Travel to Philippines

My home country in South Sulawesi, Makassar. One of the big islands in Indonesia. Then, I was accepted as a SEA-Teacher participant in Tarlac Agricultural University, Philippines. The first thing that crossed in my mind was that I finally got the chance to go abroad! Yay!

I took a flight from Makassar to Jakarta and then take another connecting flight straight to manila. What a long journey! But when I arrived in Manila, my tired is paid off. What a valuable opportunity to see the capital city of Philippines. The buildings, the bustle of the people, as well as the traffic system. After that, I met SEA-Teacher Batch 8 participants from other universities from Indonesia who were also accepted at Tarlac Agricultural University (TAU).

The location of TAU is in Tarlac, that's why their staff can only pick us up at the nearest airport, which is Clark Airport. We have to take 5-6 hours from NAIA Airport to Clark by using a P2P bus located at terminal 3 of the NAIA, by paying 380 PHP or around Rp.105.000. Unfortunately I was in terminal 2 so I had to find the airloop bus first to get to terminal 3 then finally meet the other participants. When we arrive at Clark Airport, we were welcomed by one of ELIA TAU's staff, Kuya Dick Dumlao. Kuya is a familiar greeting for older men who are single. We call him Kuya Lao.

We again traveled for 1 hour from Clark Airport to TAU. But in the middle of the journey we stopped at SM Mall, Tarlac to buy a simcard in order to contact our parents and relatives in Indonesia. We also had lunch together at Filipino fast food restaurant, Jollibee. Jollibee is a fast food restaurant that serves crispy fried chicken and white rice. Strangely, people eat fried chicken using spoons and forks. As Indonesians who are accustomed to eat with bare hands, we looked at each other and whispering "Shpuld we use a spoon or not?" Then shook heads with each other and kept the spoon and fork beside the plate and ate using bare hands. Indonesian Pride!