Our Philippines Adventure: Travelling home...to Bugallon Hall

Monday, 22nd August 2011

Up early and we began to pack our bags.

At 7:00am the restaurant opened for breakfast, today I broke from tradition (pancakes or American) and ordered a Spanish omelette.

Just after 9:00am we took a cab to the immigration office so that mum could extend her visa. What a bunch of corrupt/incompetent staff the Philippine Government are. Firstly the visas we tried to arrange and paid for in Australia were dated from the time we applied for them, not the dates that we travelled. Then at the airport they only gave mum three weeks, not the 59 days that they should have, and then they charged her 3500peso's for another 30 days (I am not sure that the govt. will get all of that money though).

At the Pines van terminal I bought some soft-drinks in plastic bags for the kids. Noah was most impressed with his plastic bladder, poking and squeezing it all the while sipping from the straw.

We booked a van to Dagupan, only to be put into one that was going to Lingayen, so we took the opportunity to extend our ticket to Lingayen.

As we were descending from Baguio I was wondering how much fun it would be to take this road in a race car with the road closed off, then I began to wonder how hard it would be to organise an annual event with Rally cars and sports cars. And then Silas began to feel sick. Unexpectedly the van driver stopped the van for a few mins at a shop to buy something. Silas took this lul in proceedings to bring up his breakfast, mum was organised and had a plastic bag ready just in time. Then she held it outside the window and the van driver promptly put it in the bin, then we continued on our way.

We arrived in Lingayen and walked to Jolibee's with all our bags. If I haven't explained before, Jollibee is the equivalent of McDonalds, although they have lots of McDonald's here too.

Then with a promise that the jeepney terminal was just around the corner I made everyone walk there in the middle of the day. At the terminal everyone seemed to know that we were the Christadelphians who were staying at Samat!

Jinky arrived at the hall about 5mins after us.

It's hot and sticky again, but nice to be back
.
Jinky prepared Lechon Manuk for dinner (fried chicken) that was enjoyed by all (esp. Silas). After dinner Sarah and I went for a romantic walk along the side of the highway (in the gravel and rocks). Actually the setting was very nice, off the the left was the setting sun and a red sky, and off to the right the sly was black with flashes of lightening.