Court and Palm Trees

After flat out week that was all too suddenly finished, we were up at 6 on Saturday morning and into the minivan driving back to Cagayan De Oro airport, right around the same time that we later learned Manila was feeling the full force of mother nature.

In the week we had been in Bayug we had all grown very close to Brian’s family and Big Bangs Philippines and we had to keep our goodbyes short to avoid “accidently” extending our trip. Turns out it almost happened anyway.

It wasn’t until past our scheduled boarding time and an announcement that our flight had been “delayed indefinitely” that we learned of the typhoon that was currently flooding Manila. 3 uncertain hours after our later our flight was called up to board and an hour or so following that our top gun pilot was landing us in the middle of flooding Manila.

Already running on a tight schedule to make our connection to Singapore we then had to make our way through the minor problems of slowly arriving luggage and waiting for a shuttle connection that no-one could tell us where, when or if it was going to run. Our actual issues didn’t really begin until we arrived to the crowded front door of the international terminal which was closed off by security. Amongst the chaos were hand written signs announcing cancelled flights and passengers that had been waiting outside for 4 hours since the previous Singapore airlines flight to Singapore had been cancelled. Some fast action and smooth talking saw us past the security guards and through the first security checkpoint into a truly bizarre scene of a completely blacked out international terminal.

Our check-in assistant, working under torch light and writing our boarding passes and baggage tickets out by hand, took close to 30 minutes to check the 5 of us in. Relieved that we were confirmed for the flight and thinking that we were home, it almost all came unstuck at the final hurdle, the airport tax booths. We didn’t have enough pesos, it was Saturday evening and the bank (which the booth attendant helpfully pointed out to us) was closed and the blackout disabled the ATMs. Luckily a little blackmarket currency exchange with some fellow travellers got us through in the nick of time and we were to be 5 of the lucky few that actually made the flight.

After a follow on delay in Singapore we were just grateful that our 36 hour trip (which gave us ample time to plan the next trip) got us back to Canberra on the right day.

(Editor’s Note: that was the perfect bonding trip, not that these 5 needed to bond any more…)

Mac Fryz
Big Bangs Australia