Philippines Vacation 2016 – The First 3 Days (due to the International Date Line)

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. One observation I have to mention about China Southern Airlines – on the flight from L.A to Guangzhou, I never saw a smile among the flight attendants the whole time until we stepped out of the plane. Maybe they were just tired. Smiles were more abundant among the crew from Guangzhou to Manila.

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)

Returning To Los Angeles From Zamboanga

Goodbye #59 Pilar St. - My home for two weeks.

(Cue music: J. Cole’s “I’m Coming Home”)

Thinking back to the night before I left Zamboanga City, I am hoping we had met all our dear Mama’s wishes before she died. I can’t think of anything we missed so I’m comfortable in thinking that we had done all she asked for in her last days and the few days that followed. Would you believe that a couple of years ago, Mama told me her goal was to reach at least the age of 80? Well, she planned that perfectly too. Incidentally, that happens to be my goal also. That evening, Larry and I invited the Pabellon and Tupaz families to dinner at the Grand Astoria Hotel Lotus Restaurant. Other than the children, this was the same group that planned Operation Pilar two weeks before and executed the plan to a T. As I mentioned before, these two families were the source of moral, emotional, spiritual, and physical support of Mama in our absence. We cannot thank them enough for what they have done to help Mama the past few years and especially the last few months, when the demands of her illness most likely also put a strain on those two families. We will owe them a debt of gratitude forever.

Dark and early Thursday morning, it was time to catch my 6:45 flight from Zamboanga to Manila. The compulsiveness to exercise will have to be satisfied later in the airport terminal hallways. Larry drove me to the airport taking a slightly circuitous route along Cawa-Cawa Boulevard. If I only knew that going all the way down Governor Lim Avenue took me to the seaside boulevard, I would have made that one of my exercise destinations too. Maybe if I ever make it back to Zamboanga, I’ll be able to run or walk along Cawa-Cawa. Larry dropped me off at the airport and and I felt sad as we hugged each other goodbye. He was staying a day or two more to tie up any loose ends. I was left to fend for myself one more time. You won’t, and I can’t believe how much dependent I had become on other people in the two short weeks I was there. Taken out of my element, I had become helpless and useless in Zamboanga.

Pretty soon Airphil Express departed Zamboanga City and landed in NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) Terminal 3. I had plenty of time to make it to Terminal 1 as I had a four hour layover. I asked an airport worker and a desk police officer where I could catch the shuttle bus. They pointed me to a certain direction. I went there and boarded the bus which left quickly because I filled the last seat. During my arrival a couple of weeks before, I had taken the shuttle from Terminal I to Terminal 3 without any problems. A few minutes into the trip, I noticed that we appeared to be going farther away from the airport so I asked my seatmate where the bus was heading to. She said Baclaran. Oops, that’s not where I wanted to go so I approached the driver to make sure. Sure enough the bus was heading downtown, so I quickly jumped off. How was I to know there where two kinds of shuttle service (one that went around three terminals and one that took you downtown)? I hailed a taxicab and asked to driver to take me to Terminal 1 where I was supposed to fly on Korean Airlines back to Incheon and L.A. I requested the driver to please turn on his meter since he hadn’t in the few seconds I was in the back seat. He started a conversation about his missed opportunity to move to Italy a few years back. Without being too specific, I told him why I was in the Philippines. Thankfully, the conversation was short because I had not been dropped by the shuttle bus too far away from NAIA. It was an 85 peso taxi ride (about $2.00).

I entered Terminal 1 and looked around for the Korean Airlines counters. Owing to my disorientation, I lined up behind a couple of people not noticing that one of them was in a wheelchair. Another oops because this was the handicapped line and I was redirected by an airport worker to the proper line. After checking in, I headed to the nearest money changer and except for a few hundred pesos for the terminal fee (550 pesos) and in case I had to buy food, I exchanged everything back to dollars. It was about that time that Leonard called and offered condolences. He only heard about Mama’s passing that morning via Facebook (the same way he heard I arrived in Zamboanga two weeks before). We chatted briefly and wished each other well. He said he may visit the U.S. again soon.

