It’s 05.30, the typhoon is on its way and it’s a little wet and Windy.
During the night the power went off several times (emergency lighting comes on which bathes they room in bright light). Once power had been restored and appeared stable, the air conditioning has to be reset (a skill I now possess what with being management and all)
Breakfast today was a super Leisurely affair, probably had more than was absolutely necessary though we thought it would be a good idea.
Our exit route is now a path through the forest to the small car park, that’s going to be exciting!
In the absence of any boat transport you will usually walk along the beach but right now, the beach is full of boats and it’s approaching high tide, so the perilous jungle path it is for us!
This is the scene down at the beach.
A wild and woolly day indeed. Some good news, the flight before the one we need has just left Singapore bound for Manilla so they’ve not closed the airport yet….
It’s time to leave and we take the centre path as planned, wow, that was a crazy scramble across a hill side in the pouring rain on a path which was littered with slippery stones and covered in a raging torrent!!! But we make it through to the waiting vehicle and our baggage is not far behind us.
The journey to the airport was swift at just under 3hrs although the rain was torrential and there was a lot of water on the road. No queue at checkin, all good, we even bumped in to Rene and Honey at the airport security.
…. And then the weather happened, we are at the gate where the previous flight was still waiting to go. After a while we start to hear of local flights being cancelled. We’ll be OK we thought.
We get called to another gate at the other end of the airport for news, of which there is nothing at all positive, just told to wait for an update. Eventually we are sent to our original gate and told to wait there for an update, so we make our way back and wait. After a while we hear from someone else that we have to return to the far gate for more news.
When we get there we hear that our flight has been cancelled, we need to collect our luggage and go home!!!
A new level of mayhem ensues as we make our way back through security and find our luggage amongst all the other passengers, everyone is asking for help, the ground staff are doing everything they can.
Eventually, after 7 hours at the airport, we are told to leave and ring the office for updates on Monday.
There is a handy hotel booking desk at the airport but all they have to say is that everything by the airport is fully booked. Then one of the staff there says, don’t worry, I’m going to get you a taxi, they will take you 20 minutes away from the airport and they will find you a hotel, don’t worry, it’ll be fine!!!!
So I commit to a £45 taxi for 4 of us (fleeced) and we head out to this area which turned out to be quite high rise and happening.
Point of reference, Rene and Honey are Swiss, Honey only speaks German, Rene has been learning English for a year and speaks a little.
They booked through a travel agent so the airline do not have any contact information for them, we decide to stick together.
After about 20 minutes we see the signs for several hotels that had been suggested, we check the first one, City Garden. They say that there is no exhibition on so that have plenty of rooms. All very nice, better than Holiday Inn and only £55, result!
I wake at 0430 and find that everything has been rebooked, we are coming home just one day late, things are looking up.
We met up with Rene and Honey, after a nice buffet breakfast we take an affordably priced taxi back to the airport and now we are waiting to join the queue for checkin. We are assuming that Rene and Honey have also been rebooked for this flight, we have no idea at this time.
Finally we are checked in, the flight is delayed further from 13.30 to 15.05 but we have made it through imigration and security and managed to find some of these…
As time moves on, confusion mounts once more as our flight is displayed on the large board but not on any of the smaller ones.
Its now 90 minutes before we are supposed to fly. We are sat at gate 107. There is no information at the gate to suggest that our flight exists and no sign of a plane though staff assure us it’s inbound. The volume of flight traffic is being blamed for the lack of information, that being said, it was equally bad yesterday….
Well, it’s been quite a few hours now, during which time, precious little, or at least little of any relevance has happened. In the last hour or so, a few milestones however, have been reached:
We have a plane, its on the right stand and we are at the right gate (or at least that’s what we are assuming).
There was an announcement citing operational delays in ground operations being the latest reason for the latest delay.
