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Emman, or Bando to me, had long planned a return trip home after 6 years of hiatus in New York. As early as December 2001, he's been inviting me to join him for the trip home. By then, I haven't been away from home for long (less than a year), so going back so soon was farthest from my mind -- until he started enticing me with island hopping escapades. We share a passion for traveling, but I needed a little more than that to make me change my mind. Inspiration maybe. And it came - via the World Wide Web. It didn't take long before I made travel arrangements; I just knew I was going back home with Bando in the summer. And so this journey began... Here's a daily chronicle of our adventure... Come and join me revisit a place I still call HOME... some group of islands a few thousand miles away...
Apr 18 Thu 8pm CDTCO 138 left IAH for SFO. It was a good flight, had a nice sleep, watched Joe Somebody, and listened to my personal CD collection. Arrived SFO early, about 10:35pm PDT. Had to walk a seemingly endless connection of buildings, until finally I found the international ticket counters. The domestic flights came from the area near aisle 10; gates to EVA flights were on the other end, aisle 1. Had to go through another round of airport security checks again. Now, I'm at Gate 101 waiting for EVA flight 17 for Taipei - the dreaded trans-Pacific flight, only because the hours seem no end. I would try to sleep it off and eat it off, so I will not really feel the long hours. I'm getting anxious as ever...
Apr 20 7am TPE timeSuddenly it's the 20th! Where did the 19th go? That's how it is with taking an East to West trans-Pacific flight - you always lose a day! Anyway, I'll surely gain it when I get back to Houston in May. But let's not talk about it yet, the journey is just about to begin - never a good time to talk about the end. We'll get there, in time. But for now, let the journey begin... I'm in TPE - Chiang Kai Shek Intl Airport in Taipei. We left SFO about 90 minutes late, because of delays in refueling and some mechanical fixes. We left at about 3am PDT, instead of the scheduled 1:30am PDT. I was in an aisle seat in one of the middle of the plane 4-seater group, and, there was nobody beside me, so I had 2 seats to myself. That was one good thing about the flight. The next good thing - Kate and Leopold! I watched the film right in the middle of it, but I still enjoyed it very much. It's one of those feel good movies. The food was good, had fish for dinner, cup noodle very early in the morning, and fried eggs for breakfast. I should have tried the Chinese porridge - congee. Now, I'm waiting for Bando to arrive from his trans-Pacific flight from SEA. I was supposed to look for Tata and PitPat at their China Air gate, but I'm too lazy to do that now. Anyway, I'll see them in Manila later today. Bando and I will wait for 2hrs here, then another 2hrs of flight to Manila. Monday, the 22nd is THE day! Can't wait... 8am - Bando is still nowhere to be found! His flight was supposed to arrive 7:15am. I am already getting agitated. I have been frantically looking for an EVA counter so I can ask for arrival info. NADA! When I went back to Gate C7 to wait for him, I heard someone YELL out my name - CONCEP! Bando, of course. His flight was delayed by an hour, too. And finally, we boarded our last connecting flight to Manila. Our flight was on time. Good! But unfortunately, when we disembarked in Manila, we were one of the last few passengers to get our luggage. So even though we arrived on time at 11:30am, we got out at almost 1pm. We met our hotel service, and then we requested to do a stop at the Duty Free Shops. By 1:30pm, we had checked-in at the New World Renaissance in Makati. Bando and I decided to have lunch at Cabalen - buffet of authentic Filipino cuisine for only PHP220! We were groggy leaving the restaurant; we were too full to think straight. Or maybe we're just too sleep-deprived at that point. When we got back to the hotel, I tried to get some sleep before the 7pm reunion dinner, but Rosing came with Nikki, so any plans of a nap went kaput! We had some nice catch-up stories, and by 6:30pm, we were ready to pick Tata up. We met at Cibo; saw Tini and Ogie first, then Lileth came, then finally Miguel aka Michelle. We went to Piu Pazzo for dinner where Tata had a "wine incident" with the waiter. We had a nice dinner, but most of all, we had a good time with catch-up stories. Michelle's were the most interesting and amusing.
