Sunday, August 18, 2013

Sunday, Manila Day 7 & 8, 7/27-28/13: Last day and the journey home

After our busy day on Saturday, we used Sunday to catch up on all our blogging. My cousin invited us over for lunch for an authentic Filipino meal!  We had fish: something local and tilapia, corn soupadobo, lumpia, dinuguan (I don't touch that stuff), pancit canton, some vegetable dish, fresh mangos, and of course rice.  My aunt is a breast cancer survivor, so we interviewed her for our project. I remembered going to their house in Makati as a kid.  It was one of the few places that had air conditioning! HAHAHA!

After a big meal, it was easy to take a siesta!  We got up in time to eat a late dinner again.  We stayed around the hotel this time, but the rain cooled things down considerably!  We actually attempted our exploration outside.  We went around the perimeter of Glorietta 5, but the restaurant we were looking for was packed with a 2 hour wait!  Damian was getting pretty familiar with the area.  We were hungry so we decided to feast at a random Chinese restaurant.  We were expecting something fancy, but we should have realized it was Chinese Fast food.  Kind of a disappointing last meal in the Philippines.   We turned in early because our flight to Tokyo was at 7:30AM.  My nephew was going to swing by around 4:30AM to take us to the airport.

It is such an ordeal flying out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.  There were 3 security checkpoints, and we had to pay a 500 peso exit fee... not to mention it is a pretty big airport! So glad I had the mAss Kicker Mobile!  There is NO WAY that I could have tolerated all that walking! Regardless, flying international definitely requires extra travel time.  The fact that I need to travel with the mAss Kicker Mobile complicates things.  International airlines don't see these things too often.  I always have to take that into account when I travel.  Next time I will bring the owners manual to expedite checking in. Anyways, when we finally got to the gate, I was exhausted!  Damian wanted to grab some coffee and explore a little.  I found a comfy spot at the gate and took a nice nap in front of a replay off the 2013 NBA FINALS Heat-Spurs:  Miami Coach Erik Sporstra's mom is from San Pablo (where my parents are from)!  Filipinos love basketball!  There was a large crowd watching the game with me!

Anyways, we caught our flight to Narita Airport in Japan with no major problems.  The gate assistants took us to the proper area to pick up the mAss Kicker Mobile.  We had to catch a bus to the Japan Airlines terminal  But when we got to to the terminal, we had a little trouble checking the mAss Kicker Mobile into our Japan Airlines flight back to San Diego.  We had a four hour layover in Japan, but we spent 1 1/2 hours trying to gate check the mAss Kicker Mobile onto the flight to San Diego!  The people at the airport didn't know how to check the mobility scooter.  They were extremely confused!  I waited patiently while Damian searched for a place to grab lunch.  When we final got through security, we decided to grab a bite to eat then stop by the duty-free store.  I'm a candy-holic.  I wanted to pick up some gifts for for a wedding I'd be attending in Canada in 2 weeks!  Anyways, we we were both pretty hungry and decided on this Japanese cafeteria place in the terminal.  We both settled on a meat dish with a raw egg.  It was awesome, but we both had GI issues the next day.  We don't know if it was the home cooked meal the day before or the raw egg at lunch, but something was up!  The last two times I've been to the Philippines I've had GI issues.  I was prepared this time, with TUMS and Pepto.  Anyways, we were both exhausted and pretty much slept the whole flight back!  That was an 11 hour flight!  When we got back to San Diego, we went out for good old pizza and wings, but we were both too exhausted to eat!  For me, I'd be traveling back to the midwest for our annual TUMORS SUCK! Paintball Benefit and my cousin's wedding in Toronto.  The big trip was halfway over!

Check out the Pictures from Day 7 in Manila! 

We def made some great contacts in Japan and the Philippines and look forward to returning someday!  Next on the agenda is to speak in Australia, England, and possibly Singapore.  Stay tuned.  We are just getting started.. 

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