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Published: August 25th 2007
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Greetings from Manila! OK now that I have my bearings straight, I feel that I can say a few words. First, I have to say a big THANK YOU to my friend Chuck who gave me some sleeping aids (pills) for my trip, and I slept a solid 10+ hours on the leg from L.A. to Manila! I think that’s crazy!! I don’t sleep that much at home. That flight went by so fast, it was fantastic. Now granted, it was still a 15-hour flight or so, but it was shorter than the last time I flew because “they decided” not to stop in Guam for refueling. I don’t know what goes into that decision, but I’m just glad our plane didn’t drop into the Pacific Ocean, or Philippine Sea, or whatever large body of water we were over for forever.
As a result, our flight left L.A. about 3 hours later than planned (since we were going to make up that time not stopping in Guam). Just enough time for Delta and Philippines Airlines to play hot potato with my luggage! In other words, when I got to the Manila airport (if I’ve calculated this correctly) 27 hours after
I left my house, my bag was not there. I was standing there having cleared immigration in about 10 minutes flat, watching bag after bag come out, trying to stay positive that surely mine was coming even though everyone I “knew” from the plane had gotten their bags and left. I was just hearing Dave say “Don’t be so negative - of course the bag is coming!” so I was truly believing it…when I heard in this lovely Filipino voice “Paging Mrs. Amanda Thompson, paging Philippines Airlines passenger Amanda Thompson. Please proceed to Baggage Assistance.” Now this could NOT be good news. So I ask about 3 people to direct me to baggage assistance. And long story short, they say Delta never managed to give PAL my bag in L.A. So it is not here. And I am SO sad about it. The woman tells me that the bag should come in around midnight that night (that’s another 20 hours from that moment) on another airline, and they’ll deliver it to me Saturday. I asked very nicely if they could deliver it overnight Friday since I am working here and I need my stuff ASAP. She says they’ll see. (And
I hear my boss Duane who lived here for a year saying “Manana - the Filipino attitude”).
Off to the hotel to shower. To 7-11 to buy hair conditioner, toothpaste, etc. The hotel supplied me with shampoo, soap, and a comb. Now if you know me, you know I have pretty long hair. This comb they gave me is about the size of my index finger with extremely fine teeth - I think it took me about 20 minutes just to comb out my hair - but I was clean! (until I had to put on my clothes again - eww). I talked to Nono (my main contact over here at our vendor’s company), and he assured me that it would be safe to walk across the street to the mall. I HAD to buy a fresh shirt.
So, off to Mega-Mall. This is a mall that I never went to on my last trip. I walked over (man is it humid here, but not 100 like Hotlanta!). I got there about 10 minutes before 10am. Apparently the mall opens at 10. There was a line outside of people waiting to get in. If I didn’t look so
nasty, I would have felt like a supermodel standing in line - I am SO TALL here! I didn’t see a single guy or girl that even came close to looking me in the eye. And I don’t remember ever getting to the mall before opening time before, but I am telling you, I don’t think that there is usually a line-up like this outside Lenox or Phipps before opening time. And I KNOW that they don’t have a security line (males to the left, females to the right) where they search your bag AND frisk you. That’s right - the lady security guard with the baton felt me up on my way in. Nice! Welcome to Mega-Mall!
I bought a new shirt ($3) and well I couldn’t resist a new pair of shoes while I was there. I was really over that same pair of socks I’d been sporting for, let’s say, 30ish hours now. And I definitely didn’t want to wear them to work that night. Back to the hotel. It’s about 11 now (that’s 11pm ATL time). I talked to Dave on IM (Instant Messenger is about THE best thing in the world when you are
Luggage!
The best thing I've seen in AWHILE!!! as far around the globe as you can be and you want to chat with somebody from home), and got ready for bed (thanks again Chuck!). After all, I was going to work at 9pm local time to work all Friday night, so if I didn’t sleep now, I’d keel over later. And that worked out great.
Nono picked me up for work after a “dinner” of Starbucks decaf latte and plain waffle. Everything at the office was as I remembered. They got me up and running in a minute, and my day (night) was off. I’m here to train my team of 24 agents on a new workflow process, which I will start Monday. So today I was testing finishing touches from Atlanta, meeting with some of the people here, etc. It was a good low-key day. And I brought my own tissues from the hotel in case I ran into that whole toilet-paper issue again, which I did, so thank goodness! For those of you who didn’t hear from me my last trip, they just don’t use t.p. here apparently - it is more of a bidet situation. So after using my own on the first trip, Nono actually remembered for me, and placed some t.p. in the “managers’ bathroom.” So funny!
He also set me up on their VOIP system so I could search down my luggage via “phone”. And let me tell you, my bag has now been to a country that I haven’t: Korea. It also went to Tokyo. Now I haven’t spent any time in Japan, but I did log a good 6-7 hours in the Tokyo airport once, so that bag’s got nothing on me for that one. And then…drum roll please, it made it to Manila. Or so Japan Airlines (who I had to call!) told me. And then I called PAL again - it was so funny. The first time I ever called them. I said “Hi, I’m calling about my luggage that was delayed” and before I could say anything more, the gentleman said “Are you Amanda Thompson?” As if I was the ONLY person who lost their luggage and would call him. He informed me that the bag was on the way to my hotel, and would be there around 2am. Yay! And then well before 2am, my hotel called me on my Manila mobile to say that my bag was there! Yay! Yay! And they would put it in my room for me. I’ve never been so excited as when I got back to the hotel after work this morning to open my door, and…to see (yes!) MY bag there. I half-thought it would be someone else’s. But that’s just negative-me. The Dave-voice in me knew it had to be mine, and it was. So you can all rest easy and wait for something else exciting to happen to me while I’m here.
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Chris Mercer
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Your ever-loving father is no longer one of the few who has not signed up for this travel blog! Enjoyed your first post this time. Looking forward to future posts from Manilla and wherever! Papa