We finally called it a night as a group by 11pm. Michelle went to the hotel with us. Had lots and lots of "censored" exchange between the "sisters": Bando and Michelle. I was half-listening and half-sleeping during the exchange. I was really interested, but I was too sleepy to really concentrate. Michelle went home at about 1am. Bando and I finally had our long overdue rest by then. But by 4am, we were up and had a good time talking about the previous day esp. the get-together.
Apr 21 Sun1st order of the day - breakfast at 6:30am. We went to the buffet area and had some sumptuous Filipino breakfast - for free! Sometimes you can get lucky. We're scheduled to go to Tagaytay with the Fajardos. Rosing, Jomari and Nikki arrived on time to pick us up. The last time I was in Tagaytay was in March 3, 1989, I think it's time I go back there – with nice memories of the last visit.
It was a nice, sunny day. Taal Volcano and Taal Lake looked the same like they used to! ;) We went to a place called The Highlands. Nice. But what really mattered was the company. I wouldn't have minded if we went to Picnic Grove. I enjoyed the funicular ride though. Never heard of a funicular before? Me neither! Could have been short for funny vehicular ride. ;) It looked like a monorail only that it's diagonal since it's used to ferry golfers from a hilltop and down and vice versa. Imagine an ultra-slow roller coaster with just a single drop - that's a funicular ride!
Apr 22 MonThis is THE day! Again we started the day with a breakfast buffet, and then got ready for our 9:30am flight to Bacolod. Our taxi service arrived a few seconds after we came out of the hotel lobby. How precise could we get! 15 minutes later, we were in NAIA terminal 2 (PAL terminal). I would never believe a 15-minute ride from Makati to the airport if I weren't there myself. Traffic was light, almost non-existent and it was 7am - supposedly rush hour, and on a Monday!
When Nonoy saw me for the first time, I couldn't quite describe the way he looked at me. He gave me this long, blank stare as if he didn't know me or maybe it was a look that said "Are you really here in front of me?" But I didn't care, really, I just gave him a big hug, and as soon as he said "Mimi!" it was as if all the months apart melted into that one single moment. Both Pao and Nonoy slept in my room that night, to their mom’s delight.
Apr 23 Tue
Apr 24 WedI had a parking lot incident at the mall. I was backing out from a tight spot and with my luck, I had hit a parked car. Good thing that there was no damage to the other car, but Papa's car had a deep bumper dent. :( I was just telling Bando the other night that I never had any driving incident since I started driving in Bacolod in '98. And so we were late for Bando's niece birthday party. But late or not, my nephew and niece had fun anyway.
Bando and I were supposed to head to A Quiet Place in Abuanan (re Joenar's invitation) but we cancelled. The kids were having too much fun, we weren't able to break away from the party.
Apr 25 ThuToday I went to my old high school (La Consolacion College) to see some grade school teachers and invited them for a Saturday merienda and possibly dinner at the house. I saw Ms. Pearl (Sabino), Ms. Leah (Gimeo), Ms. Lib (Duremdes), and Mrs. Leeping. I was expecting to see Ms. Dixie (Balberona), my Chem teacher, but she was out-of-town. Bummer! I didn't see my favorite teacher. :{
Apr 26 FriTata had arranged a photo shoot for her family, with me as photographer, of course. This was the third consecutive year that we have done this. But this time, everybody came, including her nephews and nieces, and we were outdoors - at the Palmas del Mar.
Apr 27 SatLCC teachers were at our house for an afternoon merienda and dinner. Nonoy kept them entertained. We had some karaoke after dinner. I offered to take them home, and so I did a taxi service. Not so much of a good idea driving from Tañgub to Pag-asa to Silay to Sta.Fe. But the good thing, I was able to see Ms. Dixie (her house was about a couple houses from Ms. Leah).
Apr 28 Sun
Apr 29 Mon
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With nothing to do, we basked under the heat of the island sun. We went swimming in the morning. Then I took some video of/with the kids, had a nice afternoon nap, then went swimming again.
