Last year, we were supposed to celebrate pogiBoy’s birthday in Disney Euro. We booked a Disney hotel for 4-nights, the Park tickets, some shows and even a guided trip to Paris. All except a travel insurance. I thought we were saving a few pennies by booking it separately. But before we did get one, hubby was diagnosed with appendicitis.

In Pinas, that would result in a surgery straightaway. Here they waited, and waited, and waited. It’s a long convoluted story. The end result of which is hubby lost so much weight (and he didn’t have enough to begin with) and we didn’t go to Disney. Money down the drain.

To make up for it, I bullied hubby into booking a summer holiday. Destination: Cuba.

We stayed a few days in Havana. We did a Hemingway tour and managed to see the Cojimar town where his “The Old Man and the Sea” was formulated. We walked and walked and saw all of Havana’s main features, including Malecon. Around Havana Vieja, I felt like I was back in my HUM I trip to Ilocos. The epi-centre was also like Barcelona’s. Remember what they used to say in our history lessons? Spanish towns are always built around the church? It’s a global truth in the places I’ve visited at least.

The locals are friendly. Para kang nasa Pinas. Our cultures and norms (including their timekeeping) are almost the same. Almost even the poverty. Of course, in our case it’s mostly due to greed and corruption. Over there, I guess it’s due to the pride/ideals of their Leader (whether that’s good or bad is a different topic).

Everywhere you look there are government posters and propaganda about the Revolucion. Che’s face is everywhere. He’s their equivalent of McDo or Coke in terms of number of billboards and is treated almost the same way commercially. Kulang na lang pati toilet paper lagyan nang mukha nya.

i was going to post a  vintage car, but this is more interesting di ba?

We moved to Varadero when Hurricane Ike arrived. There pogiBoy and hubby swam with native dolphins. I drank lots of strawberry daiquiris. We ate, we swam, and ate again. pogiBoy enjoyed the holiday so much that when we told him it was time to go leave, he asked us what are we going to do at home. We only stayed for 7-days and he was right, it’s not enough. We should have stayed for 2-weeks.

On to the next trip then?

During the last quarter of 2008, we decided to spend the long Christmas holiday with my sisters in Dubai.

Both of my sisters are now there and the elder I’ve not seen for nearly 8 years! Her daughter is 9 months younger than pogiBoy and I’ve only seen her on pictures. Each time we scheduled a trip to Pinas, something always happen.

This time around talagang sure na. Ang di lang natuloy sila Nanay at Tatay. pogiBoy had a fantastic time with his cousins. He even gained 1kg!

My sisters and their families were fantastic hosts. We saw everything there is to see in Dubai. We did the desert safari and went dune bashing. We saw all the wonderful malls. Hubby, pogiBoy and I also spent two days on our own wandering around old Dubai: Deira and Bur Dubai. We rode the abra several times and even took the public bus (even though their maps are horrible and they have no timetable at the peak of tourism season!).

I have about 800+ pictures but no time to pick and update for posting.

We welcomed the new year together with a feast of seafoods. Lobsters, prawns and crabs galore talaga. I’m not a fan of lobster, but I rarely have fresh seafood so lafang!

The best part of this trip and most surprising was for the first time, we actually made God a part of the celebration. My elder sister and her family recently became born-again Christians. And it was good to be involved in their fellowships. It gave hubby and I a chance to reflect on what we’ve been trying to incorporate in our lives but were failing at. There’s a lot of things I want to say here, doubts, misgivings, truths and my Faith-by-birth but on another day perhaps.

I’m just glad that we got to spend 17 very meaningful days with my (nearly) entire family. This is definitely the best and most enjoyable holiday we had since 2001.

As pogiBoy always asks: What’s next, mum? PILIPINAS naman sa Mahal na Araw. WOOHOO!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 12:24 am and is filed under holiday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.