Finally! I have now been able to visit Kalibo during Ati-Atihan!
I had been wanting to go to Ati-Atihan for a really long time now because my grandfather's family is from there and because of its cultural significance as one of the most important festivals in Philippines. I was actually supposed to go around 15 years ago but I ended up getting sick right before the trip so I couldn't go. My friends have started recommending that I join other Philippine events but I felt that I needed to go to Ati-Atihan first.
I actually also planned to visit last year (2015) but as I made an attempt to book a hotel, I quickly found out that I was reserving accommodations too late as all places to stay were unavailable. I have a lot of relatives in Kalibo but they didn't me too well (I am very glad to say that this has now changed) so I didn't want to inconvenience people who barely knew me by asking to stay with them. As such, I decided to postpone my plans to 2016. This time around, I almost didn't make it either. When I was looking for available rooms, I only found a handful. I quickly booked a room then I proceeded to book my flight. Now I just had to wait for mid-January to come around. :)
But on my date of departure, things almost went horribly wrong. I was so tired and I lacked sleep the entire week leading up to my flight that I slept through all my alarms and I woke up 2 hours before my flight which was on a Friday. Usually the worst traffic day of the week. I was in state of panic because I thought I was going to miss my flight. I got ready in a flash but it took around 25 minutes to get a taxi - not that long considering the day and time but given that I was running very late, I was getting frazzled. (I should download Grab Car, Grab Taxi, or Uber one of these days.) When I was finally in my cab, I started thinking of options if I miss my flight (I knew there was one more flight later in the day but I was certain it would be fully booked.) By some stroke of sheer luck (to compensate for my misfortune of waking up late), there was no traffic all the way up to Resorts World. It took 10-15 minutes to get through the airport road construction traffic but I made it 45 minutes before my flight, just enough time not to be bumped off. Thank God! (As it turned out, my flight was delayed by about an hour, but I still don't know if I would have been allowed to check in less than 45 minutes before the planned departure time.) When I finally checked in, I just breathed a huge sigh of relief.
I will write more about my Kalibo experience over the next few blog posts, paying special attention to the Ati-Atihan Festival.
I had been wanting to go to Ati-Atihan for a really long time now because my grandfather's family is from there and because of its cultural significance as one of the most important festivals in Philippines. I was actually supposed to go around 15 years ago but I ended up getting sick right before the trip so I couldn't go. My friends have started recommending that I join other Philippine events but I felt that I needed to go to Ati-Atihan first.
I actually also planned to visit last year (2015) but as I made an attempt to book a hotel, I quickly found out that I was reserving accommodations too late as all places to stay were unavailable. I have a lot of relatives in Kalibo but they didn't me too well (I am very glad to say that this has now changed) so I didn't want to inconvenience people who barely knew me by asking to stay with them. As such, I decided to postpone my plans to 2016. This time around, I almost didn't make it either. When I was looking for available rooms, I only found a handful. I quickly booked a room then I proceeded to book my flight. Now I just had to wait for mid-January to come around. :)
But on my date of departure, things almost went horribly wrong. I was so tired and I lacked sleep the entire week leading up to my flight that I slept through all my alarms and I woke up 2 hours before my flight which was on a Friday. Usually the worst traffic day of the week. I was in state of panic because I thought I was going to miss my flight. I got ready in a flash but it took around 25 minutes to get a taxi - not that long considering the day and time but given that I was running very late, I was getting frazzled. (I should download Grab Car, Grab Taxi, or Uber one of these days.) When I was finally in my cab, I started thinking of options if I miss my flight (I knew there was one more flight later in the day but I was certain it would be fully booked.) By some stroke of sheer luck (to compensate for my misfortune of waking up late), there was no traffic all the way up to Resorts World. It took 10-15 minutes to get through the airport road construction traffic but I made it 45 minutes before my flight, just enough time not to be bumped off. Thank God! (As it turned out, my flight was delayed by about an hour, but I still don't know if I would have been allowed to check in less than 45 minutes before the planned departure time.) When I finally checked in, I just breathed a huge sigh of relief.
I will write more about my Kalibo experience over the next few blog posts, paying special attention to the Ati-Atihan Festival.
2 comments:
Is it Cebu Pac? They're always late. When they are, they allow late check-ins as long as it's still 45min before the new ETD, at least for local flights!
Yup, I flew Cebu Pacific.
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