Nonoy and I took a late afternoon walk, went by Maxie, the primate,
then waited to watch sunset by the cliff. It was an overcast afternoon,
but by sunset, the sky was a beautiful palette. That was one of the prettiest sunset I've ever seen. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me (I was babysitting!) But I did point out to Nonoy that one part of the sky (reflecting to the sea) was red, but he corrected me: "Mi, it's orange, not red." Yes, they could be accurate sometimes, those 3-yr-olds. :)
Today we're scheduled to do a historical, cultural and natural tour of Bohol. Our rented van (thanks, Jessamyn!) picked us up at about 8:30am.
1st stop: Blood compact site.
Then the Immaculate Conception church in Baclayon.
Next stop: the tourist destination, Chocolate Hills. It rained though, lots of it, especially as we approached the town of Carmen. But we took lots of pictures, anyway. While we were shopping for souvenirs, the rain stopped. What timing! Then Bando said that the 1st rainfall in May was supposed to be a blessing. I think he just made it up to make me feel good. And besides he needed his photographer to be happy so his pictures would come out nice.
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We went on to Loboc to take the river cruise. And before we could even hop on a rented banca, the kids were jumping all over with excitement after seeing the tiny, round-eyed, rubbery footed cuties - the tarsiers. Pao got to hold one but Nonoy chickened out. He wouldn't even go near it, except when I told him to pose for a picture with Manang Pao. :)
After the kids' excitement died down, we hopped on the banca and started our river cruise.
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We saw one of the many drops in the Busay Falls area at one end of the river.
We had lunch in Tagbilaran, turo-turo style, nothing fancy, just something filling after a long morning. Then, we met up with Jessamyn to get our SuperCat tickets for our TGB-CBU trip the next day. I had to get cash (PNB) for Bando because his debit card was no good there. Then we headed back to Panglao Island.
Dauis Church, in Panglao Island, was next.
We got healing freshwater from a well accessible by the communion rail. We had one memorable, funny moment: Mrs. Bando wanted to take home some well water, and asked Dr. Bando for a container, but he brought her an empty Sprite can. The Mrs. came rushing outside and got herself an empty water bottle. We had the laugh of our life, except Mrs. Bando of course, who was a little bit ticked.
Last stop, Hinagdanan, a natural underground cave. It would have been a nice, touristy place had it not for the stench. Good thing we didn't have to pay any entrance fees. As bad as the smell, there were actually people who dipped in the pool.
We were all weary after the whole day of travel, and we were so eager to plunge in the beach that we couldn't wait to get back to Crystal Coast. Once again, Mama went down the cliff to the beach with us, this time she plunged in waist-deep water. That was a rare moment, so I took it to heart. Nonoy had a little bit of his guard down, he stood in neck-deep (his) water and did some floating. But only because MyJoy was in the water, too. Show-off!
And for dinner, I had... sardines! I ate too much, and so, to barf with love... :)
We went to the beach to swim. Then at the pool. For the first time, I used the slide, wooooppeeee!!!! I had a lot of fun. It was as if I was a child again. My nephew bawled when I created a big splash in the pool.
Our Bohol connection, Mr. Uy, invited us to their home (in Tagbilaran) for lunch, so we planned to leave Crystal Coast early although our Cebu ferry schedule wasn't until 6pm. I used up some more film, our last picture-taking session in Panglao.
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At about 11am, Mr. Uy and our rented van arrived and we headed to Tagbilaran. We arrived at the Uy residence at about 12nn, then it was lunch time! Mrs. Uy prepared a feast! And ripe mangoes! And not to forget the fresh bukos!
We had a sumptuous meal. We watched some TV after lunch, and just when I was ready to take a nap, Bando "saved" me and asked if I wanted to go out and get some cash. Mr. Uy volunteered to drive us to town, Maroche and Tony went with us. 1st stop - UCPB. Once again, Bando got those "Invalid Transaction" errors. And once again, it was my turn to be on the rescue. I was teasing him that maybe there was nothing to draw in the first place. Then we tried RCBC, BPI - nada! Poor Bando!
