Naga.. Naga... Na gonna work here anymore

If you don't know where the title is from, shame on you (it's from Office Space, go watch it!)

Friday.... Going to Naga. When our family had dinner before I went to the Philippines, mom and dad mentioned we were taking a trip to Naga (where my dad is from) to attend my cousin Nicky Boy's wedding. Mark, Phil and Leo all started laughing (the last time I went to Naga, I was 4 years old and don't remember it). I understood why. Though I don't remember going to Naga, I remember the trip of flying to the Philippines and flying back. My brain probably blocked out the trip because (from what I've heard) I got really sick because someone gave me the water there (you DO NOT want to drink the water there!) And I was told it wasn't a pleasant experience. Going to the airports in the Philippines (and a lot of other countries) is very different than in the States. In the Philippines, you can't even get into the airport if you don't have a ticket. Luckily since I wasn't over my jetlag, getting up at 6am was no problem. We got to the airport cutting it a little close (there was still traffic) but we got checked in pretty easily. The thing I don't understand there is that they just told everyone to get on, and then we were completely loaded onto a full flight in 10 minutes! What's up with that? The flight was a quick 45 minute hop down to Naga. From the air, all i could see were lots of green, and lots of water (and not a golf a course in sight!). I also saw something that looked like a 100 foot long road. Then I noticed we were descending towards it! I was like, "Crap that's the runway?" We landed and hit the ground HARD and flew right by the terminal. We stopped at the end of the runway and then turned around and brought the plane up to the "gate" which turned out to be some stairs and then walking about 30 yards to the airport. I noticed while we got off of the plane a lot of people were saying hi to this guy who was sitting in the first row (who also happened to be standing behind us in line at the airport in Manila). As we got off, even dad said hi to him too. So naturally I asked dad who it was, and he said it was the mayor! Apparently on Air Philippines (and probably Philippine Airlines) flights, the first row is saved till the last second for government officials. So I asked dad if the town is so small that everyone knows everyone. And mom said that the mayor knows dad because his wife is my grandmother's god daughter so they've known the guy for years even before he ran for mayor (so that was basically a YES to my question). A bunch of guys pulled all of the luggage off and put it in a small trailer and then just dragged it around to the front side of the airport (which was pretty small). After we got to the "baggage claim" which was little more than them throwing all of the luggage into a small pickup spot, i noticed that the airport people looked like they were getting ready to close (it was barely 8:30am at this point) and then i noticed that the flight we were on was the ONLY FLIGHT OF THE DAY! So that's all the airport people had to do! One of my uncle's picked us up and we were all to Naga and all of it's "nothing to do" country side. After we got to my grandma's house, I said hi to her (she's not doing well), and then just basically did nothing. We had lunch provided by my uncle who is running a pretty successful BBQ place there (pretty good food too) and then went to the Cable Water Ski place they have one town over (about 2 miles away). It's pretty neat. It's basically a network of cables that go in a circle and can pull you like you're water skiing but with no boat. And if you fall off, you can jump back on the platform and have the next cable pull you. I found a video on youtube even!



But I didn't try it because my knee had been hurting ever since we had gotten to the Philippines (probably from sitting cramped on an airplane for 17 hours!) . After that, we went shopping to get a barong to for me to wear to the wedding (it's the formal shirt to wear at a special events, kinda like a shirt and tie). Then it was just a drive home and then we had dinner and then went to bed.

Saturday we were up early and went to print something up at an internet cafe (they don't have a computer or printer at my grandma's house). I met yet another cousin i'd never met before (Dennis) who was helping my uncle setup a newer and bigger restaurant (his old on was essentially inside of someone's garage and it was so successful, the owner wanted to open his own restaurant). We went home to get ready for the wedding and then got ready for the weirdest part of the day! We got the Church and my uncle (different than the restaurant uncle) and his son (the one getting married) had gotten to the church way too early because they thought the wedding started at 2 and not 3! There were like a zillion sponsors for this wedding (i think like 20 or something). After the wedding we had a few hours to kill so we just went home and then chilled out for a while (it wore dad down from being in the heat so long as the church was fairly open air and it was hot). We had dinner at a local hotel and I saw a few cousins I hadn't seen in a few years. After that, it was home and to sleep as we had to get up at 6:00 again.

Sunday we got back to the airport and I checked the flight schedule for the day. Just one flight, so I was right! We had to wait forever as the flight to get us was 45 minutes late! When we finally got on, that was pretty scary too! When we took off, we barely cleared the runway (i don't think it's FAA approved in length). If we have gone another 100 feet (which is not long when you're going really fast on a plane) we could have fallen off the end of the runway and fallen 100 feet (at least) into a rice field! That was the worst part of the flight. We got into Manila no prob. I had lunch with my other grandma, and 1 of my mom's sisters (and her kids) and 2 of her brothers. Then I took a nap. I was still trying to meet up with Jill and Jennifer, but we just couldn't fit it in. We did have dinner with another one of my mom's brother's and his family so I ended up seeing all of my relatives on my mom's side. Then it was just sleep, and then it was a flight to Taipei on Monday.

