Hontiveros-Pagkalinawan & Navarro, May 2008

My first cousin, Pia Hontiveros-Pagkalinawan, came to Bangkok from Manila for a two-week visit with her family. Her husband, Rwin, who is a police superintendent back in the Philippines attended some seminars at the International Law Enforcement Academy here in Bangkok.

Tita Pia is one of the daughters of Little Nio's Lola Chit, who is the younger sister of my father, Lolo Jun. One of these days I should attempt to map out the family tree so that Little Nio can see how he is connected to everyone else.



Here we all are at our home, with the dining table converted to a card table for a serious session of "Canasta". From left-to-right, My wife, Kanittha, then that's me carrying Little Nio, then Tita Pia's daughter Zoe, then my cousin Tita Pia, their eldest son Zach is seated, with their youngest Zed, and finally Tito Rwin.



While the four of us played "Canasta", the three older children watched several movies in the family room. Zach is on the left, with Zed lying down on the sofa behind, and Zoe seated on the right. Little Nio went up to his room to try and take a nap.

On the weekend we decided to rent a van and go off to Ayutthaya. Despite the heavy duty shopping they did manage to squeeze in some cultural activities... like riding elephants, wondering around ruins, and visiting a couple of small museums.



Just after the elephant rides. From left-to-right: Tito Rwin, Zach, Zed, Tita Pia, Zoe, then Little Nio being carried by Daddy, then his Mommy, and then finally Pa Kut at the end.



Here's Little Nio with his Daddy feeding the elephants.



We were also able to do a bit of walking around the ruins. My wife, Kanittha, then an Indiana Jones reject carrying Little Nio, and then Pa Kut. We're standing if front of some of the ruins leftover from the destruction of the ancient capital of Ayutthaya.



Here are the Pagkalinawan's stopping to strike a quick pose while walking around the market stalls surrounding one of the local temples. Tita Pia all dressed in blue, with Zed holding on to her. Zoe stands to the other side of them, with Zach behind her. You can see Tito Rwin in the back, waving.



All that walking around got us all tired and we sat down to a long leisurely lunch. While we started eating, Little Nio decided on taking a power nap first.



On the last evening of their visit, we were all able to get together for dinner at their hotel, Rama Gardens Hotel. We had dinner at "Capriccio's", which is the Italian restaurant of the hotel.