Momentary Escape

I was waiting for this day. When I and my travel friends will finally get to roam around the Philippines and visit islands, enjoy the sandy shore, enjoy the blue provincial seas and enjoy each other's company.

One day when COVID restrictions finally loosened up, we booked a trip to Iloilo. No itineraries yet and still picking up the vibes in case the restrictions suddenly become stringent again. We had moved our previous scheduled and paid for trip for the last two years since Batanes is taking a while to open to tourists. Seems we will have to move that again to next year.

When we finally got through the work week and finally reached Friday for preparation, I was excited. We were able to finalize the itinerary then. Whew. Packing was crazy. I suddenly do not know where my stuff is.

I had to list down the days we will be out, and give enough time for me to collect all I needed before putting them in the bag.

Our usual checklist:

• Bathing suit (including rash guard/s)

• Goggles/snorkels

• Enough dry clothes for each day after the wet activities

• Sunblock

• Toiletries

• Medicines

• Dry bag

• Cameras (minus the usual GoPro. Seems we've outgrown underwater shots. Or we misplaced our underwater cases -which is my story.

• Quick dry small towel

• Extra money

And the little extras these days:

• Alcohol

• Extra masks

That was a quick jot-down. I will probably be seeing some things missing once I do my review after publishing.

I would like to think we were contributing to reviving our country's tourism and helping the locals also to regain momentum in entertaining tourists.

In the same way, it helps us relax, enjoy and regain happy mood and break the busy days we have been doing adulting.

We needed this as well.

I was so happy logging out of work last Friday. I made sure I had all my deliverables submitted and those in queue properly distributed. Also went through some team stuff and noted the items that can wait till I come back.

I met up with my friends in the airport. Setting foot in it brought an excited smile on my face. The place already had a lot of travelers. The longest queue I think was going to Hongkong.

But then the local flight we were on, was also full.

Compared to last travels we were on, it seemed a smoother process this time. My captured vax card, itinerary and ID were acknowledged. I never had to bring out a printed copy of the itinerary or show my physical ID and vac cards. We printed out our baggage check-ins using their printing kiosks. We dropped our bags in the respective counters and went to grab breakfast.

The boarding gate was also crowded. Distancing? Uhm barely. But most have their masks on. We waited for out turn to get on the plane and my happy self just cannot stop smiling silly.

My only prayer that time is that my ears will not hurt from the pressure and that we do not get to experience too many turbulences. I have grown old the past two years (haha) and my nose were stuffy at that time. I have no colds but it felt that way anyway.

That was granted. Praise God for the safe travel.

Considering the local weather monitoring already declared the start of the rainy season, my next prayer was for sunshine to follow us throughout our adventure. That was granted, too.

One happy kid here!

Sneaking a quick post while killing time chilling in a cafe before we fly back to our reality.

Praying for safe ride back home and a healthier mindset and psyche going back to work.

What is your story?

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