Monday I got up early (again) and got to the airport (which mom and dad couldn't come in with me since they didn't have tickets) and had to go through a 2 hour wait to get through all of the security and immigration. I had some Christian missionary family from Wisconsin behind me and I think they were just going back to the states temporarily (but had like 4 bags each!). When we got to Taipei the lady behind me got hassled for having liquids in her bag (I did too, but her bag got through first so they hassled her and i got through scott free!). I had to wait in Taipei for about 1.5 hours and that went pretty quick since they had internet at the airport. on the flight from Taipei to LAX, I saw this fascinating documentary of the National Museum in Taipei. They house some of the greatest treasures from past Chinese Dynasties. The items are here because after the Chinese Revolution a lot of the items were never returned to China after the revolutionaries fled to Taiwan. So depending on who you ask, a Chinese person will say the items have been stolen, while a Taiwanese person will say they're being held to protect them. Kinda like during Katrina, white people found food, black people stole food. Jet lag was really kicking in during my flight so I was falling in and out of consciousness for most of the flight. I got into LA late (I rarely had a flight on time this whole trip) but customs was relatively painless, though if you've ever gone through customs at LAX, it's LONG. I got through ok and Susan was nice enough to meet me there as I had about a 2 hour layover till my flight back till Vegas (cut down to an hour since my flight was delayed). So luckily the flight back was fine and then it was off to bed for some "not sleep" as i was jetlagged and i knew work the next day was gonna be hell (which the next 2 weeks were)!

Well that was the trip and hopefully next time i write a trip blog it won't take me 2.5 months!

b!

Pried chicken and no appetite

So I finally get to the Philippines after what seems like days without a shower (I was ready to give my blanket to anyone on the plane as I was sweating even though people were bundled up (wimps). The lack of A/C probably had something to do with it. Once we got onto the ground you'd be amazed by how non foreign the place looks. You'd think you were in San Fran or Fort Ree, NJ. Except everything is in English instead of Chinese! There were more things in English here than in Downtown LA The first thing that I get adjusted to very quickly is that i'm not considered short anymore! Almost everyone is around my height or within 5 inches so I'm able to see the tops of peoples heads (that aren't 5 years old)! Due to the limited number of flights allowed into the country (due to runway space at the airport) every flight is usually packed full. Sooo, customs is usually packed full.

Luckily we got a line pass since dad was in a wheelchair. I look behind me and it's this 139 year old white lady is there (in a wheelchair too). So being curious, the porters are all asking her what the hell she's doing here? Her son married a pinay and decided to move to pinas. She said they lived 1.5 hours from the airport so that could either be 60 miles or around the corner depending on traffic.

After getting out of the airport was fairly painless. The ride back to the house was relatively quick. It was about noon (local time) and I was exhausted. So since the 3 of us were hungry and wanted something quick, where else to go (while in the Philippines) than KFC!?!

One different thing there is that people practically DRINK the gravy (they serve mashed potatoes but most people get rice) and the gravy is poured all over everything! For years I never understood why Phil and Mark liked gravy with rice. That is until about 4 years ago when I first tried it. Mannn that's gooooood stuff. But since we were tired (and double parked outside), we just got it to go. Naturally as soon as we got home, I went to bed! Of course since it's so hot and humid it took the room unit about 20-25 minutes to get the room cool (due to the high cost of power, it's more practical to have room units than central air).

The nice thing about being in the Philippines is the relaxed pace that things go (whether you want to have that pace or not). Pretty much all day Monday was sleeping and trying to stay hydrated. Dad was really worn out from the traveling so he was resting most of the time. I don't blame him; I felt the same way! I missed seeing my aunt Patty that afternoon because

1. I didn't know she was there till she was pulling out of the driveway.

2. She didn't say hi since mom thought I was sleeping.

So it was mostly just KFC for dinner and then went to bed.

Tuesday was interesting in that I saw my grandma (she's like 86 and can walk faster than me!) still kicking strong and she even drove herself over to my parents place! That was a shocker! But an even bigger shocker was her wireless landline (which sounds like an oxymoron). I found some info here:

http://quago.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/the-proliferation-of-the-wireless-landlines/

It was still hot of course. Tuesday night started a bathroom ritual that lasted till I left. Every night I had to kill a cockroach that was at least 2 inches long. Those things are honking big over there!

Wednesday. A day long remembered. I finally got to meet my penpal Myla (see her here). We've known each other for about 7 years now so it was weird to finally see her in person (especially since in the time we've known each other, she's gotten married and had 2 kids as beautiful as her). We ate at a place called Gerry's Grill and boy was I adventurous! I had Pusit which is grilled squid (not nearly as tough as I thought it would be) and Sisig a pork dish that is mostly pig head and pig ears. It was overcooked (burnt) but other than that, it was fine. I treated her to the SPA. That's the thing I always look forward to going to when I got to the Philippines. You can get a 1 hour massage for less than $20! You can't get that anywhere in the states for that price! I wanted to go back again the next day but we didn't have time :(

Thursday. Family time. Today was mostly either going out with family I hadn't seen yet or doing errands with mom. I went to Gloria Maris (a Chinese restaurant i've gotten really sick of going to) again. This time wasn't as bad as we ate on the "casual" dining side. Every other time i've gone there we've eaten on the formal dining side (9 course meals of the same thing everytime) so it was a nice change of pace. Though the scallops there sucked! Mom had a zillion things to do but we found time to get some games for my phone (and Sannie's).

Friday was going to be a busy day as we were going to be flying down to Naga for Nicky Boy's wedding. That's next up (hopefully faster than a month away)