Sunday, January 21, 2018
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| Safely landed |
6.15 AM, finally, safely landed on NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) Manila, after a long boring flight, it takes around 4 hours from KLIA to NAIA Manila. As usual, immigration check before taking the luggage, unfortunately there is no free wifi in NAIA, so my phone can't update the location weather. By the way, everytime i go somewhere, i usually update the weather location in my phone, because it records my location history, so i can track back the places i have visited in the past. "Mabuhay" or "Hello!", is the first Tagalog word i learned, i found it in a text message i received from NAIA when my Indonesian provider in roaming mode.
After i finished the immigration check and taking my luggage, i don't really know where to go next. I just walk to the outside and hoping that there will be someone from SMU (Saint Mary's University) holding some kind of sign that looks familiar to me. Thank god, Alhamdulillah, my prayer has been answered, just right after i enter the exit gate, i saw the SMU tarp with my name and the other SEAMEO participants. There are two woman standing behind the tarp and waving for me and said "oh, i know him, he looks familiar with that bandana" yep, i love to wear bandana everywhere i go. One of the woman looks familiar for me, then i realized, it was Dr. Liberty, she was my interviewer, and the other one is Dr. Matet, finally, i met her personally, because i only saw her name in the letter from SMU, and also the coordinator of the SEA TEACHER program in SMU. Oh, anyway, SMU or Saint Mary's University is the host university during our stay in Bayombong for the practice teaching, i will tell more about it later.
Dr. Matet and Dr. Liberty are so friendly, it was my first time to meet them, but somehow, i'm feeling comfortable around them. Both of them are "key people" in SMU, so yeah, they are....playing important rules. Dr. Liberty is the Chief of the Professional Education, and Dr. Matet is the Dean of the STEH (School of Teacher Education and Humanities), it's the same like FKIP (Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan) in Indonesia. I was the third one who came, the first two participant came a day before me (Saturday).
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| Getting a Philippines prepaid sim card |
While waiting for the other two participant, Dr. Matet
and Dr. Liberty were suggested me to exchange some money, and get a
Philippine prepaid number for internet and communication, well, actually,
i'm not planning to get any Philippine number, but yeah, i think it's
fine, so i go to the one of the cellular booth in the airport, then i
bought the 8gb data plan for 30 days, and it costs me like $20, luckily,
they accept USD, it's equivalent to 1000php (Philippine Peso) or
Rp.273.180,- at that time. I thought it was a good choice, after that, i
went to the money exchange booth.
Okay, done...!, and then i went back to Dr. Liberty and Dr. Matet. They were asked me, how much i spent for the prepaid number. I still remember their jaw-dropped expression when i told them the price of the prepaid number, 1000php was sooooooo expensive. Well, i'm speechless, and also made me feel like a fool.
Well, nothing else i can do. 7.14 AM, finally, they come,
the two girls we have waiting for, one from Jakarta, UHAMKA, her name
is Ferina Rizkiani or "Kiki", and the other one from Palu, Universitas
Tadulako, her name is Megawati Syamsuddin or "Mega". Both of them are in
3rd year, also the other two who came earlier, so it made me the
"oldest" among them. After meet and greet, they went to the money
exchanger booth, get a Philippine prepaid number, take a picture and
went to a restaurant, me, myself was so starving, i haven't eat around 9
hours since waiting in the boarding room on KLIA. Oh, anyway, there was
also Sir Bonnie, he was our driver.
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| From left to right: Dr. Liberty, Dr. Matet, Kiki, Me, and Mega. |
My first thought about Manila...? it's 11/12 with Jakarta, crowded, bad traffic and... i don't know. Dr. Liberty said that the road is even worse during the rush hour. Okay, everything is packed into the car, and on we go. There was a transportation that have my attention, it's... i don't know.... "fancy-looking"? i wasn't take the picture of it. So i asked to Dr. Liberty, and she said that it's called "Jeepney", well, nice, i gotta try it sometime.
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| Time to leave... |
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| Another Snap. |
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| Kita-kits NAIA ! |
Not for long, we have arrived at one of popular fast food restaurant in Philippine. Three of us were worried about the food because we can't just eat the food without knowing if the food halal or not, or even worse, it contain pork. Dr. Matet and Dr. Liberty told us to choose from one of the menu, and warn us some pork-related food.
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| So many choices.... |
I choose veggies stew, and followed by the other two, but later, the servant told us that the beef and chicken meat in the restaurant was halal, and cooked separated with the food that contain pork, so yeah, i changed my mind, and get the Chiao Mai instead. We talked a lot about everything, Dr. Matet and Dr. Liberty are very open person.