After a couple of hours, we were tired and sweating and hungry (again) and so we decided to go back to the Uy residence. On the way back, Mr. Uy made a side trip to show us Bohol Tropic Resort. A resort right in the thick of things, and near a public pier at that. Surprisingly, the water was clean. We had halo-halo and Tony took lots of pictures. Bando was complaining why I conveniently forgot my camera. "We went out to get some cash, why would a camera be needed for that?" Tony just laughed. He said he always have his in tow no matter what. Good thing that he did though, saved me from "The Wrath of Bando".
We were back to the house by 5pm. Our rented van was nowhere in sight yet. So we had some time to do more photo shoots - remembrance of an afternoon of the 3 families together. Nonoy had tantrums, so he didn't join us in the pictures. When the van arrived, we headed for the pier for our 6pm Cebu ferry.
It was already dark when we arrived Cebu City. We had to rent 2 big taxis to bring us to the hotel. We haven't had dinner yet, so Bando and I (with Maroche and Tony - this time minus the camera) went to look for a restaurant by the Fuente (Osmeña) area. We went to Mercury drug to get Bando's supply of mineral water. Then we saw a Jollibee restaurant across the street. We went up the overpass to get to Jollibee. We couldn't seem to find the entrance to the restaurant. Bando and I were baffled. It turned out, its entrance was through the mall, and it was already closed by then. Ngeee! Good thing there was another Jollibee restaurant a couple blocks away. And so we finally have dinner for our families. We brought back the food to the hotel in inconspicuous shopping bags. As if the smell would not give us away. Chicken Joy, anyone?
Shei and I woke up very early to send Papang off to the airport. He went home ahead of us - Bacolod cock derby.
In the morning, we went to the Sto. Niño Basilica, this was to fulfill a promise to Mama. There was no mass at that time, so we just paid homage to the miraculous image. Lucky for us, the line was relatively short when we got there.
A minute's walk to the back of the church was another famous landmark, Magellan's Cross. (I was at that same spot July 2000, when Pao and I had our first adventure together. She was only 6 then, and I took a picture of her by the foot of the cross.) Anyway, to Mama's dismay, more pictures were taken. And then I noticed. Something was sticking somewhere after the shutter. Took some more pics, then the low-batt indicator blinked. I took out the battery, put it back in, then I was able to take a couple more shots. Then the indicator blinked again. All the time, the shutter seemed to stick to something.
And so instead of heading to the Taoist Temple in Beverly Hills, we headed to the mall to get a new battery for the camera.
Lunch was at Goldilocks. Then on to the supermarket to buy some Cebu goodies. And then some bloody Nonoy incident followed. And I was babysitting. :( I was trying to hold him, somehow he got off-balanced, slipped , and fell on his chin. Then blood came oozing out of his mouth. I was hysterical by then, especially at the sight of blood. I had to call my sister, his mom, who started to get panicky, too, expecting the worst - Nonoy could've bitten his tongue. Good thing that was not the case. We gave him ice cream to somehow stop the bleeding. Didn't work. But only because he wouldn't even touch it. He was afraid he'll hurt some more by eating anything, even ice cream. Poor Nonoy. :{
And so we just went right back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day there. I had time to catch up on some sleep.
We stayed at the hotel practically the whole day - with Pao sick, Nonoy still sore, and Mama had the blues. So we watched TV, I slept some more and took some Cebu City snapshots as seen from our hotel room.
We ordered in for dinner: crispy pata, sotanghon, and bulalo. That was the best Cebu meal we had. Too bad Papang missed out on the bulalo.
We took the 6:30am PAL flight to Bacolod. The flight was scheduled to arrive 7:05am. But it seemed shorter, as if we just buckled out seatbelts, and then suddenly we were on a descending path already.
I had no time for a nap. Although the reunion isn't until 7pmish, I had some errands to do during the day. Like having a haircut, then bringing the films to the printers, drawing cash, but not necessarily in that order. I had 14rolls of film. Photoline couldn't finish until 4pm, by which time, I would not have enough time for a trip to the salon. And so I decided to leave 7 with them, and have the remaining half developed at Picture City. And got both sets by 2pm. I wasn't quite satisfied with the Picture City job. And besides they had higher charges. Anyway, it's time for a visit to the friendly beautician. I had a haircut. And what good timing, to do the haircut the day of the reunion!
