Had breakfast at the hotel around 8 am and then walked around and did a little shopping. Then I went swimming for a little bit at the pool and we laid out on the beach and went in the water a little. Mostly we were just waiting around for our bus to pick us up at 1 pm to go to the airport. At 1 a guy in a little van/truck came to pick us up to go to the port. At the port we got on a boat to go to Catcilan to catch a fight to Manila. This time we didn’t have a 2 hour bus ride! For some reason the plane was allowed to leave from the closer airport.
When we arrived to Manila, Don’s dad and his friend Jackie Chan (a retired cop) were there to pick us up. They were excited to take us to Mall of Asia. It is the biggest mall in Asia. The mall was really cool because in the middle it didn’t really have a roof top, it was pretty open. There was a fashion show going on. The mall had an ice skating rink and a beach like area with restaurants. Kind of like a board walk.
Then we went to Don’s dad’s apartment and will be staying here for the next few days.
Woke up around 7:15 am and went to breakfast. Then we decided we were going to go snorkeling. We found a guy that said he could take us on a tour from 2 pm to 4 pm. So in the meantime we found another guy that said he would take us. We went on a boat with 2 tour guides. The beach right in front of our hotel.
They took us to an island called Crystal Cove. Here we went to a cave, like a lagoon and went snorkeling. It was awesome, I saw a ton of crabs.
Then we hiked along the island to a second cave and snorkeled. Once we were done we got back in the boat and the guides took us and anchored the boat and let us snorkel. The current was very strong so we had to hold onto a rope that was attached to the boat. I felt something sting my shoulder and I didn’t think much of it but then I felt something sting my neck and found out I had been stung by a jellyfish. I was so worried, but all that happened was I got a small rash on my neck and chest. The sting was not too painful. We went to a different location and snorkeled some more then we went back to the hotel.
Next we met up with the next tour guide, They had a boat that was painted like Nemo and the bottom of the boat was clear so you could see the fish and corals. We saw a lot more fish on this tour and the snorkeling was a lot better. Guide swimming under glass bottom boat.
Once we got back Don told me to go shower and he would be up to the room in a little bit. After I was done showering he told me to get ready and to put on good walking shoes. A guy was waiting for us down in the hotel lobby. He took us to a truck and we got in the back. I didn’t really know what we were in for. We ended up going to place where you can go on atv/ go-cart thingy tours. We went up a mountain called Mount Luho. On the way up the mountain we saw a lot of wildlife: chickens, dogs, pigs, and monkeys!! Once we got to the top the views were amazing. Driving the buggy up the mountain.
Don asked the guide if we could have a few minutes alone and we stood there…and he was like “Andi, I want to ask you something…” And my mind started racing. He got down on one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket and asked if I would marry him. Of course I said yes! I was so happy, it was amazing. I was in shock…I couldn’t believe it was happening. Afterwards we continued on the tour…took tons of pictures and still felt like none of this was real.
Once we got back to the hotel we ate at an Indian restaurant and then came back to the hotel…exhausted. And I can’t believe we are engaged!
We got up around 6 and had breakfast at the hotel then took the shuttle bus to the airport for our 9:30 am flight to Manila. Our flight was on time and it was around 4.5 hours long.
I watched Shutter Island on the plane. Kinda crazy. Then I watched animal planet’s funniest animals. This flight was really good, super smooth. The only problem was that at this point I was done with flying and I wanted off. We finally got to Manila around 1:45 pm.
Here we thankfully got our bag that we had checked in a day earlier. Then we met up with Don’s dad. He had our Boracay tickets and we had to catch that flight at 3:45 pm. He got a cab with us to take us to the different terminal.
Our flight to Boracay was delayed of course…because we rushed, rushed, rushed to get there fast and get through security. We were told that our flight was having to be diverted to a different island so we would have to take a shuttle bus and then a boat to Boracuy after the flight. So our flight took off around 5 pm and we landed around 6.
Then we got on the shuttle bus, which was super crowded. We actually had to sit on seats in the middle of the aisle that came down from the sides of other seats. It was super uncomfortable and super hot. What we thought would be a 15-20 minute ride turned out to be an hour and half.
We got to the place with the boat around 7:45 pm. Then we took the boat over to Boracay. When we got there we didn’t know where to go because no one came from our hotel to greet us. So we finally figured out we had to take a “cab”, which was really a motorcycle with like a wagon thing hooked to the side. They call them tricycles. It was a crazy, bumpy ride but cool. So we got to our hotel around 9 pm. We had some pizza since we hadn’t really ate all day then just watched a band play on the beach and then went to bed.
Left for O’hare at 4 am for our 7 am flight. The flight actually left on time. Got to NYC JFK around 10:30 am. Found out our flight to Tokyo-Narita had been delayed from 1 pm to 5 pm. Super bummed because this would push back everything. We waited around JFK, scrambling to make arrangements to have our flight reservations to Boracay changed.
Ended up leaving JFK’s runway around 6:30 pm. We didn’t notice but our seats were split up on this flight. Luckily a woman opted to go to an empty seat to let me sit by Don. It was a 12 hour flight. I spent it first of all getting a meal of chicken and potatoes. I almost got sick and couldn’t eat hardly any of it because of the turbulence. I spent probably an hour with my head down trying to hold down whatever I did eat. The flight had a good deal of turbulence, at one point I was really afraid. The plane bumped around a lot and I got a huge bruise on my thigh from this.
Then I attempted watch Dear John. I got tired and took a nap. After waking up I decided to finish Dear John…which I thought was not a great movie. Each seat had a touch screen that we could watch movies, listen to music or play games on. I spent the next several hours playing trivia, sleeping, and watching movies like Avatar that I had already seen so I could sleep to them. Then the flight attendants gave us snacks, which consisted of an apple, bread, and a drink. After this we had about 5 more hours of flight left. I started getting very irritable. I wanted the flight to be over! So I slept more. Then there was about an hour and half left when we got served a breakfast of an omelet and fruit.
