Story of Ian & Mar
I didn’t know how many times people talked to me in Tagalog language since my arrival in Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Probably it’s because the facial resemblance between Indonesian and Filipino, that make us hard to be differentiated unless we show our passports. But apart from that, there was a huge enthusiasm feeling inside me. On that day, November 23rd 2016, for the first time in my life I did a solo traveling abroad, and this was also my first visit to the Philippines, the country whose culture is very similar to Indonesia.
Not so long after completing immigration process and exchanged money to Peso, I was picked up by Ian and Mariann, a couple of lovebirds who would tie the knot on the next 3 days. They were the main reason why I went to Philippines. Since more than 6 months ago, I’d been invited to their wedding party via Facebook. But for several months I struggled whether I would come/not, because not sure if I could save enough money to go. Fortunately, in D - 1.5 months my savings had been sufficient, so without hesitation I immediately booked flight ticket to Manila.
During our way to Ian’s house, the three of us chatted to each other while surrounded by Manila congested traffic, which was very, very similar to Jakarta. For a moment my thoughts went back to four years ago, when I first time met Ian..
2012
 |
| Ian, Stanley, me, Richie |
Circa September 2012, Parkour Indonesia held its 4th National Jamming in Surabaya. I was still represent Parkour Bandung at that time, and that's where I got acquainted with Ian, Richie, and Stanley for the first time. At first I thought Ian was a Singaporean (along with Richie and Stanley), but after knowing him further, it turned out that Ian is a Filipino who worked in Singapore at that time.
Since then, I just met Ian twice before this Philippines meeting. First, when he visited Bandung in 2015, then the second one was on LCG 2016 last January. It was also my first meeting with Mariann in that LCG.
BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY..
After ±1 hour trip through Manila traffic, finally the three of us reached Ian’s house around 10.30 PM. There were the other invited parkour friends who’d been arrived before: Leonard, Wellington, Jeremi, and Faiz from Singapore; then Takuya from Japan. After showering and changing clothes, I joined them chatting to each other until late night.
The next morning, after eating breakfast, the six of us hired Grab Car to go to Ninja Academy in Pasig area. Meanwhile Ian and Mariann headed to Ninoy Aquino Airport for picking up one more guest from UK, Tim Champion. He was about to land in Manila around 1 PM.
We spent most of the day jamming in Ninja Academy parkour indoor room, plus doing flip training in the foam pool. It was really fun and unforgettable training moment, but unfortunately I couldn’t do 100% effort because of my injured left ankle. So, I determined to myself that one day I should revisit this place without any injury... don’t know when.
From Ninja Academy, everyone of us went to Orchid Garden Suites Hotel at 7 PM. Mickie and Zerge, 2 Ian’s close friends, welcomed us there. They were the coordinators of Ian’s Bachelor Party. Although it wasn’t the last night for Ian as a bachelor, but that was the best time to celebrate last moment before he got married. Because on the next day (D - 1), the whole family + all overseas parkour guests had to go to Tagaytay City, the place where the wedding party would be held.
Around 2 PM on the following day, all of us went from Ian’s house by a van hired by his family. The trip to Tagaytay took about 2 hours, it’s like from Surabaya to Malang or Jakarta to Bandung. Unlike Manila which full of skyscrapers and traffic jams, Tagaytay has a cool weather and surrounded by hills.
Once in Tagaytay, we stayed in Days Hotel. There was a beautiful scenery on the backyard such as hills and lake. But unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and drizzling at that time, so we decided to rest for a while in our rooms. Just for the info, the seven of us were split into 2 rooms.
In the evening, after eating dinner we continued to survey the wedding location in Angelfields Nature Sanctuary, some kind of multifunction building surrounded by trees and vast garden. It’s suitable for garden party/outdoor wedding events. But unfortunately, the rain was getting harder that night, so all the family members decided to move the wedding location to indoor, because that would be very risky if it were kept being held outdoors. Then in the middle of the rain, everyone of us moved all the marital property from van to one of the houses in Angelfields area.