It's party time! Bando and I arrived Bacolod Chicken House at about 7:30pm. Perfect timing because Gabe was also dropping Tata off at that time. So we ended up having to enter the restaurant at the same time. There were quite a number of guys already there, plus Jek and Ree, I think.
It was a night of loud laughs, gross stories, memorable recollections, and many, many more. We all had a nice time. After Chicken House, we went to Macho, once again, for karaoke. Imagine, Bro. Dants and Bernard went with us, too. Sadya na naman.
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Dinner at Brick Pit Grille with Jek, Joenar, Bando. Bro. Dants came late because of some after-school activities. This was where 2 people had an intellectual banter until the wee hours of the morning. Guess who?
Dinner at Ree's. She prepared a lot of food. Delicious, Chef Ree! Most conversation here were caught on video.
We took the 8:15am Sea Angels ferry to Iloilo City. Our van met us at the Iloilo pier and we left for Caticlan at 10am.
Not wanting to break his streak, Nonoy barfed again before lunch, this time while under my care. We stopped for lunch at about 1pm. About 1.5 hours later, we saw water! We thought we were near Caticlan. Nope! Not until another round of zigzag road up the mountain and down. Then, it was Caticlan. Tata (our Boracay connection Shellah's sister) and a cousin met us there, and arranged for our transpo to the island.
From the boat, Boracay was nothing spectacular at first sight. There was just this feeling of relief after having finally arrived, and finally seeing THE Boracay. We arrived at about 4pm. We had enough time to lounge around, and that's exactly what we did. There was no hurry to swim either, we have 3 days to do so. We tried the hammock and liked it. Both the kids and I. Pao took lots of pictures from her camera. And then suddenly I was so tired, and sleepy. And so I slept at Mama's bed. I woke up when Tata fetched us for our "welcome" dinner. They prepared a feast!
The Cottage "story"
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That night, Pao and I went stargazing and swimming. I had a hard time finding my balance in the dark waters, so I got out after dipping for about a couple of minutes. Then back to our stargazing. Again, I had to answer what seemed like strange questions about anything under the sun, or more appropriately, the stars. :)
Beach bums alert! Beach bums on the loose! We went swimming for the first time. Well, daytime swimming, that is. :) The water was glorious! It was still cloudy then, but when the sun came out - ah, paradise! (Just turn a blind eye on the hoardes of people, tourists and locals alike, and the crowded establishments and the bancas, then you'd see paradise.) But back to the water; there were schools of tiny fish swimming by us. Then we saw a black patch, my first thought was that it was a stingray, but looking closely, another school of teeny-weeny black fish. What an absolutely gorgeous sight! If only I had one of those disposable underwater cameras! I had it commited to memory, anyway. The kids couldn't seem to get enough of the water, so we stayed and played and swam and... took off just before lunch. Today we had grilled marlin and a tray of bihon!
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More swimming today, except for Nonoy who was starting to have sniffles. In the afternoon, we went island hopping. Tata arranged for a rented banca to take us to Crystal Cove and Puka Shell Beach. After the tour, we went to Shellah's cottage to meet the rest of her family. Papang had a "sarung bangging magayon" time with Shellah's father. He couldn't stop talking Bicol even after we left, he finally noticed when Nonoy complained that he couldn't understand what his Tatay was saying. Before heading back to our cottage, we stopped for a halo-halo at the family (Shellah's) restaurant. I did some sunset pics on the way back to the cottage.
CRYSTAL COVE
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PUKA BEACH
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and more...
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We went to hear Sunday (Mother's Day) mass. Had an incident on the Fr. David thing - bummer!
We pretty much stayed indoors after lunch. I was not feeling well by then. I think I got the cold virus from Nonoy. I had a short nap, watched TV with the kids and shot some video. Then had a special Mother's Day merienda: spaghetti and fruit salad.
Pao and I went late afternoon to watch and document more sunset scenes. There was one incident when I saw a sailboat moving by the setting sun. Oblivious to the crowd, I kept pace with it and took pictures of the sail against the sun, hoping for that perfect sunset picture. Later, I realized that there were people in the area that could have seen me in some ridiculous stance. I asked Pao how it seemed to her, "kahuluya, eh." I would think so. Mwe-he-he...
