Leyte Day 1: Reminiscing My Past

It’s been awhile since I last went to Leyte. It’s my mother’s home province and I lived there for around 5 years in the capital city of the province, Tacloban City. I didn’t know I would fall in love with a guy, Andrew, from the same province but all is good. It sort of gives us more common ground. Anyway, I’m not here to write about my love life.

2:00 AM; Manila Domestic Airport

It started to drizzle as we got out of the taxi. We went through the usual security procedures and when inside to check in for our flight which was delayed for an hour. I thought we wouldn’t be able to push through with the flight because of the bad weather the day before.

I went in line. The lady representative from ZestAir checked our tickets and asked for our IDs. She then asked for the credit card we used to purchase the credit card. She was only asking for a clear photocopy of the card’s front.

I was like. “So hindi kami makakalis kung hindi namin to mabigay? Bakit hindi kami na-inform na kailangan ito?”

Lady: (flips to the second page of our ticket and encircles the number 2 reminder) “nakasulat po rito ma’am na kailangan ng photocopy nung credit card.”

Me: “Ah, okay. Thank you.” (exit. Pahiya eh. Hahahahahaha I didn’t knooooww it was written there. hahaha)

She wrote an email address where we can send an image of the credit card. Good thing Drew’s friend who owned the credit card woke up. Everything was good after that. From 2:30 AM to 5:20 AM, we were waiting for our flight.

On the plane…

We took some commemorative pictures in the sky!

7:00 AM; Touchdown Tacloban City Airport

We were waiting for our luggage. The airport still looked the same. It looked very old. I wonder why the government of Tacloban isn’t doing anything about it? Why not build a new one or something. Although it was antique, at least the paint on the walls were new, I think.

We went to Drew’s auntie to have breakfast and I badly need to go to the CR. XD Her auntie lived in the same subdivision as I did when my siblings and I were living there.

Welcome to Jan Rey Subdivision!

This was the house we live in. It was a two-floor apartment. The landlord lived in front of us. I wanted to drop by but it might be too early so I just took pictures instead.

We arrive at his auntie’s house. It was a beautiful spacious house. It had tall ceilings with a chandelier. We had breakfast and rested for a little while.

At around 8:30 am, we went rode a jeepney going Downtown-Imelda, got lost a bit but found it.

10:30 AM; On our way to Ormoc

After waiting for more than two hours, we finally left the van terminal going to Ormoc. Ormoc was two and a half hours away from Tacloban. It was a long ride and I was getting dizzy throughout the whole time. Good thing I had my White Flower bottle with me. I sniffed some like an addict would with his bottle of rugby and tried to sleep the whole trip.

12:00 PM; Touchdown Ormoc City

Yes, at last! We arrived at Ormoc and walked our way to the old Gaisano mall. I don’t there there are any Gaisano malls in the metropolis of Manila. I still remember the first time I went inside Gaisano in Tacloban. It was not like SM at all and I was in awe. BTW, I was in Grade 2 that time.

We had lunch first at Mang Inasal. I was feeling a lot better but Drew said I look tired so after eating lunch, I waited for him there while he bought a new white polo for Ate Kara’s wedding. This is the real reason why we went to Leyte.

After a few minutes, we went inside another van heading to Isabel, Drew’s hometown.

2:30 PM; FINALLY WE ARRIVE IN ISABEL

After almost 12 hours of traveling, we finally arrive in Isabel. His father and sister fetched us from the gate of their village. At last! That’s all I’m going to say!

Love,
Kist