Hello everyone. It's been a long while since I haven't posted. I have been struggling with self-doubt lately. I wonder if I fit in the community. If my contributions are informative, or if I am too old to participate 😂. I am hoping to overcome this and share more.
A best friend text message arrived like a sudden squall. We will travel to Roxas City. My daughter is needed at her father's patronal fiesta. We need to accompany her. I will book a ticket now. My immediate reaction was a firm “No.” Online classes loomed, and a spontaneous vacation was the last thing on my mind.
But my friend is persistent, combined with the fact that she was traveling with only her daughter, gradually chipped away at my resolve. I suggested calling another friend, a mutual friend, to accompany them. Before I knew it, I was filing for leave. Still, I was not approved. So I ended up tagging myself absent for almost 20 classes, tossing a few belongings into a bag, significantly less than I would have normally packed for a trip. Since it hadn't been planned and I was already in her home in Davao City for a vacation with my son. I don't have enough clothes and other necessities.
My friend, ever the prepared one, had already foreseen my packing inadequacies. “Don’t worry about clothes,” she'd assured me. And true to her words, a collection of essentials from underwear, pajamas, even a spare dress and slippers, came like magic. She bought some ukay-ukay clothes so that I would not look like a beggar, and even bought a travelling bag.
(Photos edited in Canva)
The journey to the airport was a typical Dubai rush. A quick drive in her Grandia to deliver our belongings to the airport at around 11:20 am. Punctuated by a brief stop at a gas station near the Santa Lucia Mall to grab a taxi.
We returned to her home at Camella Homes ( a short distance from the airport) to drop off the car before heading back to the airport by taxi again. It was all a bit chaotic. We bought two cartons of pomelos, about twenty kilos at a fruit stand near the airport, for pasalubong, and headed inside.
Airport security was relatively smooth, though the pomelos caused a brief moment of tension at quarantine. The initial flight time came and went. The departure board displayed an increasingly concerning delay. A severe thunderstorm had rolled in, grounding our plane for a frustrating hour.
The waiting area buzzed with a nervous energy, bored travelers, anxious families, and the constant announcements punctuated the wait. When we finally boarded there was a sigh of relief. We found ourselves sitting several seats apart.
I secured a window seat, and gratefully spent much of the flight capturing photos, the ever-changing sky was my subject.
The sprawling city, mountains, lakes, and rivers below, eventually visible through the gaps in the clouds, provided some fantastic shots as well.
It wasn't a luxurious trip, nor was it planned, but the unexpected nature of it, the last-minute scramble, the airport chaos, and the stunning views from 30,000 feet ( I am not really sure), all of it combined to make this unplanned trip to Iloilo City surprisingly memorable. It is indeed a simple, spontaneous trip that ended up becoming an unexpectedly significant adventure.