Oh boy, the jet lag and insomnia has thrown me for a loop! I've been trying to reestablish my equilibrium the past two weeks and it's still a work in progress. Normally, I would have written about this vacation already, but instead I barely got started. Well, for better or for worse, this is the first chapter.
My first real vacation since 1989 started
with a day off from work which gave me a chance to recheck what I had to bring to the Philippines. The
downside was having to wait another 36 hours before flight time. China Southern
Airlines was the airline I booked back in December and I got a pretty good
price and what I thought was as little layover time as possible. Unfortunately,
the airline changed the schedule of my return flight and rebooked me with an 11
hour layover in Guangzhou, China, instead of just 3 hours. Well I managed to change
that to “just” a 7 hour layover, still long but more manageable. But of course
things changed again, as I shall tell you later.
My outbound flight from L.A. to Guangzhou
was scheduled for 11:30 p.m. I was picked up from home at about 6:30 p.m. by a
company called Shuttle to LAX and what showed up was a private car - a brand
new Honda Accord with only one other passenger. When we arrived in LAX, I found
my way to the China Southern Airlines check in counters. I had already checked
in online from home and reserved my seats both for the LAX to Guangzhou leg and
the Guangzhou to Manila leg. All I had to do was check my baggage of presents
and make sure that my mileage was going to be credited with the airlines’ Sky
Pearl Club.
I proceeded to the assigned departure
gate, walked around a bit, then sat down to connect to LAX’s free wi-fi. After
waiting a couple of hours, we were informed that there was a flight delay and
the airline was kind enough to pass out some buns and bottles of water. I
didn’t partake since I was still full from dinner. When we finally boarded the
plane, the usual announcements were done but I had to listen really closely
because it was sometimes difficult to understand English spoken with a Chinese
accent. I soon found out one of the reasons why I got a cheap ticket. Or maybe
this is the trend nowadays. During my last trip 3 years ago on Korean Airlines,
we were given a kit containing a toothbrush, toothpaste, disposable slippers,
and an eyemask and had 3 meal services. China Southern didn’t have such a kit
and only served food twice. On the long flight to Guangzhou, I watched some
movies (Star Wars and some other forgettable one), listened to classical music, and tried to sleep without
much success.
The final approach during landing at
Guangzhou had a lot of cross wind but the pilot landed the plane beautifully
and as smooth as butter. The plane didn’t even bounce. Due to the flight delay,
we arrived in Guangzhou with only about 45 minutes to spare to catch my flight
to Manila. Still, I managed to put in a 20 minute walking workout by finding
the departure gate and walking back and forth. I really wanted to hit my
minimum of 30 minutes but it was time to board. Wouldn’t you know it, but we
had to wait on the tarmac for another flight delay of an hour due to bad
weather. I could have walked some more if we had stayed in the terminal! I’ll
have to make up for that 10 minutes some other time.
I left L.A. on Monday and arrived in
Manila on Wednesday. There must have been a storm since it was raining steadily
and the flight to Manila had a lot of turbulence. Nevertheless we touched down
in Manila safely and passed through immigration, baggage pick up, and customs
pretty quickly. My brother Larry had sent me a message a few days before to meet him at the letter X waiting area for arriving passengers. I asked
a security guard for directions, found the area and soon enough saw Larry
walking towards me. We walked back to where he parked the car and as we left
the area, I experienced something that was going to be repeated time and again
during my short vacation – Philippine traffic. My brother uses Waze to navigate
and even with that, one still gets stuck several times. Despite Larry telling me
where we were, I could no longer recognize anything. My former landmarks were
gone and the former wide open spaces of those landmarks were now crowded with
new buildings and highrises. Only when we entered the University of the
Philippines did some things still look familiar since I spent my college years
there. Prior to that, we stopped by a foreign exchange business in Cubao so I
could exchange dollars into pesos. The teller initially made a mistake and
indicated that I had given her $300 instead of $500. Good thing I noticed it
before the transaction was finalized.
I breathed a sigh of relief when we
finally arrived at Larry and Ninette's townhome in U.P. Professors Subdivision. My sister
in law- Ninette came downstairs to meet me and later her mother- Pilaring and niece-
Robynne. I also met Ninette’s and her sisters’ former au pair- Manang Liling,
who now cooks for them, and their helper- Vangie. Since Ninette was working
from home, and Robynne was studying for exams, and Pilaring was trying to
recover from a fractured arm and a cough, I excused myself to explore the
neighborhood and put in my workout for the day. Somehow, I made my way to
Tandang Sora and walked down that street, made a left on Congressional Avenue until I reached Mindanao
Avenue. All the while, I tried to walk on whatever sidewalk was available,
which was already uneven in the first place. I still had to dodge cars,
jeepneys, and tricycles because I had to step off the sidewalk several times
due to vehicles being parked there. I thought I was just going out and back on
that street but somehow got misdirected on the way back. Instead of making a right on Tandang Sora, I proceeded straight on Congressional Avenue. Thus, I couldn’t find the landmark
I made a note of on my way out.
Fortunately, I saw a sign saying U.P.
Professors Subdivision and asked the security guard how to get to Jade Street. It
turns out, that entrance happened to be Jade Street and my brother’s home was
at the end of that short block.Was I glad to find my
way back home because I still hadn’t bought a Philippine SIM card nor “load” for
my cell phone and couldn’t call anyone for help. That was my next order of
business: buying a SIM card and some load (prepaid credits). Every corner store
seemed to sell those but the first store I went to cut the SIM card too small
for my phone, so my brother ended up buying one and cutting it the right size
(one card can be cut to regular, micro, or nano SIM size). Next I bought 100 pesos worth of load but
despite following the instructions, couldn’t get the 4G data to work (or any G for that matter) even though I could
call and text. That would have to do for now.
(To be continued)
1 comment:
Everything they made was fresh and delicious. They shopped every morning at the neighboring island, Philippines Insider Travel Guide
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