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| Bon apetit... |
After we finished our breakfast, we went to the CICM (i'll talk more about it later) guest house to pick the other two participants and some stuff. It wasn't that far from the restaurant. I met with the other SEA TEACHER participants, there is a boy and girl, his name is Pangeran Akbar Fatahillah, or "Akbar" and Muthmainna Dayanti Jufri, or "Iin", they both from Universitas Negeri Makassar. We took some pictures and continued our journey to Bayombong. I do enjoyed the view around Manila.
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| The team was complete. |
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| Manila.... yeah. |
So.... are we there yet? Bayombong? .....No.
Dr. Liberty told us that it took around 6 hours
from Manila to Bayombong, it's a really long exhausting trip. Bayombong
city is located on the northern part of the Luzon Island, it's also the
capital of the Nueva Vizcaya Province which is part of the Region 2 of Philippines. The road will be steep because the path is walk through the hills, because Nueva Vizcaya Province is surrounded by hills. So, take a nice seat and enjoy the ride...
I was fell asleep during the trip, i don't get a good sleep since the flight to Manila. Even though, it wasn't a nice sleep, i don't feel comfortable sleeping while sitting. 1.28 PM, Dr. Liberty woke me, it was time for lunch. We were stopped on a restaurant, i forgot the name of the restaurant, and i leave my camera in car, so there were no documentation. It's a nice restaurant, serve some house menu food. Just to be safe, me and the other choose the soy chicken and ampalaya (or pare in Indonesia), as usual, we have a nice talk with Dr. Matet and Dr. Liberty and share the food. I saw something unique in the restaurant, they also provide some kind of pickles in jar, some of them contain pickled mangoes, and some of them contains pickled...chilies? really, it was my first time saw pickled chilies. But Dr. Liberty said that those are some Filipinos delicacies, they're cured with vinegar, but for the chili, they don't eat the chili, instead, they use the vinegar for spice as additional in food or cooking.
Okay, the trip continued...
We were already near to the hills, the road become steep, and the view changed into beautiful hill scenes, and the ambient become a little bit colder. I believe we are already in Nueva Ecija Province, it's part of the Region 3 in Philippine. I was surprised, because most of the people are wasted a lot of clean water, and wet the road. Dr. Liberty said that they get the water from the mountain, so it's all free, but still, it really "grind my gears". In the middle of the trip, i saw a festival, people wearing some kind of traditional dress, i forgot what celebration was that, but unfortunately, i only get some blurry photos because the car was going too fast. Bored, i fell asleep.
3.53 PM, the car stopped, Dr. Matet and Dr. Liberty told us to go out and enjoy the view. We were in the border between Region 2 and Region 3, it was even colder there. We take some photos there and continued the trip.
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| The Region 2 Statue |
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| It was actually cold on there. |
Again, i fell asleep during the trip, i was so tired. 5.18 PM i was awake, and we're already in Bayombong, i saw a lot of Tricycles (or becak motor in Indonesia) on there, with the same color, green and yellow, Dr. Liberty said that is the color of Nueva Vizcaya, but for the tricycles, the green and yellow color is used only for tricycles from Bayombong, so it will be different in another cities. Finally, we passed by Saint Mary's University and made it to Inang Maria Dormitory, it's a dorm for girls actually, but we stayed in the guest room, it's a really nice and neat place. Oh, introducing Sir Moises, he is the vice president of Saint Mary's University, and Sister Cris, she is the Dorm Matron in Inang Maria Dormitory.
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| Mabuhay! Inang Maria Dorm ! |
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| Left: Sister Cris, Right: Sir Moises. |
Sister Cris showed us our rooms, accompanied by Dr. Liberty, and then Dr. Liberty said that we are going to have dinner tonight with Sir Moises. 5.49 PM, i guess i still have time remains for pray, after that, i unpacked my stuff and put it into the closet, and then freshen up a bit before dinner. 6.30 PM, Dr. Liberty picked up us and went to a restaurant. It's a nice restaurant, comfy and neat i think, like a fancy restaurant in the movie, with moody light and classic props. Later, the waitress gave us the menu, and Sir Moises told us to pick, which one from the menu we are allowed to eat. We don't really sure what to eat at that night, so Sir Moises and Dr. Liberty choose for us. So we eat chicken salad, fish n' chips, grilled chicken, and shrimp soup for that night.
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| Again, Bon Apetit! |
Sir Moises told me to try some spices, there was Lady's Finger, roasted garlic and Jicama (bengkoang in Indonesia), the roasted garlic is the best, never had something like that before. We have a nice conversation with Sir Moises and Dr. Liberty at that night, after we finished our dinner and have some pictures, we went back to the dorm and took a rest, i'm so excited about the next day. (C/H)
