My day started early on June 10. I was up by 5am and out of our house a few minutes after 6. We picked up Abi at NIGS, our car was right behind the taxi she and her brother were riding. So we didn't waste precious minutes waiting for the other. We dropped off her brother at Philcoa then we wee on our way to Diosdado Macapagal Internation Airport at Clark, Pampanga. Good thing Tita Zeny invited my mom to go to her house so they went to San Fernando after they dropped us off at the airport. We arrived really early..around 830am. The gates for the international flights are still closed so they asked us to wait. Around 930am we were inside the airport and were paying our travel tax. Had to pay P1,620 as Philippine travel tax. It was Abi's first time to travel outside the country so I had to be in charge (haha! as if naman panay ang alis ko ng bansa!). I paid for our travel tax while she made her way to the long lines at the check-in counter. Grabe, walang sistema sa airport na yon. Nakakahiya! There was no line for the payment of travel tax. They have a counter alright, but you have to give your name and passport to one guy then they'll pass your passport to another one who will issue the receipt and ask for your payment. They did not even think of asking the people to line up. There are atleast five people there. They could have asked us to form five lines and each of them could receive our passports, get our payments and issue the receipts. Ah ewan!
Anyways, after finally paying for our tax and had our trolleys checked in we made our way towards the immigration counter and we're finally inside the waiting area. Since we were there early we had to wait for a long time before boarding. Jo called us up while we were there and asked me to buy Absolute Vodka at the Duty Free Shop at the Budget Terminal after we land. She told me David will be there to pick us up and he'll hand me SGD since I wouldn't have SGD by that time. At around 1115am we were ready to board. Tiger Air flights have no designated seat numbers for our tickets so people were scrambling their way towards the gate after the announcement that we were ready to board.
We slept for most of the flight flight. Gutom na gutom na kami dahil that was way past lunch time already. They didn't have free meals on board and we were too kuripot to buy kaya tinulog na lang namin ang gutom namin. We were so excited when the plane landed at Budget Terminal. But of course we still had time to take pictures.
Abi and I were both nervous going in to Singapore Immigration with the horror stories we heard about their immigration -- that we had to bring a lot of cash as show money, that we had to bring a letter of invitation from our host in Singapore, that it's not a good idea to declare that we'll be staying at a condo instead of at a hotel, that we're not allowed to bring in hotdog and they'll just throw it if they see it. Good thing Jo did not push us to bring hotdog for them anymore. We just bought in brownies and ensaymada. There weren't any question at the immigration and when we were about to pass through their Customs, the Customs officer signalled us to go straight to the exit. Sayang! Sana pala nagdala na kami ng hotdog e di nakalusot sana hehehe. David was not yet there to pick us up and I had to call him from the payphone at the arrival area (Jo told me the night before that we can make local calls for free). He was already on his way. When he arrived we rode a cab from the airport to their place.
Singapore is clean, clean, clean. There were no traffic(the ride from the airport to David and Jo's place took 10mins -- that's from Changi airport to Lorong, Geylang), roads are lined with trees, and there were buildings all over.
When we got to their condo Jo was cooking food for her birthday party that night. We were so hungry we didn't care if the pasta sauce was a bit too sour for our taste. Hindi na namin maintay na timplahan pa ni Jo ng maayos yung sauce. They also fried marinated chicken for us. Yummy! I think that was already around 4pm. Imagine I didn't eat for the whole day except for a small piece of ensaymada. Correct binawasan na namin yung ensaymada na pasalubong namin sa kanila.
This is at their veranda...look, 3 pools at the condominium complex. At talagang lumuhod ako para makita sa picture yung pools.
After eating we waited for Melanie to arrive since she will bring us to the malls that night. Jo, David and Myrna had to stay because they were preparing for the party/get-together. Abi, Mel and I went to Suntec City. From Aljunied station we rode the MRT to City Hall then hopped on the shuttle bus that took us to Suntec City. They have automated machines where we bought our MRT card. After the ride you surrender the card and get your SGD1.00 deposit back.
Midnight madness sa Suntec -- Great Singapore Sale nga e! We bought a few things at Carrefour -- San Miguel beer, Oreos and Cafe21 (bilin ni Lorena). We went around the mall and I saw some things I needed to buy for a few people back here (Lacoste bag for Tita Julie which has 20% discount, Giordano shirts for SGD5 a piece and a few others). Then we went to the Fountain of Weath, dubbed to be the world's largest fountain.
It was past 9pm when Jo called Mel and asked us to go home already because her guests are already there and they already ate. But before we went home, Mel took us to Marina (Mel: sabi ni Jo uwi na daw tayo. daan muna tayo dun sa Marina kasi maganda ang view don *hehehe*) We took a cab at the Esplanade. I told Mel that we should take pictures there but she reminded me that we were going back there Monday to take some pics of the Merlion and that Jo called again and were asking us to go home already. Mga pasaway!
When we got back to the condo, their Pinoy friends were already there. Daming handang pagkain ni Jo - pasta, chicken, sweet and sour meatballs, siomai (yummy) and 2 cake! Happy birthday dear Jo!
After eating inuman na! Vodka with sprite ang toma! Ako lang ata at si Jo ang uminom... mamula-mula na ko nung gabi. David and Myrna's boyfriend Rumer (I hope I got the spelling right) drank the SanMig we bought from the groceries.They were singing their hearts out (thank you, magicsing) while I drank, drank and drank hahaha. I only sang when most of the guests already left. And what did I sing - Laklak (what an apt song!)
Grabe, we went to bed at around 3am na. We had to wake up early the next morning since the mass was at 9am. Sa next post ko na yung day 2 =)
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