A one month trip to the Philippines has left me with a lot of memories and adventures that I never dreamed of obtaining. I say the Philippines, but I had a one day adventure in Japan as well. For an expensive flight you get 4 tickets or 2 tickets (in other words midway stops), and for the kind of ticket up my alley you will receive 8 tickets :D 4 layover airports each way ; ehh not bad I thought to myself as I looked at the price of 849 bucks. In comparison to a 1000 dollars, a few layovers was gonna be nothing.
I ended up spending 2 days on a plane, with no regrets- hey I saved a 100 bucks or so! Surprisingly, the best food was served on the Japanese airline, and a mini plane that gave me an hour flight from Guam to the big island in the Philippines.
The main island looked gorgeous as the plane went low getting closer and closer to the earth. Glistening ocean and tiny islands, fishermen on their pontoons, and lush rain forest patches intermingled with the city. When we came upon the "airport" however, it was barely distinguishable as one. The only way you could tell was by the multiple planes near the landing pad. The building was in shambles, and upon entering the airport I became pretty apprehensive. Broken plaster, bare concrete, and things under construction what was what met my eyes. Anything a person thinks of when they hear Airport was not there. There were no guards; only a guy selling cellphones in a booth, and an unmanned conveyor belt of peoples goods running through from the plane with people scrambling to snag their luggage off it. Way too easy for someone to just walk off with another mans goods I thought. Finally my backpack arrived and I snagged it.
As a 19 year old with solely my own self planning, I guess I did pretty good. I didn't however, buy a trac phone beforehand and I was not prepared for how I was to get out of the airport.
I found a bathroom where I changed into less nice looking clothes so I didn't look like an all rich american girl and managed to buy a tracphone from the cellphone dude. I'll admit that I was nervous as all fuck and it showed. Being nervous, plus the culture shock of it being nowhere even close to seeming like mexico and the lack of comprehension on how much money I was giving via the currency exchange sucked.
One of the workers was nice enough to call the hostel for me and translate some directions for me so I could call a taxi. I was really grateful .
The taxis looked so sketchy with chipped paint, homemade weld jobs on reconstructed jeeps that it was another event where I would end up blindly trusting some taxi driver, hoping he would take me to where I needed to go. He was able to read the directions written in tagalog on my tracphone and was able to take me there, after pretending he couldn't find the place for two hours. I ended up giving him way too much money.. something like 40 bucks. I would compare it to an Uber ride gone wrong. The culture shock was insane for me, with the amount of cars and air pollution. .. and another thing- no street rules whatsoever! The right of way was given to those who took the first initiative.
The hostel seemed pretty safe when I got there and I was very relieved. I was living in a suburb called Mandaluyong which was a few miles from the heart of the town of Manila. The hostel people were nice, and I was able to make friends with everyone there.
update you more on this tale later
I ended up spending 2 days on a plane, with no regrets- hey I saved a 100 bucks or so! Surprisingly, the best food was served on the Japanese airline, and a mini plane that gave me an hour flight from Guam to the big island in the Philippines.
The main island looked gorgeous as the plane went low getting closer and closer to the earth. Glistening ocean and tiny islands, fishermen on their pontoons, and lush rain forest patches intermingled with the city. When we came upon the "airport" however, it was barely distinguishable as one. The only way you could tell was by the multiple planes near the landing pad. The building was in shambles, and upon entering the airport I became pretty apprehensive. Broken plaster, bare concrete, and things under construction what was what met my eyes. Anything a person thinks of when they hear Airport was not there. There were no guards; only a guy selling cellphones in a booth, and an unmanned conveyor belt of peoples goods running through from the plane with people scrambling to snag their luggage off it. Way too easy for someone to just walk off with another mans goods I thought. Finally my backpack arrived and I snagged it.
As a 19 year old with solely my own self planning, I guess I did pretty good. I didn't however, buy a trac phone beforehand and I was not prepared for how I was to get out of the airport.
I found a bathroom where I changed into less nice looking clothes so I didn't look like an all rich american girl and managed to buy a tracphone from the cellphone dude. I'll admit that I was nervous as all fuck and it showed. Being nervous, plus the culture shock of it being nowhere even close to seeming like mexico and the lack of comprehension on how much money I was giving via the currency exchange sucked.
One of the workers was nice enough to call the hostel for me and translate some directions for me so I could call a taxi. I was really grateful .
The taxis looked so sketchy with chipped paint, homemade weld jobs on reconstructed jeeps that it was another event where I would end up blindly trusting some taxi driver, hoping he would take me to where I needed to go. He was able to read the directions written in tagalog on my tracphone and was able to take me there, after pretending he couldn't find the place for two hours. I ended up giving him way too much money.. something like 40 bucks. I would compare it to an Uber ride gone wrong. The culture shock was insane for me, with the amount of cars and air pollution. .. and another thing- no street rules whatsoever! The right of way was given to those who took the first initiative.
The hostel seemed pretty safe when I got there and I was very relieved. I was living in a suburb called Mandaluyong which was a few miles from the heart of the town of Manila. The hostel people were nice, and I was able to make friends with everyone there.
update you more on this tale later
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