This trip was anything but spontaneous. With four pets to bring (and having recently lost one), you can't really leave any room to chance. People always talk about the beauty of spontaneity and last-minute decisions but there is an under appreciated quality to the most carefully laid out plans. All too often, plans get lost and forgotten along the way so the ones that do make it past the variety of 'Let's Have Lunch Sometime' and 'Catch Up Soon' are pretty special. It's actually been a really long time since we went on vacation and it wasn't easy to decide on a place that had everything we needed. And so we kept calling, researching, asking friends and friends of friends - the first question always being: Are pets allowed? Eventually we found this private little place in Laiya, but I guess you could say she found us.
In the heart of Paranaque you'll find the original Dampa seafood market, which is where this story begins. Raw cattle limbs hang from the ceiling beams, and there's a gash on my left shin from one of the pincers of the crab I'm carrying. 'Hell hath no fury like a crustacean about to be fried to perfection', I think, while Bianca haggles with a market vendor in her wonky Tagalog.
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Mama's writing a checklist off the top of her head and it feels like we've packed our entire home at the back of the SUV. The backseat is a little crowded, but it feels lovely to have our pets cuddled on our laps, not knowing where we're going.
We have the entire place to ourselves in spite of the peak season, and the sun feels warm - not in the stuffy, glaring way the Manila sun hits you, but this kind of warmth feels nice and comforting. Mama and I fall asleep in a cabana on the first day (always the most exciting day!). Stomachs full from a hearty lunch, I sleep for what feels like a decade. I wake up to Alex and Bianca laughing at Louis, who is busy chasing waves and digging rocks on the shore, and I have no clue as to what time of the day it is. Life is good. The pool water is from the mountain and even in the midday sun I'm feeling for a swim. Mountain water is healing, or so they say, and I probably believe them.
On our last day, that's when I take the most pictures. Stealing bites off the grilled corn before dinner, sending off our letters into the ocean, dipping my feet into the water a half a mile off shore, swimming with the fluffies - I want to remember everything, because even now as I write this I've already begun to forget. One of my most treasured memories is catching Mama and Papa acting like complete teenagers in the pool after sun down. They're slow dancing in the water, and singing together, and just like that there are tears in my eyes.
In Laiya we spent a couple of nights, just enough time to say goodbye without feeling like we hadn't gotten to know the place. Going elsewhere always feels wonderful, but it always reminds me how much I love coming home.
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