It took a total of 18 hours in the air to finally arrive in Manila. We first flew to LA where we then caught our flight to Manila by way of Hong Kong (now I can say I've been to Hong Kong, the airport counts, right???). The 14 hour flight to Hong Kong was exhausting, but we couldn't have asked for much better seats in economy class.... we sat in the very back of the plane where the rows become 2-deep instead of 3, so it was nice to have a row to ourselves.
We're in Hong Kong! I see it! 
We're keeping ourselves entertained during our 2 hr layover in Hong Kong!
Eric is streching out before we get on another flight to Manila.
When we arrived in Manila we were met by Joseph's older brother, Noel. Joseph was one of Eric’s favorite Filipino companions who now lives here in Utah. He was so accommodating to us and made our trip run so smoothly.
Manila is a HUGE city, and the streets are littered with billboards and huge buildings. We snapped a few photos on the way in and around town. It was good that Noel was driving us around, if we had gone with a rental or chosen to brave the public transportation scene, it would've been absolute mayhem.
Noel took us to the Patron House across the street from the Manila Temple where we met April Abao, Eric's 2nd to last companion. He set us up with a room for a few hours so we could shower and change into some temple-appropriate clothes.
Attending the Temple was a great experience. The Maharry's (a missionary couple from Eric's mission) are currently serving as Temple Workers, and they treated us to lunch right as we got there.
One of Eric's good buddies from home, Marc Price, is the AP in the Quezon City Mission, and he was able to sneak away and stop by the Temple while we were there also. Needless to say, we had quite a few familiar faces within our first few hours! As an anniversary gift, Joseph had arranged with Noel to treat us to a full massage at his favorite spa in downtown Manila. It lasted over an hour and was the greatest massage ever, and so relaxing, especially after all our time spent traveling.
After our massage it was time to gear up for a long night. We took an overnight bus (about 10 hours) to the town of Banaue. Banaue is home to the famous Rice Terraces, which many people claim to be the 8th Wonder of the World. From what we had read it was supposed to be worth the long trip there, and it definitely was!
We tried our best to get some sleep on the bus, the seats weren't in the best of shape, and the mountainous road to Nueva Viscaya isn't exactly "smooth", but arriving in Banaue at 6:00 am and having a full 2 days to recuperate made up for the rather uncomfortable night.
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