WEATHER: Travelling day
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Departing and arriving on the same day
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Such an early start
WORD OF THE DAY: window
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 5124.20KM
BUDDHA QUOTE FOR THE DAY:
Let us rise up and
be thankful,
for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little,
and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick,
and if we got sick, at least we didn't die;
so, let us all be thankful.
for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little,
and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick,
and if we got sick, at least we didn't die;
so, let us all be thankful.
The one good thing about travelling within a continent is
you should get to your destination on the same day if you had a morning
flight. This was the upside for me
getting up at 3.30am this morning for a 4am pick-up from the hotel. I didn’t end up having any of the breakfast
items I had bought at the supermarket yesterday, but I thought of knew that
would happen. I know that the ‘trio’
will be able to eat what I left thought as they were staying in Colombo a few
more days after the tour. It would be
contribution to happy hour. At 3.55am
there was a knock at the door and Christine was standing there as promised last
night and Lenore had also changed as we waited in the lobby for the transfer to
arrive. There were a lot of men hanging
around the lobby, I think some of them were taxi drivers and the reception guy
was fast asleep behind the desk. The
transfer arrived right on time and the girls helped me with my bags and with a
final hug and promises to keep in touch I waved goodbye to 2 people I know I
will keep in touch with. It was super
sweet that they got up so early to wave me off.
Thanks gals.
It was still dark so early in the morning and there was
no traffic on the roads and even taking that into account the transfer took 45
minutes. I would hate to think how long
it would take during normal traffic, as the Sri Lankan traffic can be a
nightmare at times. That is also another
plus of arriving/departing into a city at god awful hours. The first time I arrived into Nairobi was at
3.45am and it took me 15 minutes to get to my hotel. The second time I went back my flight was
delayed by 5 hours arriving in at 8.45am and it took me 1 hour and 35 minutes
to get to the same hotel the only difference being was the traffic. I arrived at the airport at 4.45am and I am
not sure how my arm is going to hold up hoisting my bag to and from trolleys,
but I really don’t have a choice and I have made sure that I have plenty of
pills on hand to get me through the day if needed. I really haven’t noticed any real improvement
since the accident, so I will just have to keep an eye on it in the coming days
and if it doesn’t feel like it is healing I will need to make a doctor’s
appointment in either Cebu or Boracay.
In the meantime the transfer guy got me a trolley so I was spared the
first lift of the ‘monster’. You had to
go through a body scanner to gain access to the building, you then had to work
out what gate your flight was leaving from, which differentiated what security
check you went through to get your bags scanned and then finally to the
check-in counters. So the trolley had to be left, all 3 bags hoiked on the
belt, the run to find a new trolley, and then reload so as not to use my arm
too much. There were over 10 counters
open so I didn’t have to wait at all. My
bag was 22.2kg and when I asked for my usual window seat, he told me there were
none available. WTF. What is with Sri Lankan Airlines and their
seat allocations? I emailed the girls in
the office about pre-booking the seat on the way home after I didn’t get the
window seat initially on the way there and the computer system wouldn’t let you
do it, so how the hell 2 hours and 10 minutes before the flight there are no window
seats left of they don’t let you pre-allocate seats. Well the flight is only 4 hours, so I will
just have to suck it up, but I know that I will be sleepy after such an early
start, but I will just have to do the head floppage for this section of my
journey. There was another passport and
ticket check before you finally made it into the departures area. There were a lot of people around for 5.30am
in the morning and when I checked the departure monitor there were 12 flights
departing before mine and my flight was at 7.20am. I guess there is always people worse off than
you, just imagine what time they had to get up to catch their flights! So I had nearly 2 hours to kill. All the duty free shops were open and all the
food outlets, but I didn’t have my shopping mojo with me, I think I may have
left that in the US somewhere as I have had no great inkling in buying souvenirs
(except magnets and postcards now).
Maybe after 19 months the novelty is starting to wear off. I did see those masks again that I liked, but
I still have no more room since yesterday so I had to walk straight past
them. The great thing about Colombo’s
International Airport is they have free Wi-Fi internet at just about at every
departure gate. There are no seats,
standing only, I guess this discourages people from spending too much time on
them, but as there was no-one waiting I spent the next 45 minutes cleaning up
my email account and stalking on Facebook.
The internet is always a great way to kill some time and the plan works,
my legs were getting tired from standing so long, so I logged off and made my
way to the gate. It wasn’t open yet, but
I found a seat and, and just tried to keep my eyes open as I played solitaire
on my IPod. The gate opened 30 minutes
later and we filed in for yet another passport and ticket check, a scanning of
our hand luggage and a frisk for me with my Ethiopian bangles. When I got to the ticket scanner I enquired
if there was a window seat available and the woman told me that check-in hadn’t
closed yet, but she would keep an eye on it and if one came up she would let me
know. I thought that was nice till I saw
her scan me in and then added my boarding pass to where everyone else’s had
been filed and no note written down. She
had no intention of doing anything. Oh
well, I lucked out in Singapore on my way down, so I will just need to suck
this one up.
