This day started when our Hawaiian Air flight 466 was delayed an hour due to an equipment swap which required ground crews to transfer everything from the plane that arrived from Honolulu to the one that just completed its C Check in Auckland, New Zealand - I guess its not a comprehensive enough test as they missed the video which required FA to do the safety briefing. Imagine a 5 hour flight with no in-flight video and audio - HAL, are we going to get some kind of refund?
Breezed through immigration in HNL and got our four luggages re-checked for the final leg of our trip. We then made our way to the consulate and even after traversing Monday morning rush hour traffic, we made it to Philippine sovereign soil in Hawaii with ample time to spare Consular staff started trickling in 45 minutes before business hour and we were able to join them for the flag-raising ceremony. Immediately after the new version of
Panatang Makabayan (Pledge of Allegiance) we were ushered in the office and helped with our passport application. Thank you consular staff for accommodating us and being with you guys started to feel like being in Manila already.
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| Czarina at the front steps of the Consulate |
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| Flag raising ceremony |
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| Postcard time! |
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| Hi Brother... |
Our ETA to Manila was delayed by 45 minutes by what could have been air traffic. I started noticing our plane circling Balesin Island after the first complete counter-clockwise roundabout and it did a total of 3 round the island tour before making a beeline to MNL. Taxiing towards our assigned gate I looked at our landing path and saw three other aircrafts staggered behind us. I just wanted to disembark and call my cousin Riel at once to let them know that our flight was delayed.
My cousins Aix, Riel and his lovely wife Roselle picked us up and tried out DFS - we got there late (they close 9pm) and all I can do was checked out their goods and prices and since we're good for 14 days we're definitely going to be back there again.
Famished, we then headed to Yang Chow - a 24 hour dimsum place in Paranaque. As we were eating we got serenaded by - I'll call them "Mario -n- Chie" band. It was nice as she was able to belt out a song requested by Aix - Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You". Great meal, great company!
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| Where's The Food? |
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| Mario -n- Chie Band |
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| Any room for desserts? |
