It was the eve of our month-long tri-country trip with our toddler—our first out of the country with the kid. There was still hesitation within me, knowing how hard this trip would probably be—our son being at the peak of his Energizer Bunny phase. But crossing fingers, we are indeed pushing ahead with Backpacking With A Kid 2023.

Travel is starting to pick up again as the recent COVID-19 surge starts to recede in the Philippines. While most of us are just happy that we can travel again—just the mere fact that we can actually step foot on an airport again makes us giddy with excitement!

READY TO FLY TO MALDIVES

But after processing your travel documents and a few more minutes in—which eventually turns into hours—boredom sets in. Waiting in airports is one of the few things I really hate about traveling, especially since we always make it a point to be there three hours before our actual flight time—as is usually suggested by airlines.

With long waiting times and limited area to explore, here’s what we usually do to while away the hours at the airport.

Recently SEAIR (South East Asian Airlines) announced that they would be opening a new route to the north of the Philippines. The said route would ply the Manila to Laoag airways and would finally open up the Ilocos Region to an alternative travel schedule.

Together with a couple of travelers, I was invited by the airline to participate in the inaugural flight to Laoag City. I was still reeling from a hectic three-day trip to Japan the previous day, but I just couldn’t say no to this. Jetlagged, I repacked my backpack and headed towards Terminal 4 of NAIA where the SEAIR terminal is.

Three days certainly wasn’t enough to fully appreciate the ecological metropolis that is Singapore. But the choice was not mine to make and on the morning of our third day, we reluctantly boarded our tour bus for the last time and headed to Changi International Airport for our flight back to Clark.

Singapore’s Changi Airport is certainly one of the prettier air hubs I’ve seen. Considered as the main entry point of the country, it is massive compared to any of our airports in the Philippines. The facilities are very modern; well I guess it wouldn’t have won almost four hundred awards since it opened in 1981 if it were not.

My officemate was telling me about how she’s not going to the island of Siquijor since her sister’s prone to spells. My mom’s asking me to bring a pinch of salt and a clove of garlic. Another officemate was relating her eerie impression of their tour there some years back.

I’ve been hearing a lot of mystic stuff about Isla del Fuego (Island of Fire), but it seemed that no story can ever deter me from continuing my journey to this mysterious island down south.

It has been less than a week since my impromptu Iloilo flight and I was back at the NAIA Terminal III again for my scheduled Coron adventure. This has been booked almost a year ago thru Cebu Pacific’s many online promos; a measly Php300.00++ for a roundtrip ticket, how about that eh. This would be my first time visiting Coron and having heard so much about the place, I was really quite excited.

“Want to go visit your aunt in Iloilo this coming Wednesday?” My aunt asked me. “Yes, of course” I immediately replied. I just can’t resist an unplanned trip to anywhere. Wednesday was a week from now, and it just so happened that it was also my rest day.
 
Totally unprepared, I hurriedly asked my cousins who else was coming. A few raised hands, but two days prior to the flight date, everyone backed out.

So it was gonna be just me and my aunt.