Back to the hotel, we couldn’t take a relax time yet. We still had one more “task” to be done, that was a short dance practice for the next day reception. Honestly, I was in an awry position at that time. If I refused to participate, I would feel very guilty to Ian; but if I accepted, I was afraid to embarrass myself and the others, because I’m not even a dancer and have no basic of dancing.
But... my commitment to give the best impression to Ian, Mariann, and the other friends made me get rid all of this shame and awkward feeling. After all, I was in another country which almost everyone didn’t know me, so... why should I feel ashamed?!
During the next few hours the eight of us were practicing dance choreography slowly step by step. Ian, Tim, Takuya, Leonard, Wellington, Jeremi, Faiz, and I; everyone of us collaborated as one team to give our best to Mariann on the following day. Just for the info, until that time Mariann didn’t even know about this surprise dance, so we practiced hard that night for the best performance sake.
THE WEDDING DAY
Saturday, November 26th 2016. It was still drizzling in Tagaytay, but it didn’t lessen our enthusiasm to prepare everything since the early day. After eating breakfast, we immediately showered and changing clothes, then continued to Angelfields Nature Sanctuary. Once there, the eight of us took time to do dance rehearsal 1-2 times in the reception room (of course unbeknownst to Mariann, because she was in her bridal makeup at that time).
Then during the next few hours, we spent time in one of the cottages in Angelfields area in order to wait the matrimony started. Between this time, Ian got prepared in the bridal room, while I chatted with the other family members who were also waiting there.
Not so long after the rain stopped, Ian had finished dressing with his wedding suit, then he continued to do a photo session with the best men. So happy watching them together during the photo session, especially for Ian who would be side by side with Mariann at the wedding altar in a few hours.
Finally, the long awaited moment had come. Around 14.30 PM the matrimony procession was started. It was really a proud and touched feeling for us to witness Ian-Mariann’s moment officially became husband and wife. Surely that was an unforgettable moment for everyone who attended in Angelfields.
After the matrimony finished; the bride, the groom, best men, and bridesmaids continued to do an outdoor photo session at the garden across the room. Luckily the rain had been completely stopped so that all the guest could sightseeing/taking pictures freely around the park. Meanwhile the seven of us chose to play some games at the 2nd floor building.
About 06.30 PM, the wedding reception was begun. All of the guests had taken their seats according to the table numbers, then MC opened the event with remarks to both sides of the family members. By the way, that was actually a nervous moment for me and the other parkour friends, because soon we would do a surprise dance perform for Mariann in front of all guests. Luckily I did this thing in another country, so that if it looked embarrassing nobody would laugh at me. And obviously I will never do this in Indonesia.
Not long after finishing dinner, finally MC called the eight of us onto the stage. During the next few minutes we threw away all the shame feeling for the sake of giving the best impression to Mariann. I didn’t know whether our performance was good/bad, but thankfully Mariann was quite impressed with our surprise dance that ended with Ian’s backflip.
After that, the show continued with game session, Ian-Mariann romantic dance, and some testimony speech from Mharya, Maryss (Mariann sisters), and also Leonard. Then, towards the last moment, the EO displayed all compilation of the wedding video on that day, followed by Ian-Mariann’s speech, and ended with the closing words from MC. Therefore, all the wedding processions of Ian and Mariann had already finished. Before going back to the hotel, we did a photobox session for our last memory there.
Returning to the hotel, finally the seven of us could enjoy our free time. It’s about 11 PM when we arrived, but instead of resting; Leonard, Jeremi, Wellington, Faiz, Tim, and I decided to swim at the pool not far from our hotel room backyard. Meanwhile Jeremi and Takuya were experimenting their cameras to take pictures/videos from the five of us. The weather wasn’t raining at that time, but it’s quite windy and foggy, so you can imagine how cold it was. But in spite of that thing, we could still have fun in our swimming/flip training there.
Once it’s finished around 1 AM, we hadn’t decided to sleep yet. Because that was our last night in Tagaytay, we still wanted to have fun more. So after showering and changing clothes, we took a night walk to the city monument located on the roundabout near from the hotel. We took photos/videos and did some camera experiment there. The thick fog + monument spotlight made the results became more unique. Then, after ±2 hours outside, we went back to the hotel and rested.
