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1 August, 2010 - Best Laid Plans... |
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1 August, 2010 - Best Laid Plans... The morning of the 31st July started off just fine. At 12 noon on the dot, a van picked us up from our hotel at glorious Boracay Island (Philippines), where we had spent the past 5 nights. After a short ride to the docks, we jumped on a small boat to Caticlan. From Caticlan, we were scheduled to catch our connecting flight to Manila, then from Manila an overnight flight to Sydney. I had planned this connection meticulously a few months back to be as effortless and stress free as possible for all of us.
On arrival at Caticlan Airport, I found out that our flight had been delayed because the airport had closed down. "Bakit?" I asked the airport staff. "Because of bad weather, Ma'am.", he explained. "Kailan darating ang flight?" I asked again. He answered that he didn't know when the flight would arrive, but that he would keep me posted. Bummer. We went across the road for a simple Filipino meal, and two hours later, we boarded our plane. On arrival in Manila, we found out that the airport is split into several terminals in totally separate areas. Our itineraries for our connecting flight to Australia read "Centennial 2". Where the heck was Centennial 2? "You can catch a shuttle, Ma'am, it's only 20 pesos per person. But your connecting flight doesn't leave from Centennial 2, Ma'am, it says here it leaves from Terminal 1, International.", she explained, pointing at the bit of paper I was showing her. So off we trekked to Terminal 1, dragging our luggage with us on the shuttle bus. What should have been a 10 minute drive took nearly 30 minutes in the horriffic Manila traffic. Finally, we arrived at Terminal 1. Paying the driver, we dragged our luggage off and got ready to show our passports to the security at the entrance, when I see in big, bold letters a sign above that read "Domestic Flights Only". What the.....???!!! "I was told this is where we had to come!" I explained exasperatedly to the security guard. "No Ma'am. You need to go back to Centennial 2. Terminal 1 International is where you land when you arrive in Sydney." AARRGH!!! What should have been an easy and leisurely transfer from Boracay to Sydney was getting harder and more stressful by the minute... plus, we were running out of pesos to pay the next shuttle bus driver as well on top of the airport tax!! Thankfully, the next shuttle that picked us up didn't charge us for the trip to Centennial 2. 20 minutes later, we were at Centennial 2, checking in our luggage (thankfully, no overweight charges!). "Is it a full flight?". I asked. No, it was not. Great! After Take-Off, we could find ourselves some empty seats and spread out, giving ouselves more room for a comfortable night's sleep on our flight to Sydney. After clearing customs we began to look for the private lounge that we had enjoyed so much on our last Philippine trip. "No more, Ma'am. You need to have a business class ticket to enter. You cannot pay like the last time." "So is there at least a book or magazine shop that I can go to?" I enquired. I had just chewed through a novel and had nothing more to read while we waited for our flight to leave in 4 hours time. "No, ma'am, we don't." "Are you kidding? Are there at least boutiques I can look around in, or even a pharmacy?" I asked with incredulity. "No Ma'am. Just Duty Free and some restaurants." Duty Free consisted of 3 very basic sections for alcohol, cosmetics and general souvenirs. The "restaurants" were little more than 4 fast food options without tables and chairs. There was a Bar that looked a little hopeful at one end of the terminal that looked like it had a fairly decent selection of food. However, when we got closer, we found out that it was situated in the closed-off and glassed-in "Smoking" area of the airport, leaving us with a choice of eating and being asphyxiated or going hungry until 10PM. Sticky, hot and miserable, we made the decision to risk life and limb through passive smoking as we put our food orders in, then making a mad dash for the door when our sandwiches were ready. After only 5 minutes, I came out smelling like the Marlboro man.... We ate half heartedly as a toddler a few seats away threw a major tantrum, her parents trying to do the right thing by ignoring her until she was spent. "Give her a candy already! Pick her up! Do something!", we muttered under our breath as our ear drums came painfully close to shattering. Peter innocently asked them if they were on our flight; we heaved a sigh of relief when they replied in the negative. Thank God for small mercies.... The seemingly last hurdle was a new procedure in the Philippine International Airport of hand searching all bags, shoes and passengers. Painfully slow, we were advised that the reason for this was that they could not afford the technology to do this electronically. Delaying our flight by a further 45 minutes, we felt like rags by the time we boarded. Oh, and the flight? It was full. Chock-a-block. Not a single seat to spare, leaving us packed like sardines from the time we took off until the time we landed. As they say, the best laid plans of mice and men... no matter how carefully ones trip is planned, something can still go wrong. My advice? Always keep calm and carry a healthy sense of humour with you at all times!! I'd love to read about your travel misadventures!! I figured that at this stage of the day we can all afford to have a good laugh. Victoria x Victoria Ugarte is the Founder and Director of Postcards From Millie, a womens travel website. Based in Sydney, Australia, she draws inspiration from the courage of mind and spirit of her muse, Amelia “Millie” Earhart. Victoria spends 3 months out of every year traveling the world and writing about her adventure vacations on her website, keeping her readers posted on exciting destinations, itineraries, travel tips and resources, and challenging women to go beyond their current boundaries so that they may come home to themselves. Look Victoria up on http://www.postcardsfrommillie.com/
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