The trip

I know it’s been a while that I have not updated my blog. It’s not that I disregard the existence of this blog, it’s just difficult to beat the jet lag. And still thinking where to start what we have left at home. The house is in a terrible muddle. Nevertheless, all are now in place and I have some time to write about our trip to the Philippines.

We supposed to leave April but since we have had a lot of renovation made the last time it is necessary to checked out on the budget. So we decided to pushed through theoretically December but it is out of question that we pay 5,000€ for the ticket . It was a way too expensive for us. Good thing, husband has a lot of benefits from work and fare ticket is one of them. The company has a list of agencies in which all employees are entitled to have a less 30% from the ticket valid every after 2 years travel anywhere. I would say, not bad after all. We have checked around 4 agencies and compared the ticket fare. We were able to get the less expensive for 3,700€ for 4 tickets, back and forth and we flew with KLM. Fortunately, it was with KLM because the individual televisions definitely helped us to get occupied while travelling. If in case you what to know, the kids managed to sleep even if they were tempted to watch all the cartoons series and films.

Who wants to wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning? No one, but we are talking about vacation here. Along with that, I don’t know if the kids like getting up in the middle of the night. You know those weekends when you want to stay at home in the couch drinking a hot cup of your favorite tea. However, when I woke them up they were so excited to leave. I have never seen them whining nor crying. Normally, when they know the need to wake up early they are very cooperative. Leaving France at 4AM is not really encouraging especially when it’s freaking cold outside. We left at exactly 4 in the morning and thanks to our friend Laurent who proposed us to accompany at the airport otherwise we didn’t have a choice to take the taxi. Lucky us, he’s really nice to offer us a ride.

From Marseille to Amsterdam the trip was okay. The kids managed to sleep a little bit. We had to wait 5 hours before the flight to the Philippines. Luckily, it was a direct flight and no stopovers. In that 5 hours at Schiphol Airport, we had breakfast, enjoyed our lunch and shopped at duty free to kill the time. Concocting a trip is never easy but we were able to plan ahead of time. We have made the complete itineraries and couldn’t help imagining and anticipating the trip. I could already feel a magic moment being home. I knew this was the great instant for some serious enchanting moment. But before my imagination went off rambling into that perfect trip, it was time to get on board .

Arriving Manila, the kids were fuelled up as they have been sleeping almost half the flight. At the NAIA, we only spent 20 minutes to claim the luggages, passed thru customs for verification and everything went okay. When we went out from NAIA I thought I was just dreaming when I saw Dad waiting for us outside. I took a few belly gasp and said wow, am I really HOME?? Then, I looked around and heard Tagalog speaking, people waving, OFW's with all their big boxes of Pasalubong for the family, smiling faces, the sun though we had a rain showers, good customer service. And because my son Sébastien asked me “Maman c’est ça les Philippines?“ (Maman, this is Philippines?) which I proudly answered “Oui” mon fils !” (Yes, my son) “Ah je sais! Parce que il fait chaud ici !”. (Ah I know! Because it's too hot in here!). Now I realized it was not a dream this is indeed real !


Surprises await you…..