5 am comes early - when the clock rang it was still dark, and I don't even think the roosters were totally awake.   Showering, last minute packing, and getting everyone set is a chore. Kyle figured out that we were leaving, and he was very upset. While he wanted to see Papa again, he did not want to leave Lola and Lolo. But the excitment of the trip soon took over and we were all loaded into the multicab on the way to the airport.

Kalibo Airport is interesting - a typical small town airport, it is also the main point of arrival for the busy Boracay Island, so it is a bustling airport . The last 4 years have seen it under renovations - the departure areas are pretty much finished, and the arrivals area is under construction.

We checked in, and found our luggage to be overweight again (although without the gifts, it was much lighter) so we decided to ship it cargo, and saved over $200. It just meant that we had to bring it to another section of the airport. Its funny though, our carry on, which was the concern when we left, wasn't even an issue.

Once all checked in, and our luggage was in we headed outside again, Allan's Mom was still there so we waited for our take off time with her.   Allan's cousin Dong Dong, who works at the airport in the fire department, came by and took us for a walk around the fire station at the airport. While still fairly old fashioned the airport does have a new firetruck that looked like an oversized hummer that was pretty cool.

We headed back and said our goodbye's and entered the waiting area . With us were Katherine and Kyle, Allan's aunt Indak who has been living with Katherine, and Andoy, who was coming with us to Manila for the first time. Not only his first time in the big city, or away from home for any period of time, but his first time on an airplane.   As we boarded we could see that he was nervous, and as we took our seats in the plane he was trying to look cool, but he wasn't. As the plane started moving he was gripping the armrests tightly, and as the plane took off, he was glued to the window. He said after we got into the air that he felt like his intestines were going to come out his mouth!

We deplaned and collected our baggage and met Katherine's husband outside, who had borrowed his sisters SUV to pick us up. We got the bulk of the luggage in and then drove around looking for the cargo terminal.   We finally found it and found that our luggage had not been brought to the cargo bay yet, so we headed off to get some lunch, at Mall of Asia . This was Andoy's first drive through a big city, and he couldn't take his eyes off the tall buildings.

We stopped for lunch at Mall of Asia, but didn't really explore the mall, we knew we would be doing that another day. We stopped at my favorite filipino food change, Aristocat, and had lunch before heading back to the airport and the cargo terminal to pick up our luggage. A bit of a pain but we saved about $200 sending it this way.  

So with our luggage filling up the car, and poor Andoy basically buried under the luggage in the back, we headed to the hotel.   This was our first time staying at a hotel other than the Paragon, which is in Emita, closer to the Bay - we had booked our stay at the Holiday Inn in Makati, which is basically the Yorkville of Manila. This hotel had just opened their doors on April 1, and the mall that it is attached to is also new. And that Mall is attached to 4 other malls, so it is a huge complex .  

As we unloaded our luggage it was grabbed by the porter and a first for me, it was sniffed by a dog for explosives...it was cleared and after check in we headed to our room.   The hotel was very nice, and posh for a holiday inn. Our room, on the 12th floor was higher up than Andoy had ever been. Even the elevator trip was something new. In the room he was so excited about the comfort and the view he was literally bouncing from wall to wall, he was so happy.

The family returned home, but we stayed a couple of days at the hotel alone. The first evening we just went out and explored the mall a bit. After a few weeks in the heat, the aircon was heavenly.

A good nights sleep in a soft bed, and we were up and after breakfast we all headed to Rizal Park. This is the Park of National Heroes and the execution site and burial place of the National Hero, Jose Rizal.   We had been there several times before, but this was Andoy's first time . We walked the park and found a Carnival was happening as well. As dusk was falling we headed into the city and had dinner at a local pizza chain called Shakey's and then headed back to see the illuminate water fountain show at Rizal Park - video below.   It was spectacular. We headed over the the carnival and Kyle wanted to ride (and the first ride he saw was bumblebees...JOLLIEBEE!!!   We had him go on a few more rides and Andoy wanted to try the Bumper cars (although he seemed to think he was supposed to avoid bumps)

We headed back to the hotel, and fell asleep pretty fast.   It had been a great day.

Day Three was the day the family was coming to stay at the hotel. Getting ready took a while and they didn't show up until after 3 pm. Waiting for them we enjoyed the mall and the Air Con in the room.

Once they arrived we spent headed to Mall of Asia. That was an event in itself . First we walked to the LRT station. It was crowded with tons of line up. We had to find the right ticketbooth, and then go through the metal detectors and have our bags checked.   then down the stairs onto the platform. When the train arrived, it was packed like sardines! Allan and I squeezed on, but didn't see the rest..we looked around but finally saw them at the other end of the car.   We only had two stops, but I spent my time holding on and checking my pockets against pickpockets.

When we arrived and peeled ourselves out of the train we had to get in a multi cab to the Mall, that was exciting in itself, but we made it in one piece. Once out of the Cab we headed right through the mall, we wanted to be at the Bay for the Sunset, and after a race through the Mall, it was spectacular.   We spend almost an hour watching the sun go down, and wandering the midway that was there.

Then we headed back into the Mall for dinner . One of our goals was to have the family try different nationalilties for dinner. We decided on Vietnamese and stopped and had big bowls of Pho. It was pretty good. I had a Cucumber shake with my dinner, and it was better than expected and oh so refreshing.  

We grabbed a cab back to the hotel and quickly felt asleep.

Friday was another MOA day, and our friend from Lezo who is now working in Laguna, a suburb of Manila was going to meet us at MOA.   Another LRT trip, even more crowded and then a real Jeepney ride to the Mall.   This trip again illustrated the money gap, as we saw two young kids jumping from Jeepney to jeepney trying to get some money from the riders.   After a sudden braking because someone cut us off, we arrived safe and sound at the mall.

We quickly met up with Roel and started wandering the mall.   One of the things we had to find was the Team Paquiao store, to pick up some signed boxing gloves for my boss .   We wandered quite a bit before we found the store, but we did find the store and the gloves.   We also wanted to bring the family to see an IMAX movie, since there is no movie theatre in Kalibo.   The movie playing was the new Tom Cruise movie, Oblivion.   We entered the theatre and they could not believe how big it was. Andoy had never been in a theatre before and he likely spent the first part of the movie just looking around at the size of the theatre.

After the movie we tried Greek Food and was pleasantly surprised at how good the souvlaki and meatballs were (the cabbage rolls not so much) We ended off the meal with a shot of Ouzo, which I enjoyed. The others not so much...

Saturday was our final day in Manila.   As always it is a hurry hurry day, trying to finish all the shopping and souvenir buying that we could have been doing for the past four weeks. We also had to pack for our early flight out. So we didn't do anything much exciting, but we got alot done, including a Mexican dinner for the group (and a Korean lunch)