May 5, 2011
To start with a tangent, this particular post will have several tangents to follow. Being the early-morning seminary graduate that I am I love some well placed footnotes. So I’ll be taking the liberty of making some footnotes to help with flow (or could just make it all the more chaotic, these are the risks you take). With or without them this a long one. They all are these days.
I’m sure it has gotten to the point that you have all decided you absolutely must come to the Philippines to see me. And for that I thank you all and will now take you on a walk through the logistics of vacation here using my 3 week adventure I just got back from as a guide.
Tacloban-Manila-Baguio-Sagada-Baguio-Manila-Borocay-Manila-Tacloban-home
Step 1: Fly. I flew from Tacloban to Manila. It was my very first solo PCV flight and I think I did it rather well. 2. Taxi. This will be your first introduction to the fact that sometimes transportation will try to milk you for your money. Be firm in demanding the meter gets used. I actually used a fixed price cab the airport set up. 3. Night bus. Bundle up and sit back for the en route entertainment. Hopefully the movie won’t be too crass. Because I tell you what, nothing defines awkward like a bus full of Filipinos staring at the 8 Americans in the front thinking that Hot Tub Time Machine is an accurate measure of the USA. 4. Wake up early to get a seat on a no-reservation bus that leaves when filled. First one takes off at 5. If you see something that looks like a line* don’t stand in it. When the bus comes get a tall traveling partner to block the door and the rest file in under his arm. If there are not enough seats remember your in the Philippines and make your own,** but you’ll still have to pay for it.
5. Again wake up early and take the early no reservation bus. Avoid any crowd mentality and wait on the side of the road you know the doors will be when the bus pulls up even if the waiting shed is on the opposite side of the road. Also don’t buy into people telling you they are saving a seat for someone down the road. It is a no-reservation bus. 6. Take a late night bus. This will save you on finding a place to stay. Again bundle up,+ or else despite the late hour you won’t be getting any sleep at all.
7. Taxi to airport. Be a stickler on that meter. 8. Airplane. You may be sitting on the runway for a good 40 minutes before take off. 9. Tryke to the bus stop. If you are super starving or dying of thirst this may take two trykes so you can stop and get a mango shake. 10. Bus to the Jetty Port. Unlike previous busses this one will be super hot and super duper crowded. 11. Ferry to the island. Terminal fees are never included in anything so make sure you pay all those. 12. Another tryke, know the prices, don’t be had!
13. Luckily enough this step is just 12 and 11 in reverse. 14. Take a van. It is not that much more and it’s better than being late and missing your flight, and you deserve that AC. 15. Fly back to Manila. Beware, there will be delays in one airport somewhere in the Philippines that will cause all other airports to back up. This is when you can start to bring that stress you’ve had all week about that hour you had between your flights to Manila to the flight back to Tacloban to the forefront of your life. If you’d not been worrying all week because you had 3 hours between flights, start worrying. Spoiler alert!!! Someone is going to miss a flight. 16. Hope you’re wearing your running shoes! Take not 1, not 2, but 3 mad dashes through the airport. One off the plane to the ticket counter (with a second lap to the other side after you’ve cut everyone), one to the terminal and security, and then one to the gate where you will find your other friend who took the flight giving her 5 hours between flights. Helpful hints: avoid escalators. Say scuse po as you fly by people.++ Avoid eye contact as your cutting people in line. And apparently tell people your pregnant.† 17. Sit and wait. After all that running and worrying the flight in front of yours is way behind backing yours up. Eventually you will move gates but not for another 20 minutes. 18. Relax on your flight but be prepared for a rough landing. It is actually going to be the second rough landing of the day. If when you get off the airplane there are no airport crew waiting with umbrellas to get you from the plane to the bag claim start worrying. You’ve gone to the wrong airport, in the wrong city, in the wrong region. If it is raining, good job! You are in Tacloban in Region 8 where it refuses to stop raining! 19. Now you’re going to take 3 different Jeepneys to get to AlangAlang. If the last one doesn’t have at least 3 roosters sleeping in cardboard boxes you’ve done something wrong. Which is a shame because you’re so close to home. 20. When you get home text your RM… oh wait that is only for Volunteers. Everyone else can start planning your next big adventure of getting 3 weeks worth of laundry clean.
Now about that spoiler alert. J and I had bought our flights extremely close to each other because it was the only option we had. We set it up so we wouldn’t have to check bags and either check in on line or have C or M check in for us, worse case scenario stay the night in Manila. C and M’s flights had a nice big cushy window. Due to delays they actually ended up boarding their plane the same time ours did, which had them also landing in Manila the same time. The only difference was ours was in the same terminal. Theirs was in a different terminal and they couldn’t shuttle over in time. The girls missed their flight and are going to be taking one at 5 in the morning. What a day!
*So Filipinos don’t believe in lines. Which is frustrating. Most business is done by throwing your money on the counter over all the people in front of you and grabbing what you want. They do have lines but they don’t really mean anything. It is super frustrating, especially when they are at the bottom of the popcorn at the concessions. That’s why the hardest part about cutting people in the line at the ticket counter of the airport is being brave enough to swallow your idea of what I line is actually and just doing it.
**Something not so frustrating but very Filipino is the idea that there is always room for one more. On our bus ride to Sagada we all threw our bags in a pile and that was a seat.
+On the buses will be the coldest you will ever be in country. Wear your hat, coat, gloves, every pair of socks you own, a towel, anything to keep warm. Everyone on the bus, driver included, will be freezing, but the aircon will stay on full blast.
++ Filipinos love it when you use the language. Scuse po just means excuse me. Scuse means excuse, and po is just a way to make anything respectful. They love the irony of two Americans with 3 bags apiece running by cutting them off using their native tongue to some how justify how rude they are being.
† After we decided we had to cut the hundreds of people waiting to check in the guy had us running around to do our bags. After we got that settled he said go hurry then said something I didn’t understand. The only word I heard was pregnant. Our best guesses were either tell them your pregnant or I hope you’re not pregnant. Either way I got to be that person running through the airport, you know the one.
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