Our call came to board and my check-in chick didn’t even
bat an eye lid and I was far too tired (already) to make a fuss or double
check, so I boarded and I was sitting in the last row on an aisle and when I
arrived there were 2 Japanese business men in my row and they were sitting in
the aisle and middle, the window was free!!!
So I told the aisle guy that was my seat but I would be happy to sit by
the window and they were so nice and so accommodation they said wherever I
wanted to sit I could. How amazing is
that, so I wasn’t going to play the ‘are you sure’ game and I thanked them
profusely and took the window. Thank-you
Japanese business men, thank-you travel god and maybe that is a little Karma
coming back to me in a good way? The
flight was 3 hours and 40 minutes and we were in an A320 aircraft with a
configuration of 3x3. Both planes I have
been on with Sri Lankan have seemed brand new and they also had in seat TV’s
where they had a selection of movies, games etc…. to choose from. We took off on time which is always a relief as
I only have a 3 hour connection in Singapore.
This is a comfortable transfer.
The last one I did where I had only 2 hours was also ok, but I didn’t have
a lot of time to fluff around-I had to keep moving the whole time to make sure
I was at the gate on time. So for
anybody having separate tickets in Singapore when you have to collect your bags
and change terminals you need at least a 2 hour window. Anything less than that you would still
probably make it, taking into account no snaffu time, and it would be a rush
and stressful-but you may just do it under 2 hours. Breakfast was served pretty much after
takeoff and then before my tray was even taken away I was fast asleep. When I woke up my tray was gone. I went back to sleep. When I woke up the Singapore immigration card
was in my pocket. I went back to sleep. When I woke up again my Japanese friend was
handing back the menu as they were being collected before landing, and then I
stayed awake. It turned out my Japanese
business men were a blessing for me and they looked after me as I was
asleep. Every time I woke I could hear
them talking though, they didn’t stop the whole flight-but they were super nice
to me and they even got my bag down from the overhead for me and they waited
for me to go first when we went to get off the plane. So thank-you guys for looking after me, it
was nice to see some chivalry from complete strangers and a nice way to start a
travel day. I walked off that flight
with a smile on my dial.
We arrived into Singapore at 1.30pm. There was a 2.5 hour time difference making
with Singers in front of Sri Lanka. So
with no dilly dallying I said goodbye to my Japanese flight angels and wasted
no time in transferring from terminal 3 to terminal 1. This is the 4th time I have done
it in a month, so I know the ropes and I have a small system happening
now. You need to get yourself from the
gate to Customs and just before the escalator takes you down to the Customs
hall there are the free internet stations there and an information desk. So I jump on the free internet, check my
messages and then showing my passport I get the free Wi-Fi code for my IPod
which I use once I am back into the departures.
I then head down to Customs and I have my IPod at the ready, as I haven’t
printed any of the flight information I have it saved on there, so when they
ask what flight I’m on or to see my ticket I can show them that. I grab a free trolley and by the time all
that is done, my bag is on the carousel, I swing it onto the trolley and walk
out of the ‘nothing to declare’ exit where I have only been stopped once. The trolleys aren’t allowed on the airtrain,
so this was a test to swing my bag onto my back with my dodgy arm and without
too much pain I got it on my back-the sky train comes every 3 minutes and the
ride is only a minute if that and wallah I am at terminal 1. And that people is how to change terminals in
under 50 minutes.
I didn’t bother getting another trolley, my monster was
on my back now so I walked to the Jetstar Asia counters, took my pack off,
zipped up my straps and then it was my turn for check-in. At least I know on all these next flights I
have a window seat. You can pay extra (I
think it was 5AUD) to reserve seats and even Malaysia Airlines gave me this
option as well for my next round of flights to Nepal. For me it is money well spent. So my check-in guy was asking what I am going
in Manila and when I told him my itinerary he was impressed I was heading to
Boracay and said I will have a magic time there but if I truly wanted a
beautiful beach then Goa in India is the place to be. I have heard that, but I have no dying
inclination to go back there, but I wasn’t going to tell him that, as my bag
was 2.4kg over the limit and I didn’t want to be nasty and then he charge me
for the additional. So passing the
security scanner I was back at customs again, stamped back through and now had
2 hours to kill till my flight. I had
made a pact with myself to stay away from the Pandora shop, which was
relatively easy as I was so TIRED. I
needed to get lunch as Jetstar you have to buy food, so I made my way back to
my usual haunt, BK, Burger King and had my 6 chicken drummettes and my
passionfruit Iced Tea, jumped onto my IPod with my free Wi-Fi code I had
obtained earlier and managed to kill an hour there. I also changed 100USD into Philippine pesos,
so I had some cash when I arrived, just in case my transfer wasn’t there, with
it being 8.30pm at night the last thing I want to worry about is getting some
money and then it was time then to head for the gate, as you have to be checked
and re-scanned again for access to the lounge and there we waited till the
flight was called.