I suppose I should be focusing on the positive rather than dwelling on the negative – it’s been a great adventure, we have seen many unexpected things including the inside of taxis we didn’t know we were taking, hotel rooms that we had no idea we would be booking and hotel breakfasts that we did not expect to eat. Not only that but we got to enjoy the whole Manilla airport departure debacle twice and not the once that we had originally planned. Add to all this the typhoon, incessant rain and a fair to moderate breeze and you have our adventure, full of surprises, and we’re still no closer to getting on the plane.
More soon from your dispondant on the scene…
Well, time continues to pass and nothing happens, we are sat at a departure gate which by now is creaking at the seams – so many people waiting for this flight – the departure information still says that it’s a Cebe Pacific flight to Dubai – though now we actually see our Singapore Airlines plane on the gate, it’s been fuelled up and had baggage loaded.
Then – out of the blue – the announcement comes that we can board – so we jump up and immediately head to the desk and before long there are a couple of queues waiting to board though I note that most folk are still sat down (see later).
Passports checked – we get on the plane and find out seats – after stowing our carry on bags we sit down and relax – somewhat overjoyed that we are actually on the plane home now.
A third passenger joins our row of three seats (I knew it was too good to be true) and there is an announcement that they are waiting for the final passenger – then moments later they announce that they are closing the doors – I look around – the plane is less than half full – the passenger to my right moves to the row behind – I move over one – deep joy – roominess was in much abundance!
There is an announcement that that we might need to wait 30-40 minutes for a slot to take off but we are on the plane and going to Singapore – what’s 40 minutes compared to the many hours we have waited so far?
Finally we take off – we are on our way. At least with all the super additional delays – we wont need to be swanning around Singapore Airport for 5 hours – actually – I like Singapore Airport and was a little sad to miss that opportunity. We even had our swimmies packed so we could take a dip in the rooftop pool!
I don’t remember what film I watched – but I do remember it was a good choice!
We get our tea, have our drinks and watch movies – before we know it – we are descending into Changi Airport – bonus news – our arrival terminal has changed from terminal 2 to terminal 3 – which is handy as we are departing from terminal 3 to the UK.
Once we are on the stand we find that we are on gate A3, our next flight is from gate A2, our luck continues to improve.
We exit the plane and say goodbye to Rene and Honey as they are off to Zurich – we move to the A2 departure gate and await updates.
At this point it becomes apparent that the typhoon has followed us to Singapore as it is now pouring very heavy rain ☔☔☔ and there is much lightning ⚡⚡⚡- our departure is delayed. Here we go again….
After another hour – boarding is announced – we get on the plane – once more – our pre-paid seats were unavailable, and we end up with the middle two of a central block of 4 – our least favourite option. The people either side seem nice and are helpful with bag stowage and access.
Announcement: Due to the risk of lightning strikes – loading of baggage has been suspended – we will keep you posted. OK, long story short – we end up watching the new movie ‘Bullet Train’ which is 2hrs long BEFORE we even leave the gate.
Finally (again, there are a lot of finally in this entry) we push back and taxi for take-off – moments later we are in the air and on our 13.5hr flight back to the UK. Phew!!!
Oh, another moan – WiFi at Manilla was non-existent – WiFi at Singapore was OK though I could not connect – so Jo is left to liaise with Ibo our driver to make sure that he knows we are going to be a few (like 2 or 3) hours late (OK, well, thats a day plus 2 or 3 hours late!).
Once airborne, I make movie selections, eat, drink and sleep – all good. Being ‘stuck in the middle’ we take every opportunity for comfort breaks whenever one of the passengers outside of us gets up – thankfully we were both able to engage ‘camel’ mode and needed very few breaks.
Descent is announced – we land, hike about 20 miles to Passport Control where we play the snake game.
We get our bags and are met by Ibo – a quick dash to M&S Simply Food for road snacks and we are headed out on the final leg of our epic adventure.
Arrive home – bags dropped in kitchen – breathe – relax – sleep……