Mindanao Trip, Day 1

After four years of being boyfriend-girlfriend, my brother proposed to his then girlfriend, Emmy. Marriage seemed to be the only thing left for them to do, but even if we already anticipated it, we were still surprised with it. Why? because my brother proposed to his girlfriend December of 2012, and he only told us about it last August 2013. They set the wedding December 2013. He was able to keep mum about it, and I seriously didn't know if I would be pleased at how good he was able to keep it from us, or if I would be so annoyed at how little of a time he gave us (mom, sis, and I) to prepare about it.

Their wedding was set December 28, 2013 but we didn't want to celebrate Christmas and New Years Day in Cagayan de Oro, so we booked our flights on December 26 and December 30.



As per brother's advice, both flights were scheduled at 2pm. This would be the first time we would travel with Aunt Mary (mom's younger sister) and a few friends - brother's best man Benjie as well as one pair of principal sponsor. Traveling to the NAIA Terminal 4 (formerly known as the Manila Domestic Airport) has been easy since we hired a van to take us there, but once we arrived in the airport, we knew flying out would be difficult.

I just don't know if I have the bad airport aura, but the first two times I traveled via airplane, the flight was delayed. This was my third time to fly, and it was delayed again! Oh drats! I wasn't sure what the main problem was, but additional problem was that the airport's system was down and each clerk had to manually check all flight details. We queued in for our tickets around 1pm for our 2pm flight (although we were already there as early as 10:30am), and we finished just in time for the "supposed to be" boarding time. By 2pm, we were told our flight would be delayed and we were scheduled to leave around 3pm. Sigh.

When it was time to fly, sister, mom and Aunt Mary were assigned to one row and our three other companions were assigned to another row. I was the odd person out, and was seated two rows away from them. It was just fine - I am not too clingy of a person, but then I was just bored - it was like traveling alone.

If there was one consolation about this plane ride, it would be the plane itself. I hoped and hoped to be able to ride the new AirAsiaZest plane, and I did (or we did).


It was nearly 5pm when we touched down Laguindingan Airport. Seeing the sunset from afar was such a great welcome greeting from the heavens. We took time taking pictures, but ground crew were rushing us to finish our business because as soon as the passengers were exiting from the front door, passengers flying back to Manila were embarking via the back door.

I found out from brother that the new airport still doesn't have enough lights and navigational system, so all flights must land and leave before it gets dark (no night flights yet for this airport). Brother was happy that it wasn't raining that day (he said it normally rains late in the afternoon), because if the skies were heavy with clouds, we might not be able to land (either the pilot take us back to Manila or take us to another airport).


From the airport, we traveled to the hotel brother booked for us (four rooms - two people per room, sister was my roommate; mom and Aunt were together). Then just a few minutes of freshening up, we went to the dressmakers to fit the gowns for the wedding (sister and I were the bridesmaids). It was quite an annoying experience, but tolerable.

Then, it was time to eat dinner, finally! My head was aching real bad - we only had a small chicken sandwich for lunch, and the waiting game as well as the flight caused us to be really hungry. We ate dinner at Dear Manok together with Emmy's family. It was the first time for us to meet Emmy's parents, and as we spend time with them, we were more and more thankful that brother met Emmy. She has nice parents and siblings, brother certainly hit the jackpot. :)


We were tired, but it was our first day in Cagayan de Oro - and because this was the first time sister, mom, aunt Mary, and the principal sponsors to travel here (I already traveled here back when I was having my internship for a shipping company), they wanted to see the place before calling it a night. We all walked to Divisoria - sister was hoping she could do some thrift shopping, but certain events caused some changes in the city, so we just walked and walked.... and finally decided to head back to the hotel.

* Jesz *