honest I never thought I’d fly again, after this whole ‘pandemic’ nonsense happened.

There was turbulence, but eventually we landed, and immediately made our way to a nearby airport bus that was going to take us, oh, 80% of the way to our ultimate destination. The ride was uneventful, with conversations here and there but this ride was where I started dozing off. We got off and took another bus that took us the rest of the way – a good 20 minute ride, before finally making it to Emily’s Pension House, our base of operations for the next 5 days.

I was glad that they had internet access. I was even gladder when I figured out that the password for their admin wifi was one digit different from the wifi they give to guests. I’m on that access point right now.

We did some exploring and catching up with the place. The last time we were here was before the ‘pandemic’. The market was all spruced up – it was cleaner, cleaner than our own market at home, actually. And I have to note that there was more junk food available, with pizzas and burgers and milk tea being sold at the newly opened food court – but the locals still favor more rustic and natural delicacies! There were stalls dedicated to traditional rice cakes, as well as the Filipino favorite, halo halo. I separated from one group and took some time to buy my own essentials – slippers, toiletries, and a fresh change of clothes.

When I got back to my room I thought I’d do a little bit of time on the computer, typing or whatever – but I ended up sleeping until someone else from the team notified me that the first representative for the people we would be meeting here has arrived… and he arrived, with fruits.

What fruits, you ask? Well, there was rambutan, lansones, and mangosteen… and, of course, what we were all drooling for weeks before we actually flew out – the so-called king of fruits, the durian. We had our taste of fresh durian again after a very long time.

And it didn’t stop there. Eventually, team after team showed up, one bringing even more durian after we’ve had our fill, another one bringing boiled camote and gabi and bananas. We were overwhelmed.

Oh, that team that did bring that bevy of boiled treasures? We invited them to stay with us at the hotel, taking care of their dinner and their rooms. We decided it was better for them to come to us, instead of us travelling for a long distance to go to them. So we had that dinner at the local nightly barbecue market (stalls after stalls selling cheap skewered meat and innards – they’re been doing this for years!), then had a short meeting with my fellow leaders, and I was literally out – like knocked out – before 11pm.

Yeah I just thought I’d give an account on what’s been going on – sure, it’s all open for y’all to read, and as usual, if you made it this far, thank you. But this is as much for me, as well. Before I forget any of it.

Until the next post, God bless you.