After that, I queued in the Immigration line and when I got to the counter, the lady asked me if I had changed the spelling of my last name because it didn’t appear in their database.. I said that when I became a U.S. citizen, I connected all the letters of my last name. I was then cleared to enter the departure area. I walked past the duty free stores and snack concessions and found my way to the Korean Airlines gate. I had about 2 hours to kill so I went back up front to get some food. I ate some overpriced arroz caldo with tough to bite chicken leg and a siopao. With still more time to kill, I decided to put in my walking workout by traipsing up and down a long hallway between the concession stands and the departure gate. Each way took about a minute and 15 seconds so you can do the multiplication on how many laps I had to take to finish 35 minutes. As usual, I was pulling my luggage while walking, just like I did at Incheon and Terminal 3 a few weeks before. The airport workers who were at their permanent posts were probably thinking how crazy I was (they were not completely wrong). At least I was able to satisfy my obligation to my body for the day and not miss a workout.

I don't know exactly what this was but it appeared like people depicting a wedding party was walking through Incheon Airport

The three hour flight from Manila to Incheon was pretty uneventful other than an old lady behind me getting mad at me for reclining my chair too far back which almost spilled water on her. I tried to get some zzz’s to no avail. I initially had the row of three seats all to myself until a man transferred from his more crowded row to take the window seat in mine. We had a couple of hours layover in Incheon so I connected to their wi-fi to check email and Facebook. I was out of cellphone range with either my U.S. Virgin Mobile service or Philippines SMART service so when the flight from Incheon to L.A. was delayed almost an hour, I had no way of contacting my neighbor who was supposed to pick me up at the airport. Since she works for Southwest Airways, I was hoping she was tracking my flight online. With that delay, I got a little peckish so I looked around the airport and found something familiar: Subway sandwiches. First I asked if they accepted dollars and how much the tuna sandwich was. The half sub size was $4.00 which I think would be similar to the U.S. price.  At least the Koreans did not overcharge, not like the 10 plus dollars hotdog, chips, and soda I got at LAX.

Before we boarded the plane to L.A., we went through another security check and this was probably because it was the anniversary of 9-11 and also because of the killing of the diplomat in Syria. This was slightly more rigorous since the x-ray machine wasn’t used but rather, security people opened our bags. Having passed that, we left rainy South Korea. Another 12 hour endurance event for the buttocks stuck in a 36 inch wide seat. At least that was better than the 32 inch seat of domestic planes. Speaking of buttocks, I noticed that despite the downsizing of toilet paper through the years in the U.S. the Koreans still appeared to have full sized ones. Or maybe the TP just looked bigger because the plane lavatories were too small. While the majority of passengers went to sleep between meals, my mind was constantly turning on and off, thus denying me the pleasure that others were too glad to partake of. Lack of sleep would be my norm to this day regardless of airplane seat or my own bed. My sleep patterns have been majorly destabilized.

When we arrived in LAX, we had to take a shuttle bus from where the plane dropped us off to the main terminal which was about a couple of miles away. Interesting twist there. While still on the plane, I texted my neighbor Colleen that we just landed and when I was at the Customs line she texted back that she was circling the airport while waiting for me. Fortunately, Customs didn’t hold me up and was soon waiting for Colleen outside the arrival area. While waiting there,  a lady asked to borrow my cell phone to call her daughter. They spoke in a language I didn’t understand. Was I happy to see Colleen and her son Kenny driving up. Finally, something and someone very familiar. I was back home. (Cue music: Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”)

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Clueless About The Logistics of Air Travel To The Philippines

Well, this is it. The flights have been reserved and tickets bought. All I have to do is pack my bags and go. Well, after I make an additional booking for the airport shuttle. Why do I have to make this trip? This is not a vacation and I’ll be in and out in less than a week not counting travel time. I’m going to be visiting my ailing mother in the Philippines (more on this later) whom I haven’t seen since my father’s funeral. Before all the airline bookings, I learned quite a few things.