Jetstar Asia operates an Airbus A320 on the Singapore to
Manila route, seat configuration of 3x3.
The fly time is 3 hours and 10 minutes and as the aircraft doors closed
I had the 2 seats next to me free for the whole flight. Woo Hoo.
Not that I am sure it mattered too much as I will probably fall asleep
at some stage. I had a look at the
inflight menu and there were some snack packs that had cheezels included in the
pack and I just couldn’t say no to Cheezels, so I ordered a drink, the snack
pack and then figured I probably would have dinner by the time I got to Manila
and the hotel, so I also ordered a 2 minute noodle bowl as well to get me
through to breakfast tomorrow morning.
One needs to think in advance about these things you know. So with all that I was actually not feeling
too bad and with no-one beside me I decided to pull out my laptop and get a
blog written, might as well use the time constructively and I did this till my
battery nearly died and we were only 40 minutes from Manila by this stage as
too. I also used this time to take a
proper look at my Philippine itinerary.
I hadn’t really looked at it in much detail, so I familiarized myself
with where I was staying, what tours we had booked and the first 3 days were
going to be full on with a day of rest in Cebu before my flight to
Boracay. Taking into account the massive
day we had from Galle to Colombo plus my massive travel day today-that spare
day in Cebu was looking more appealing as the hours ticked by. So this was flight number 74 of my Odyssey. I should work the amount of hours that I have
spent sitting on a plane, let alone check-in and connection times. Now they would be interesting stats. I also need to start to look at flights back
into Ethiopia for the middle of November.
It seems like Zeme, yet again has not got his visa, but the plan was I
would go back again in November no matter what.
Well I will look at the cost of the flights and then make a decision
otherwise the alternative will be to go home a week earlier, which is never a
bad thing and start to organize all my crap I have for my move. Ugh I don’t want to even think about that at
the moment.
We landed into Manila on-time at 8.20pm. It mustn’t be a busy time for arrivals as we
were the only ones at customs and there was a special line for ‘foreigners’ of
which there were only 5 from my flight, so needless to say I didn’t have to
wait long to be stamped in and the customs officer asked what my itinerary was
and when I mentioned Boracay, he looked impressed and said it is a beautiful
part of the world. Hmmmmm I have heard
that-it sounds like it was a good move adding that to the itinerary and I have
Jules to thanks for that back home. I
only had to wait 5 minutes and then my bag had arrived. Talk about everything moving like
clockwork. I didn’t even have time to
connect properly onto the free Wi-Fi they offer at the airport and with my free
trolley I was out the doors….. to no-one waiting for me….. Hmmmmm. Maybe I had to go outside? I had a security guard ask me at the exit who
I was looking for and when I told him All About Asia, he looked a little miffed
and pointed in the direction of some signs that indicated a ‘family and friends
pickup zone’. What a great idea, so I
crossed the road and they have the pickup set up alphabetical with big letters
to spot your loved ones easily. What a
great idea. So I checked A for the
company and I checked J for my surname to no avail. I had a taxi guy come up and tout for
business and he said if my transfer doesn’t arrive to come back to him-yeah
right I will. So I walked back to the
terminal now with my IPod in hand to see if I could find a contact number I
could call, looking lost, another security guard asked if I was okay and then a
guy came running up with a sign with my name on it. Thank goodness. Only 20 minutes late. Apparently he was upstairs at departures with
some-one leaving and he apologized.
Okay-well you’re here now. So he
calls the car to say I’m ready and when that arrives he deposited me in the
back and handed me a mobile phone, a charger and numbers written on a piece of
paper in a pouch for me to use while I am here in the Philippines. What a neat touch, not thinking I would
really need it, as I had my Blackberry, but as I was to find out when I got to
the hotel that the UK sim card doesn’t work here in the Philippines and the
phone I was given came preloaded with 300PHP (7.50AUD) and all the emergency
numbers for the office here in Manila pre-programmed into the phone. What a great idea, a nice touch.
The ride from the airport to the hotel took 45
minutes. It was busy and I can see that
traffic is a major problem here and that is at 9pm at night. Can you imagine what it will be like during
the day? The hotel was located in Makati
City, as the ‘downtown’ area is broken up into different areas; this was one of
the nicer ones. I was in my room by
9.45pm and I was dog tired. I had to
repack my bag again, as I am only allowed a 10kg baggage limit on my internal
flights in the Philippines and I will leave my monster backpack here at the
hotel, as I come back here for one night before leaving for Nepal in 10 days’
time. This will also be a good thing for
my arm I suspect, not having to carry 22kg around and try and give it a good chance
of recovering here. Zeme was online,
which was the first time in a long time, so I had a chat to him, finished
re-packing and watched a movie and then the lights were out at 12.30am. Officially
19 hours after leaving Colombo this morning.
I have an 8am pickup in the morning for a ½ day city tour before they
take me to the airport for my flight to Cebu.
Another big day and I just wanted to close my eyes and ………………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
No comments:
Post a Comment