Update from Market Market

---

Tuesday Michael was supposed to leave for Australia, we had to be at the airport by 6.40pm so left the house at around 5.50pm. When we arrived at the airport we were told that his Qantas flight (QF20) had been cancelled, to make matters worse there wasn't one Qantas representative at the airport to provide details. We had no choice but to leave, in any case cousin Junee had invited us to dinner at a Vietnamese reataurant in Quezon City. After a tasty meal we went to a bar called Ratsky to listen to some live music and consume a few San Mig drafts. The band playing had a real showman as the main singer, he also had lot's of jokes though some were in Tagalog. There were quite a few people from other countries in the audience and the Japanese were giving the band 1,000 peso (about $Au26) tips to sing their requests, probably small change to the Japanese.
Next morning I rang Qantas to find out what happened to Michael's flight and to book him on another one. They couldn't offer any explanation as to why their counter and office at the airport wasn't staffed and blamed Phil Travel, the travel agent who issued Michael's ticket, for not informing us about the "scheduled change". I now have a very low opinion of Phil Travel and won't use them again, in my opinion they are capable of taking money and issuing a ticket but little else. They not only didn't inform us about the change to Michael's ticket but also made mistakes when we changed the original Sydney departure dates. Anyway I was able to get Michael onto a flight to Sydney the following night albiet via Hong Kong and he is now back in Sydney.
Wednesday morning was taken up with getting Michael's flight organised and after lunch Eleanor and I (Jess drove of course) took him to the airport and made sure he got onto the flight. That night we went to the Chef and Brewery to listen to some live music and got home around midnight.
Yesterday we visited Marianne and Maribel in Angeles City, after we visited the Kumon Centre that she manages we went to a Mexican Restaurant for lunch, the food was great and the Rum Rita's were sensational. Rum Rita is a cocktail that is a bit like a Margerita but with rum instead of tequilla. We did some shopping after lunch at a store in the former US Clark Airbase and then went to Mariannes's inlaws house for afternoon tea. We didn't have our driver Jess with us as he had to attend a seminar in order to get his driver's licence back, see the previous update for details as to why he lost it. Anyway JP drove us there and Maribel drove us back to Manila. Later that night Eleanor, Maribel and I listened to some live music at a place not too far from home and enjoyed some cocktails. After drinking San Miguel beer and the ocassional Tanduay rum for over six weeks I'm getting a bit more adventurous.
Today is basically shopping; whilst Eleanor and Justine are shopping here in Market Market (a shopping Mall) I'm updating the blog in the Netopia Internet Cafe. Eleanor and I will go out again tonight and make the most of our last nights in Manila. Tomorrow we are planning a trip to the tourist area of Manila to check out Intramouros (The walled city) and have dinner somewhere along Manila Bay.
This may be my last update from the Philippines as we are leaving on Monday night however I'll do a final update for this trip from Sydney. That's all for now.

---

Photos

The ladies
Maribel, Mummy, Eleanor and Nelly (Marianne's mother-in-law)

Comments

[Jean Martin]

Qantas Flight
I had the same experience too with Qantas. Flight being cancelled and the staff was not very helpful. I think that Qantas should make a way to inform all their passengers if they are cancelling a flight!!! How inconvenient! I travelled on Philippine Airlines before and when they had a scheduled change of flight, i received a call from the airline!! I wouldnt blame the travel agent. As, the airlines tell us not to reconfirm flights, and this happens when we dont! Anyway, i hope you had a good trip to the Philippines to at least look back to... Ta!