A Day of Many Firsts - Day 1, Palm Sunday

April 15, 2006

I’m back from holy week vacation. Let’s get a-bloggin’…

Palm Sunday started out early - around 6:00am. We had to get ready quick if we wanted to make it to the airport without too much hassle of terrible traffic, and so we could also get good seats. So to cut the long story short, we got up and going… and got to the airport by around 8:30am. We were to meet Mau here, but since she was still on the way we got in line already to check-in. I let them go ahead para sabay na kami mag-checkin ni Mau…pangit naman kung hiwalay siya ng seat sa amin… she could get squished in between to big sweaty guys and trigger a claustro-attack…

So I waited, hoping she could catch up before they got to the counter (para di na namin kelangan pumila pa ulit)… and in heart-stopping, olympic photo-finish fashion Mau made it on time… just as my family was finishing up their business at the check-in counter.

With that out of the way, we headed for the waiting area, and as the name implies, all we did there was wait… and wait… and wait… and wait some more until we were called via this announcement:

“…maari po lamang na tumungo sa lagusan bilang tatlo at lumulan sa ating sasakyang panghimpapawid…” (wow. deep… muntikan ko nang hindi matanto…) Oh, and I only found out that day that “seatbelt” translated to “sinturong pangkaligtasan” Now I know where the Eraserheads got the title of their song. Hehe.

 

And so we made “lulan” na the “sasakyang himpapawid” and made sigurado that our “sinturong pangkaligtasan” was locked… thus started my first plane ride. Yes, you read that right: My first plane ride. The trip to Tagbilaran, Bohol was also my fist time going out of Luzon. Up until this week, the furthest I ever got to was Baguio, so this was pretty much an experience for me.

 

 

Now, I can truthfully say that: I hate planes.

Why? Because my ears get a beating. Let me explain… See, I like the idea of flying above the clouds, looking down below, and getting to where you wanna go hella fast without that darn thing called traffic. However, my ears just can’t take it. A change in altitude means there is also a change in air pressure, and this means: popping ears! It just so happens that my ears were made in such a way that this popping-ear phenomenon is just plain annoying. Going up isn’t much of a drag, but going down… ugh… going down is the problem! My ears felt like they were literally gonna pop, and blood and tutuli was gonna shoot out of it. I could still hear the people around me, but they sounded like there was a wall and they were on the other side of it. It just felt like crap.

 

 

 

So in anti-climactic fashion, my first minutes on non-Luzon soil were spent trying to pop my darn ears and get them back to normal. I tried chewing gum, yawning (which eventually got me sneezing) and whatever suggestions people could throw at me. Finally I got them to pop when I blew my nose. Great. Yun lang pala.

We spent our time in Bohol in Villa Anita. This was very near Panglao beach, so we could just walk there anytime we wanted to.

 

 

The beach was a beautiful white-sand beach with cool, clear water and it wasn’t deep at all too! I got a good distance away from shore (around 30-50 meters?) and the water was still below neck-level… 5 feet I would say. I just stopped because if I went any further, I would be walking on a thick bed of seaweed and god knows what could be in there.

 

Panglao beach was filled with foreigners of all shapes and sizes (hehe) and nationalitites. There were Americans, Norwegians, Germans, Dutch and I bet a few more we missed out on. This was also the first beach in the Philippines I’ve been to na walang naka t-shirt at shorts! (except the guys who had beach shorts) Even one-piece suits were a rarity. Most guys had just their beach shorts on, and most girls had two piece suits.

 

We strolled around the beach a bit, and then we had lunch at a nearby beachside resto at around 2:30. After that, we headed back to Villa Anita to get changed, and then… … …beach na! We were in the water from around 4:30 - 6:30 so I didn’t see the need for sun block.

 

We headed back to Villa Anita pushing 7:00pm to freshen up and then had dinner at a beach-side ihaw-ihaw. An outdoor dinner of seafood with the sound of the waves at your back is pretty nice and refreshing… If only they didn’t have dogs that waited like vultures for their meal.

 

Then, we headed back to call it a day. Thus ends the day of many firsts.

Now, a few more pics:

This is my favorite pic of the day. I think it was a good call to shoot it in black and white. Than again, I’m pretty biased for B&W I just like it. I wish I shot one where the subject was off-center though. Mau’s reaction: “Wow. How phallic…”

 

This is the family of cats that were living in Villa Anita. I swear, those kittens are the most fun kittens I’ve ever seen. Sobrang playful nila. …should have caught them on video… tsk tsk…. 

 

For the full-sized versions of the pics and a few more which didn’t end up on the post, see the Day 1 selection: Day 1 pics