Blog Saturday 22nd October 2022 – 2nd trip to Philippines, other updates and the opposite back to the UK!

As the, perhaps, “one person” who has stumbled across my blog for some time, will know, it’s not too uncommon to have a pretty long gap between each of my personal blog post, and … yeah, it’s been a while since I last posted a blog. For context, I’d literally just got back +1 week from my first initial visit to the Philippines when I posted the last one, since that point, however, it’s fair to say a lot has happened since then. Not only have I being back in the Philippines, but, a whole collection of nerve wracking waits and processes have been run through, partially the reason why this blog hasn’t been done sooner … so, yeah, quite a lot.

2nd trip to the Philippines

Around 3 months since the return from the Philippines, I knew from the first trip that I needed to see Hannah as soon as possible, and that came with a trip to the Philippines in May ending in June this year. This trip was twice as long, and even more significant in terms of shaping the future I’ve been longing for, for honestly, longer than I’d ever realised. If I was to describe the second visit to the Philippines in terms of its significance, I would say, if the first trip was testing the water, this trip was easily the confirmation of every single thing I could have ever hoped for. This trip was far more focused on me and Hannah, versus the last trip which was very tourism heavy, which I can 100% say was the best decision ever as this, along with other things too, is what made me confident that she is literally the one for me!

An almost simplified journey

One of the things I was far more relaxed about when it came to returning to the Philippines was, that, it was a return to the Philippines. I’d done the journey before, I knew where to turn, where to go and what-not to do. So, everything is going to go smoothly, we’re going to set off, fly, land, meet and give Hannah the biggest hug and everything is fine right? …. no. 

Lost luggage in Cebu

Checking in to the Philippines in May was such a huge contrast to when I went in March. In March it was crowded like crazy and took so long, but May we were straight through?? Mad. It’s most likely the reason was because it was only late February 2022 when they allowed visitors in to the Country, but, whilst being quicker in would typically be a good thing, this opened up a pretty annoying start.

Mactan Airport isn’t the biggest Airport in the world, naturally, so there’s only 2 baggage trays for your luggage to come through, and thanks to being early, we had the great joy of waiting forever for your bag to come through. You may remember from my last blog, that on the way home to the UK my back was dead last … well, somehow the Philippines managed to go one step further than that and not give it to me. 

Thankfully, with our AirTag attached to our Luggage, I was able to define that it was in the Philippines my luggage, and not still in Qatar or the UK, so I’m thankful to say it was an admin error. Though it was quite a journey to try and get some form of movement in regards to getting someone to look for our luggage, not even for the language barrier as they could speak English, just incompetence really. BUT, thankfully 30 minutes later, we managed to get our Luggage.

We’re back together

Once the initial annoyance and anxiety was over with the luggage, it was finally time to leave the Airport and be reunited with the most important person in my life … and family. It was strange entering the Philippines without that sense of complete unknown, and admittedly it wasn’t quite the same without the unknown of meeting 4 others, but was still so happy about meeting Hannah, alongside her family too. Initially, their was a bit of a rush as thanks to the delay picking up the Luggage, we were approaching the limit time to check in to the Hotel we were staying at, so did a quick phone call to make sure we were all good, thankfully we were. 

Made a different choice of Hotels for the second visit, decided on a cheaper, but mostly more conveniently located Hotel. First Hotel was a “5 star”, though to be honest to me it was slightly above average but with excellent WiFi, this was a “3 star” hotel, so wasn’t sure what to expect, but I will say … it felt 3 star. I’m not saying it was rubbish, but we had doors that didn’t close correctly, and was my first encounter with cockroaches which was … interesting. For the record can I just say I was incredibly manly when I saw the daddy cockroach the size of my entire inside palm ….. not. Hannah was insane, she heard the clicking, saw the huge thing, and just attacked it like crazy, with my shoe, should of been hers she used instead, but it was left there on the floor for the cleaners to deal with. Other than that, thankfully the Hotel was actually fairly ok, sure the WiFi wasn’t quite as amazing as the first, but the biggest upgrade was the TV, we have a TV that we could ACTUALLY plug things in to, which was awesome, so was able to plug in my MacBook in and get things going, was able to watch Movies, TV shows, anything simply and easily which was huge. 

