Air Travel

Even though I am writing this 2 weeks after, I can still remember how sad I felt to be leaving Tacloban, maybe because I still miss it and want to go back!

We woke up early that morning to pack our stuff and spend some time with the family, most of whom were at the house instead of the store which was nice. We had a feast for breakfast, including my favourite vege spring rolls, I have got no worries about eating non-breakfast food at this time of the morning anymore!

We had some small gifts for the kids which they seemed to really like, colouring books and pencils, toy cars and play-doh. We also left behind lots of clothes, some at the orphanage, some with the community centre and some with the family.

Nanay Marlyn, Jec-Jec, Twinkle, Shay-Shay, Chic-kay and Kelly all came to see us off with Ethel and her little boy. Unfortunately they couldn't come into the terminal with us so we said our goodbyes outside.

Then we were on our way to Manila, we had been in Tacloban for 3 weeks but it had felt like just days and both Joy and I wanted to stay :o(

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, when we got to Manila we had no trouble changing from the domestic to international terminals, unlike the way in. We had to hang around for a while before checking in but it was better than the mad rush we had before!

Did some last minute souvenir shopping but still couldn't find a thimble - sorry Mum!

Arrived at Singapore at about 9:30pm, and it was time to say goodbye to Joy. I walked her to her gate and she only had about 10 minutes to wait so I made her promise to text me when she got on the flight – but I couldn’t hang around as I had to claim my luggage. I am really glad Joy decided to come with me, it was a great experience to share and I’ll think I’ll miss her after spending everyday together for 3 weeks!

As I got in a taxi to the hotel, I was worried about leaving Joy before she had got on her flight but she text me not long after I had checked in and got to my room so I was able to relax! The air conditioned room felt far too cold for me and I had to sleep with several layers despite the fact the temperature was the same as in the Philippines, around 34 degrees. Even the hot bath didn't do much to warm me up but it was nice to have one!

I set 3 alarms clocks for 6am the next morning so I could go and meet Mark off his flight at 7:45am.

We arrived in Tacloban City, Philippines at 6pm Saturday, just 1.5hrs late which wasn't bad for a journey that took over 24 hrs overall. After arriving at Heathrow with plenty of time to check-in etc, we had a drink with both Marks and Mum and Dad. Not five minutes after they had left and we went through security, the fire alarm went off and it wasn't a practice! But Heathrow being the hustle and bustle place it is, the first we realised of this was when I heard a clown say 'fire evacuation, leave the area' and my first thought was 'what an unfunny thing to say', before it actually clicked that the alarm was going off! We moved to another part of the airport, there was no panic being shown by anyone but the next airport staff member we came across didn't know a thing about it so we made our way back - Joy is convinced someone burnt their toast!

Our 12hr 40min flight to Singapore was pretty uneventful, those of you who knew how sick I was before leaving will be glad to know I felt better by Friday but no thanks to the turbulence on this flight! I thought the time went past quickly, after getting fed and watered 3 times; there was barely time to watch more than 1 film (Babel)
and discover Ray LaMontagne (better late than never).

We had heard quite alot about how nice Singapore airport is so it was a shame we were only in transit for 2 hrs but we enjoyed a drink in an Italian cafe (I know, I know - it makes no sense!) but didn't make it on to the free massage chairs, Xbox or internet. Before we knew it, we were on the plane to Manila.

The only part of the journey I felt nervous about was our Manila connection, as we were due to land at 13:15 and depart for Tacloban at 15:10. This would have been fine if our luggage was checked though and it was the same airport but why would things be that easy?!

Anyway you can imagine how nervous I was when we took off from Singapore 15 minutes late.

After arriving in Manila on a VERY tight schedule, we managed to:

• get in the longest queue at immigration
  
• wait for ages for our bags at baggage claim (felt like forever!)
  
• get a taxi OK but not have the right change and nor did the (very nice) driver
  
• get in the wrong queue for the next flight
  
• miss last call for the flight
  
• somehow manage to get bags checked in for flight
  
• discover we have excess baggage and have to queue again to pay
  
• find out about terminal tax as we ran through the departure lounge gates
  
• make it into gate lounge with 5 minutes to spare til flight take off
  

And after all that, the flight was delayed until 16:25pm so we had nearly 1.5hrs to wait...Phew! Thought it was going to go totally wrong when there was a power cut but we did manage to leave at the later time of 16:25pm and arrived in Tacloban at about 6pm Saturday. Thanks to Lorena for not abandoning the wait for us!