BACK TO MANILA
Sunday, November 27th 2016, the weather was unexpectedly so bright, unlike the previous 2 days. But unfortunately we had to leave Tagaytay and return to Manila. After showering and packing our stuff, we headed to Antonio’s Restaurant. Ian, Mariann, and the whole big family had been waiting us there. We ate breakfast and had quality time together with them.
Around 11.30 AM, the breakfast session with Ian-Mariann’s big family had been finished. Before leaving, we took pictures together for one last time. And with the end of this breakfast session, that also meant time to say goodbye to Wellington. He had to catch a flight back to Singapore at 5 PM, so from Tagaytay Ian and Mariann drove him directly to Ninoy Aquino Airport, while the others were still in the van.
Upon arrival in Manila, we went directly to Ninja Academy in Las Piñas area. We trained together with Parkour Philippines friends like Sherwin, Benjo, Jaime, Tirona, etc. There were also Ben Reddington, a close friend of Tim Champion from England. During the next 2-3 hours, we trained as pleased as we wanted and tried various obstacles there. And unfortunately I forced myself too hard without noticing my left ankle injury, so it's getting swollen again after the training session :p
But that wasn’t a problem for me, because this jamming moment with parkour friends from various countries is worth more than my “minor” injury, a quite rare chance for me indeed. We finished our training around 8 PM and continued to eat dinner, then went back to Ian’s house.
Like it or not, I had to take a rest from parkour training on the following day so that my ankle injury wouldn’t get any worse. By chance, I had an appointment to meet an old friend in Greenhills Shopping Center, which is located around San Juan area. I’ve known her since 9-10 years ago in Friendster era, and stay in touch until now. So, when I was in Philippines, I used this moment to visit her too. Meanwhile Tim, Leonard, Takuya chose to train with Ian; on the other hand Jeremi and Faiz hanged out in the mall with Mariann. After I finished my meeting and Ian’s group training were done, we reunited in food court to eat dinner. Honestly, I had a mixed feeling at that time. On one side, I was so glad with our togetherness; but on the other side, I was also sad because that was my last night in Philippines. Less than 24 hours away, along with Jeremi, I had to flight back to Singapore (we coincidentally ordered the same schedule return tickets).
The next day, because the plane to Singapore departed at 09.30 PM, Jeremi and I still had almost one day to explore Manila. The seven of us decided to do sightseeing around Intramuros, an old town area which is a heritage from Spanish colonial. After quite a long time walking around, we continued to do parkour jamming at the fortress in front of Mapua Institute of Technology. Because I was tempted with this attractive spot and couldn’t just stand watching the other friends moved, again.. I forced myself to train under the injured ankle condition. As the result, just before going to airport, my swollen left ankle became the last “souvenir” from Philippines.
Finally, it’s farewell time with everyone. Tim, Leonard, and Faiz would still be in Philippines for the next few days, meanwhile Takuya came back on the following day (November 30th). So, after saying goodbye to them all, Ian and Mariann drove us to Ninoy Aquino Airport. Honestly, it’s hard to say goodbye to this newlywed. It seemed like only the previous day I came to Manila, but the next thing I knew was I had to come back to Indonesia. It’s true that time will be felt so fast if we enjoy it.
±3.5 hours later, Jeremi and I arrived in Changi Airport Singapore. At the end, we had to be separated by passport status in immigration. I headed to check-in counter for continuing my flight to Surabaya, meanwhile Jeremi came back to his house by taxi. Although the flight schedule to Surabaya was still long (07.40 AM), but I decided not to sleep that night rather than missing the plane because of oversleeping. During this waiting time, I took a walk around the airport while playing back this one-week-sweet-memory inside my mind. Ah, if only I could turn back time..
Thankfully I could arrive safely in Juanda Airport around 09.00 AM. Therefore, it’s time to go back to my daily routine as usual, working hard and saving more money for the next trip. Then for Ian and Mariann, thank you so much for hosting me along with the other parkour friends during in Philippines, I owe a favor to you two. Hope one day we have a chance to see each other again... and, happy honeymoon!
Comments
Post a Comment