Anyone who remembers my last blog will know the biggest reason I didn’t bring the iPad Pro, as it seemed to trigger ALL of the 4 scans in Airports, but as expected the MacBook checked in perfectly normally.

The movie choices were…

With the options to watch basically anything, the choice of what to watch was put in the hands of Hannah … for better or worse. I’m not saying Hannah’s choice of movies were bad, but they all had the same theme; romantic with a hint of death and depression! Really, Ben? … Yes, we went from death from cancer, to breakups due to arguments which turned out to also be a life threatening illness, EVERYTHING was depressing. I, personally, like a comedy, not necessarily feel good, but definitely something that ends and you still feel good about it, or Pokémon but Hannah’s not quite in to that, grr hahah. 

Needless to say, when the tables turn and Hannah’s over here and perhaps I’m in charge of the TV box, they’ll be no death defying illnesses and romantic heartbreak … unless my Mum has any say in it, guess we’ll see on that one. Though, more on the turning tables later.

More time for you and me … mostly

Whilst trip 1 was obviously checking how we worked in person, with a ton of friends to meet, the nervousness of the family check and trying to temper everyone trying to turn everything in to tourism central. What I wanted from this trip, was as much of me and you time between me and Hannah as possible, and, whilst that took a bit of double/triple/quadruple checking and assurance to make sure that happened, for the most part, we were exclusively together, which, honestly made for the most favourite parts of this ever. 

From a combination of going to a shop for her to get some clothes, to visiting a full-on Safari with her and some of her family, the time we spent together was very varied but honestly I loved every single moment and it just made me love her even more. 

Obviously my thinking around spending as much time as possible was of course to check if we were compatible in far more serious long term ways; living with each other, for example, spending time with each other with as little of distractions, as that is obviously the long term aim with Hannah, living together and everything else, which comes in a successful relationship. What I’d regard as incredibly significant about this, is that this is the very first time in my entire life where I’ve actually wanted to live with some, the thought of a future married doesn’t terrify me; these things and more just keep reminding me that she is the one. 

Obviously, whilst nothing is perfect, we had a few moments of disagreements, mostly in regards to wanting her to perhaps take me a bit more seriously when talking about the future prospect of her coming her in the UK, we’ll get to that later, but if every single day of the trip was full of nothing wrong, in a way it wouldn’t be real. So, even if we’ve the odd remaining niggles to work on, I’m still confident she’s the one and I know that the longer we spend together, the more we will grow.

An animal Safari to an oceanic park and what?

Whilst we did spend a ton of time with just me and Hannah, which was honestly the best, I also spent more time with Hannah’s family and met quite a few new friends, which was a perfect excuse to see some new sights and experiences. Most of them ended up being fairly wildlife based. 

We’d spoke about going to the Cebu Safari Park last time I was in the Philippines, but we never got around to it, but this time we did it with Hannah and her family and we actually had a fairly decent day. Had to rent a car which was an event to get prepared, but once all was sorted we were on our way. Unlike the basics like Ponderosa, we actually saw some pretty crazy animals, from Giraffes, to Lions, Zebras, Crocodiles and so many more. It was a very memorable day and we took a million and one photos so many ways to look back.

Whilst this was yet another day with the family, I was happy that me and Hannah had a number of days exclusively together between us and one of those was another wildlife based one, this time an Oceanic Park. Whilst we’ve gone from Lions to fishes, the most important part was spending time with Hannah and we shared yet another memorable day and here’s to many many more. 

More new friends, karaoke and a reunite with a BFF

Not too dissimilar to the original trip, on this one was meeting a collection of new people, almost lost count of the number of people met for the first time, but that was certainly the case. Most of them were the calm shy personality of Hannah, though the odd exceptions of loud and crazy mixed in to there too. 

Journeys include trips to historic sights, mostly religious ones, as well as karaoke booths, something certainly not seen much in the UK, but actually kind of crazy. To be fair, I think I do remember seeing something like them around the Coast, but certainly not anywhere around where I live. 