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One last dip in the morning before we finally packed our bags. Our van was not scheduled to meet us in Caticlan until 11am. And so we had some picture taking time with the relatives.
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The trip back to Iloilo wasn't as bad as the one before. This went through like a breeze. No barf casualties this time.
At 6pm we boarded Sea Angels for Bacolod. When we arrived at 7pm Toto was there to pick us up.
Very early in the morning, I went to pick Bando up and we went to Rhea's where we're meeting for the San Carlos trip. Bro.Dants arrived at Ree's place a few minutes after we arrived. Then off to Jek's we went, where Andrew waited.
Bro.Dants was the designated driver. There were only 6 of us but it seemed like the van was full - based on how loud we laughed. More stories were exchanged. Arrived Don Salvador at 11am. Met Joenar, more pics at falls viewpoint. It was one of the prettiest sights I've seen so far. A Negros jewel!
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Arrived San Carlos 12:30pm. Met up with April at Metrobank where we had another ball despite the clients and her officemates. She treated us to lunch at Carmel's. San Carlos has a pretty, quaint, small city air to it. Looked like it's being developed as the next big city in Negros Occidental. April suggested that we visit one island, forgot the name, worth an hour's trip. But everyone, except Bando and I, were protesting that they wanted to be back in Bacolod while it's daylight.
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So we left at about 3:30pm, then arrived Bacolod 5:30pm. Jek and Andrew got off at Jek's. We headed to Joenar's for the despedida dinner. We were the first ones there. Bando and I had started dinner even before people started to arrive because we were hungry already. And besides it was getting late. And then people started to arrive, first was Ginalyn Miranda. Many haven't seen her for a while. I did not even recognize her at first, when in fact I saw her before the Dec2000 reunion. I thought she was some bill collector who was visiting Joenar that night. But when she started calling out our names, that's when I recognized her. Then more came Mercedes, Claudine, Noel, Albert, AndrewP, AndrewB, Katybog, Darlene, Ronnie, etc. Mule incident...
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Katybog arranged another despedida for us, this time we had lunch at Jewel's restaurant in Villadolid, about an hour south of Bacolod. Pam, Jek, Albert, the two Andrews: P & B, and Ree were there. Bro. D. promised to come, but didn't make it. After lunch, we headed to the fishing huts - it's fishing time! Only Albert was successful, he caught one tilapia.
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We were supposed to have dinner at MO2 that night. I got there on time, and waited, and waited, and waited. An hour has passed and I was still waiting. Nobody came! I just walked out of there. Then the calls came. They were all blah, blah, blah to me.
Spent the whole day with the family. Went shopping at Robinson's for windchimes. And at Bongbong's for pasalubong sweets. Houston folks love Bacolod sweets!
We went to check-out the school where Nonoy will start pre-K in June. We were supposed to go to manukan country for dinner, but it was already late, so we headed to Bacolod Chicken House instead.
Goodbye time! Papang went with me to the airport to have my bags checked very early in the morning. Since our house is less than a kilometer away from the Bacolod airport, we went back home for breakfast. Then about an hour before my (domestic) flight, the whole family went with me to see me off. The Bando family was already there. In full force. :) And Bro. Dants, too! He came to bring the two Michener books he promised me.
When boarding time came, Mama and Bando's mom started sobbing. And Papang was teary-eyed. Nonoy was too busy with his GameBoy that he almost forgot my goodbye hug and kiss. But I forced my way into those tiny arms. :)
Goodbye Bacolod! Until the next journey back...
The guys wanted to do some karaoke, by then it was already 11pm, and the restaurant was about to close. Initially, we thought of Quorom which was nearby, but Joenar offered his private videoke room at a place he owned - Macho. So we went there. Joenar prepared some "pitaw" (love birds) two different ways - adobo and deep-fried. Both tasted good! But especially the adobo. Bando loved them, too! And he had more San Mig light at this point. And he picked on me even more!
