Day 5: Naga

I wake up early (the whole time difference thing going on) and I grab the Ipad .  I have internet!  YEAH!  And the best thing about Avenue Plaza is that it doesn’t matter where you are in the hotel….  You’ve got internet!  (okay, maybe not in the elevator)    With everyone in my room still asleep, I sneak down and enjoy coffee and a wonderful breakfast spread by the hotel.  This is where I find out that orange juice in this country is nothing but tang! 

I also bump into some of my cousins, one of them arriving from the US just for Daddy's event.  The family was starting to come in and I had to warn everyone that we have to be extra vigilant in making sure that everyone stays hidden so that Daddy does not find out.  This was hard to do considering all the family that was checking into the hotel and on our same floor!  The plan for today was to finalize all the little details for Daddy’s birthday and Family Reunion.  All the planning for this big event has only ever been through email and I wanted to make sure that the venue, the food, …..everything was ready and set to go. 

It took the better part of the morning to set up everything and we got the afternoon free.  Some of us just stayed in the hotel but some of us decided to go to the market.  I, especially HAD to go shopping because in an attempt to try and condense as much of the clothes down to minimum, I realized that I did not bring any clothes for T except for her celebration dress and shoes and her underwears!  I was soooo mad at myself!

For the first time during this vacation, we took the jeep to the palenke (market).  It was a treat and we took many pictures.  The cool thing about our jeep was that it was made by parts and different bits and pieces of found stuff that was made into a jeep.  These talented mechanics were also the owners and drivers and they are now earning a living from their talents.  Cool! 

The palenke was crowded and I really got good at bargaining.  .

We were able to buy some dusters (house dresses), but not a whole lot of anything else because it started to rain.But it was a good half day excursion and we got a good idea of the things that we could buy in Naga

 

We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon and called it an early night.  We were still adjusting to the time after all and tomorrow is going to be a big day.  I slept early again.  But S1 tells me that he and my brother in law went out drinking that night.   I must have been really tired because I was OUT and didnt know anything about it.