 I don’t travel very much. In fact the last time was 11 years ago and before 9-11. Oh boy, have things changed and I’ve been struck clueless. First I discovered that there is hardly if any ticket price difference between using a travel agent, internet sites like Kayak or Expedia, or an airlines’ website. It used to be you could get the discounted bulk rates through a travel agent. Nowadays those prices are all over the web. In the U.S, the law now requires that all advertised prices must include taxes and fees, which I think is good so you know what your real total is. For example, the ticket I bought cost $630 before taxes and fees and $1070 after. That even includes a fuel surcharge fee. There is no similar law in the Philippines however. When I was researching prices, I was able to find a much reduced one way promo rate for one of the domestic airlines there. Much to my surprise, the taxes and fees cost more than the promo rate. We’re not even talking about the terminal fee that the airports require you to pay at the gate. You cannot prepay that one.

I didn’t get the lowest possible plane fare because I had to consider the logistics of my travel. The cheapest fare required an overnight stay in Hawaii both coming and going and if you have to stay in a hotel, that expense eliminates what you save on the plane fare. Other lower fares involved long layovers – as much as 12 hours, between Manila and my destination which is Zamboanga. So I had to find something with a layover of about  4 hours. I’m just hoping none of the flights are delayed so I don’t miss my connections.

Then there are these other optional cost considerations: baggage fee other than what you carry on, seat choice fee, travel insurance fee, excess baggage fee. It’s almost like getting a mortgage with all these fees!

Buying the Los Angeles to Manila ticket was no problem. I booked directly through the Korean Airlines website which quoted the same price as Kayak.com and the travel agent I talked to. Booking the domestic flight via the Cebu Pacific website was more problematic. By the way, the reason why I did two separate bookings instead of having a travel website figure it all out is because you can find cheaper domestic fares that way and a flight time that may be more advantageous to your schedule. That all looks good on paper and in perfect world without flight delays. So back to the Cebu Pacific booking. I entered all the necessary information and everything was okay until I tried paying for it with my U.S. credit card. Their system was not able to process the transaction. I tried another credit card with the same result and even tried paying in pesos with the credit card company doing the conversion (the credit card company conversion was a few dollars lesser). No cigar on any of my attempts. Meanwhile  the credit card company alerted me for possible fraudulent activities via email and I had to call them to let them know that I indeed made those transactions. I really wanted to get that promo rate before it sold out and since my brother lives in the Philippines, I asked him a favor of booking the domestic flights for me.  He was able to take care of that easily since he was very familiar with the system there. Much thanks again Larry J. Oh, and he also alerted me to the fact that the Ninoy Aquino International Airport now has three terminals. I only knew of one last time I was there. Thanks to the internet, I found out the layout of the three terminals and how to get from one to the other. So that takes care of all the flying concerns. I haven’t even started yet and boy, do my arms already feel tired (old bad joke).

The last time I traveled to the Philippines, I didn’t have to concern myself about charging electronic items because I didn’t have any. With at least a cellphone and a netbook I plan to bring, and owing to my clueless nature, I thought I had to bring a transformer or power converter too. Wrong on that count. I checked with the president of our running club who travels a lot and he enlightened me to the fact that the chargers that come with electronic devices nowadays have built in converters. Indeed when I checked the very fine print on these chargers with a magnifying lens, I saw that they could be used between 100 to 240 volts. That’s one less thing to worry about and I don’t even have to bring plug adapters since the Philippines uses the same two prong plugs that the U.S. does.

I think I might still have a dollar’s worth in Philippine pesos lying around. And now it’s time to dig out my old suitcase, passport, and review the TSA guidelines…

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