Reunite with a BFF

Despite some unfortunate quarrels that led to the group that started Trip 1 falling apart, thankfully one still remained close, Chona. We met up, alongside her cousin, with Hannah, which led to, honestly just a fun day out. We all went to one of those karaoke booths too, but we also just hung out in a City, went to amusement park and gained some unwanted subscription cards to each of them.

The start was slightly awkward as I was not only trying to break the ice, but some stubborn personalities were refusing to make up, thankfully later they did, but it all started by buying everyone a meal, mine was fairly awful but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

Whilst I’m not going to the Philippines again until next year, I still look forward to hopefully seeing them again next time I’m over there.

No parking space for … the plane? Yeah!

Unfortunately, whilst the trip was honestly the highlight of my life so far, all things have to come to an end, and this was no exception and it was back to sunny Blighty. Thankfully, we’d learned from the previous leave in the Airport and made sure to make all the goodbyes before we got to the inside, and made sure she had company to get back home safely too.

One mistake I did make on the Transit flight back in Qatar, I decided to buy something, I know I’m crazy. I purchased a small box of Pringles and a Fanta, seems normal so far … except it was nearly £20 when converted. The Yorkshire man in me almost fainted, I won’t be buying there again haha.

The worst thing about the last day is that you know you’ve got a day together, but you’ve that awful side emotion of its the last day for such a long time. We spent most of the day literally just spending time together before the eventual trip to the airport. Had a last Jollibee, then kept close then of course it was time to go for the Flight home. The smooth sad flight home … one of those words is wrong

Land in Manchester

For some reason, whenever I fly to the Philippines, it always seems to be the return to Manchester. Last time, it was the choice of me getting lost in Manchester, but this time it was the Airport itself. For some, unclear reason, the Airport was literally unprepared for the flight even arriving. We landed in the UK pretty much bang on time, however for some reason there was no parking bay for the Plane … no really! I will say this, though, I’m glad that this happened in the return flight and not any of the flights that landed in the Philippines, but it is just another addition to the returning to Manchester curse. Who knows what we’ll get next year there haha, we’ll keep you posted.

And we’re back

Eventually after a near-3 hour wait … no genuinely, that’s how long it took for the plane to get a parking space, we were finally in the UK. Due to the continued issues with the plane, as you can imagine the last thing I felt like doing was going on a Train, to then a bus, so it was time to get the emergency lift arranged. Was picked up the same way I was delivered, though with the additional of a £6 Parking fee, ahh well, I’ll take that over a £15-20+ public transport.

What a trip, the huge of what’s next, and more…

I don’t think I could possibly of hoped for a better conclusion than what I got from the second trip with Hannah because what I got was everything I needed, another perfect few days with the woman I love. Add in to that, reuniting with an important friend, more memories made with some new faces too, just all made for two of the best weeks of my life so far.

I get asked quite a lot at work, what the heck is wrong with you … though, that’s mostly because I’m a strange individual, but I also get asked it because I never used to do overtime and now I’m working incredibly hard, sometimes unsociable hours to get as much money as it possible to get! Whilst you do that, you regularly think to yourself, what am I doing… well, let me tell you this, those two weeks are why I do all this, the 3 weeks over here is why I do all this (we’ll get to that), the future of my entire life with the woman I want to spend it all with, is why I do all that!

3 weeks over there?

Unfortunately, that trip ended in June, so it’s literally being now 4 months between it now. However, what I’m very happy to inform, is the beginning of 3 weeks in the UK with Hannah. But before we get to that, I’d say it’s pretty fair to say that in between, life has generally just moved on, working weeks, overtime weekends, trips to the pub and looking for any excuse not to work in the office, standard. But, one huge thing on top of that, of course, when we can get back together because this time, it’s the turn of Hannah coming here! Oh yes.

I’ll be going over the bulk of it when this trip, which starts today, has ended but let’s just say Visas are not fun, and waiting years for something with little excuse for a delay will always be annoying.

But, for the first time in its literal accuracy, watch this space and I’ll fill you in hopefully in about a month.