Monday - fly to Manilla - flight delayed

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Today was the day I said goodbye to Hong Kong and started my journey to Japan. My flights had been changed earlier in my trip as Philippine Airlines changed the connections flight to an earlierctakevoffvtome so it meant I was in the air when my 2nd flight took off. So I was rescheduled and they had organised for me to stop over in a hotel FOC and transfer me to and from the airport, so I couldn't grumble at that.



In left the hostel in plenty of time to,get to the airport and I knew my take off time had been pushed back by about 20 minutes so I had no worries. I took the airport bus which is the same one as I arrived on and was just around the corner some didn't have far to walk. I got to the airport and had to head to terminal 2 to check in. I hadn't been able to do it online due to a compute issues I reckon, but this didn't cause any issues.



The check in attendant confirmed my connection flight was the next day and that I wanted my bags coming off in Manilla when I got off the plane. So all seemed to be good. I had to board my plane from terminal one which did seem a bit odd, but hey ho. Also I was advised that the flight departure had been pushed back to 1510. I didn't know until I got to Manilla and was chatting to the taxi driver, that they had had a tropical storm the day before and it had grounded or delayed many flights. There was also a warning at the airport of a possible tropical storm level 1 whatever that means.



So I hung around getting board, wandering round the shops and between the terminals for something to do. Finally my gate number came up so I joined the queues for immigration etc and went to find my departure gate. Good job I went when I did as there was a long walk and then I had to catch a bus to a different building! And then waited and finally boarded the plane and then waited and waited and finally took oh around 4pm. I have to admit the flight from take off was rather bumpy and the engines seemed to be revving and then slowing down. Images came into my mind of tuning around and coming back, losing cabin pressure and oxygen masks dropping down etc. Wish I had read that info card and paid attention to the info video! But luckily we didn't plummet to the earth like a a piece of moon rock and landed safely in Manilla.



Immigration were a bit wary of me and my big bag etc so I had to show them my flight details out tomorrow and then I was allowed in. My bag came off fairly quickly and I came out of arrivals and needed to find departures. I spoke to a security guard and you are only allowed in departures if you area talus getting a flight. I tried to explain that I needed to go to the Philippines check in desk and he told me I needed to go to terminal 1. Grrr there were no insructions I had from the airline that I needed to do that. He said it was about minutes away so I took a cab. All I can say is lying barstool! Clearly he was on the take with the taxi company as I didn't need to go to terminal 1 as all Philippine airline flights go from terminal 2. The taxi took me a few minutes due to traffic to get there and about a mile and a half and was charged nearly £15 for the pleasure! Still mad about it now!!!!!!



So I get to terminal 1 got stopped by security, I told them my story and she said I needed terminal 2. I could get a taxi or the shuttle bus back (no mention of the shuttle bus coming I note mr security man) so I asked her where the shuttle bus went from and she pointed to a group of people standing around so I thought that was where it pulled up, oh how wrong I was! I stood there for about 30 minutes and no bus, so I asked another security guard and he told me I needed to go down stairs via the lift. I tried to go in the lift, but as I wasn't leaving on a flight I couldn't get in the building and had to use the stairs. By now I really was starting to lose the will to live.



So I had to hang around for another 30 minutes before I could the next bus as I had just missed one. (Typical) so I got dropped off and had to show my email to the security guard so I could get into departures, then asked a. Heck in desk person who,pointed me in the direction of the Philippines airline office. Somi went to them and finally I found someone who could help!!!!! She took me to a guy who got me a trolley and took my bags from me and then down to the people who could issue my vouchers, and where were they located, yes at the arrivals gate where I got off the plane. I didn't see it when arrived with hundreds of other people and the medical people checking our paperwork to make sure we habit been to Africa recently. So 2 hours later I was back where I started! However there guys knew what they were doing and sorted out my vouchers PDQ.



The guy who took me down then brought me back up to the taxi/car hire place and sorted out my cab to the hotel. I finally got to the hotel, relieved, tired, hungry and thirsty. I dumped my stuff in my room and headed for my free dinner which was an all you can eat buffet and I did, ah smoked salmon how I have missed thee! Wish I had got there earlier I could have made use of the pool but hey ho.



After dinner I had a good long soak and then headed to bed, I was going to be in it less than 8 hours but it felt good and was so so quiet I loved it!





Xxx

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