Monday, March 24, 2008

Stress-free airport ride and wait

IC and MC getting busy

Off to the airport after ticking off our list of things to do.

We had three luggages, two big ones and one small. Actually, we have a secret weapon as we were planning to shop til we drop: one big, sturdy bag is folded inside one of the big luggages. We arrived at least two hours earlier before our flight and as expected, the check in counter for Thai Airways was already open.

There was a slight snag though, the kids, having only their temporary kiddie passports from Deutschland; were not allowed to fly to Bangkok using those passports. There was a change in policy in Thailand which our 'friendly travel agent' never even bothered to inform us, duh! My hubby was prepared to skip Bangkok and fly direct to Manila but then I reminded him that the kids have also their Philippine passports. Problem solved! But next time, we told ourselves to check everything and not rely on our travel agent.

We waited for at least two hours but we were prepared to wait as I have filled the backpacks of both girls with crayons, papers, card games and toys. And of course, there were the restaurants. Plus, we got to play penpen de sarapen; a play involving only the fingers and knowing the words to the 'pen pen de sarapen song.' We were the hit while waiting for boarding. Imagine the girls talking in Deustch and English and singing and playing a purely Tagalog 'pen pen de sarapen'? There were confused smiles and questioning glances.

In case you want to know the lyrics of 'pen pen de sarapen', here goes:

Pen pen de sarapen
de kutsilyo de almasen
how how de carabao
batuten

sipit namimilipit
gintong pilak namumulaklak
sa tabi ng dagat

sayang pula, tatlong pera
sayang puti, tatlong salapi

timpalok, timpalok
sampung manok!

And the game goes like these: Everyone who wants to join simply needs to spread their hands while singing and the appointed leader of the game would simply point and pass on to every fingers. When the song ends in a particular finger, that finger would have to say goodbye and would not be counted for the next song. This would go on until all the fingers said goodbye. The kids love this.

And oh, we also did the 'ilong, ilong' (nose, nose) where you need to point the nose two times and try to confuse the players by saying a part of the face/body yet pointing to the wrong part. We had fun and it was not boring for the kids while we waited for two hours. After all, we had to sit for almost 10 hours on our flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok.

Most important things to have a stress free airport ride and wait:
1. We loaded up our luggages in the car a day before our flight.
2. We were ready at least an hour before driving to the airport (the kids were ready three hours before our scheduled pick up!)
3. My hubby took care of checking the last minute list; I did the re-checking
4. The kids got a load of things to do on their respective backpacks: crayons, papers, card games, toys and some extra, sweets.
5. We arrived early so we skipped the long line at the check in counter
6. We took time for a stroll, for some snacks, for an art work, and to play

10 comments:

Vk-mahalkaayo said...

hello raqgold,

happy easter monday....
anong niloto mo kanina?
ako ay as usual....sana nandito ang familya ko-natin, sa atin sana ano?
side naman sa atin, kasi kahapon sa side ng asawa natin.

pero ok lang, panay naman ang txt namin sa mga kapatid ko, dito lang ako sa pc, kasi hindi ako marunong sa cfon....through Chika.com?

kaya lang bayad nila 2.50 psos ako libre naman ok lang....

hindi naman kami nakalabas ngayon kasi ang lamig at nagsnow pa,
nass talaga, kaya ayaw kong lumabas......naglaba nga ako, 5x.....lol

so bukas, plansa naman.....

Vk-mahalkaayo said...

alam mo, naexperience din namin yon, hindi makalabas sa airport, kahit na naka book na ang stay namin sa Dubai yon.
we planned to stop in dubai for sightseeing lang.

yon, everything ok na sabi ng agency, kaya lang pagdating namin sa dubai, hindi kami pinalabas kasi yon, wala daw kaming visa....

magalit man wala ng mangyayari....kaya yon, stay na lang kami sa airport, wait sa flight for germany, tagal talaga namin sa airport.

Vk-mahalkaayo said...

meron pa akong experience, first time kong umuwi with kim alone,
last 2003, kami lang 2, via air Brunie kami.

naku, ano ba yon, sa brunie airport, standby kami ni kim, kasi yon passport ni kim ay yon children pass lang, na wla ang name ko as mother ko.

kasi yon passport ko ay pinay pa....

stranded kami, kasi i-confirmed pa daw nila kung totoo ba na ako ang nanay ni kim....fax daw sila dito sa germany n pinas....

kahit na anong gawin namin ni kim, sabi pa ni kim na totoo na nanay ako....

sabi pa, na ganoon daw ang mangyayari, marami daw mga happenings, lalo na sa mga Pinay...

na kidnap daw ang mga anak or yon mga alaga lang daw, kidnap daw...

or baka daw nag-quarrel kami ng asawa ko at dinala ko ang anak ko pauwi sa pinas...

ay naku ang daming salita sa Custome.....very strict pa sila magsalita.

after 5 hrs, siguro yon, yon pinatawag kami.....

OK lang, kasi nag SORRY naman yon babae na yon-who controlled us.

pero umiyak talaga ako, kasi pagod na pagod na ako.....

pero ok naman, sabi nila pa....they ´re only doing there job daw....Nagsabi naman ng Sorry....kaya ok na lang ako.

kaya, next time kahit saan, dala ko talaga ang mga birth certificate ng mga bata.....kasi yon ang gusto nila.

thanks for sharing the post.

ako takot na ako magtravel mag-isa.....

tintin said...

R, iba yung alam ko...mine goes like this:

sayang pula, tatlong pera
sayang puti, tatlong salapi

ipit namimilipit
gintong pilak namumulaklak
sa tabi ng dagat
alis!


:)

Naka-aliw your kids!

Anonymous said...

Raq, glad to know you had a stress-free travel and all because of being organized. Aba, hindi alam ng mga anak ko ang pen pen de sarapen :)

I am happy to have met you and your family. Till the next visit!

Weng Zaballa said...

hi raq, thanks for visiting me and for the comments :)... God Bless!

raqgold said...

vk - stay lang kami sa bahay yesterday kasi di pa ako tapos mag laba e, hehe. that means, it was also my hubby who cooked for us. kakatamad magluto after five weeks na may tagaluto :D it's really a problem with those kiddie passports, thanks for the advice, next time i would bring also the birth cert of the kids, just in case. ayoko ng hassle sa airport. stress yun!

tintin - uy, mas mukhang tama yata yang version mo ng penpen de sarapen, hahaha.

julie - teach them na the penpen de sarapen para makapaglaro sila ng kids ko next time :D

wena - you are very much welcome. God bless too!

haze said...

Helpful tips Raggold! I think I need to memorize some tagalog songs, nagkakabali-baligtad kasi yung words ko! Sa katagalan :D! Back to reality na naman !

Anonymous said...

ay, sana may youtube nung naglalaro sila :D

raqgold said...

hi haze - i also needed help with the tagalog lyrics but now that we've been listening and singing them, okay na ulit :D good luck!

lady cess - mahirap yatang mag-video habang naka-latag yung mga kamay mo for penpen de sarapen :D