Flew back to the Philippines to see my youngest brother Javi (and now sister-in-law Eka) get married, and spend time with family for Christmas and New Year. This was also Ezra’s first trip to the Philippines.
- Full photo album from the trip.
- Javi and Eka’s wedding video, same day edit
- #LetsGoJavEks
- Takeoff from MNL on a PAL A350
YHZ-YYZ-MNL
2.5 hours Halifax to Toronto, couple hours layover, then 16.5 hours Toronto to Manila, with gate delays and de-icing adding another good hour to that. That made the Toronto-Manila leg possibly the longest long-haul I’ve ever sat on a plane — especially fun with a three year old kid with a distaste for airline food and a fear of plane lavatories. He did have fun with airport elevators, though, and slept for a lot of the trip, and generally handled the trip as well as could be expected of a three year old. Plane was a Philippine Airlines Airbus A350-900, designated “The Love Bus.” (Sitting in the exceptionally hard coach seats for more than 16 hours did not impart a feeling of love.)
For some reason the inflight entertainment menu categorized Apollo 11 as a “Tear-Jerker.”
I’d forgotten how much existential angst this arrival area gives me every time.
Christmas in Manila
I haven’t been back for a while and a lot has changed since then: most notably my parents have moved from Greenhills to a new house in Forbes Park, Makati. Good to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at dinner with family, relatives, and pets.
On Christmas Day Ezra even got to play a bit in the park.
Clever girl.
Wedding in Tagaytay
Javi and Eka were married at the Madre De Dios Chapel in Tagaytay Highlands, overlooking Taal Volcano.
Ezra was “treasure-bearer,” delivering a cushion of traditional heirloom coins to the altar — a role I once served in weddings as a child.
He also tried on my tailored suit; it may have been a bit large.
Cocktails and reception at the nearby golf club involved raclette, local craft beer, prawn and steak surf and turf, a uniquely Filipino variety-show-type song-and-dance program, and a designated hashtag.
Halo Anilao
For our traditional New Year dive trip we stayed at Halo Anilao. Great food, dive facilities, and pool — not-so-nice view from our room.
For New Year they had a special dinner with lechon and fireworks. Batangas area of course turned into the standard New Year’s Eve war zone at midnight, and Ezra managed to sleep right through it.
He did have fun with party trumpets through the day.
Other Stuff Around Metro Manila
Cousin’s funeral at St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori Church in Magallanes; we weren’t close but it was still sad. Reconnected with some family over Tenya.
Apparently traffic here has been really bad in recent years but the few times we had to drive around Metro Manila we generally lucked into light holiday volume.
Also spotted a few interesting KitKat-like chocolates in stores.
Went to Landmark Mall for some shopping and stopped for a photo with competing fast food mascots.
MNL-YYZ-YHZ
Thanks to trade winds, return flight was about an hour shorter than the flight here, but 15.5 hours is still pretty grueling. Ezra had an incident before departure involving spinning around while playing and landing directly on his face, resulting in a massive nosebleed and security and medical staff called in. He recovered quickly, and on the flight wanted to watch the Dora movie. Repeatedly. He really doesn’t like airline food much; I wonder if any standup comedians have addressed this topic.
Lucked into above-freezing temperatures on arrival at Halifax, but by next morning we were shoveling snow. This is home now.
