Well, I finally got all the plans for our short balikbayan trip confirmed. Although I really wanted to go to Texas this year, it just could not happen. Next year, we’re going for sure positive. Maybe even stay a little bit longer than normal. Between our passport problem, our military ID problem and our low money problem, we just couldn’t make it this year. I have not even told my parents yet. I’m sure they will be disappointed, I know I am. Anyway, here are some of the things that I had to try to determine to get out of here this time and why it did or did not work out.
To remind everyone or tell you if you didn’t know, we are here in the Philippines in balikbayan status. That means we have to leave the country for at least 1 day every year. When we get back we get another balikbayan stamp in our passports and we are good for another year. You can read more about it here Balikbayan Privilege.
We were hoping to go to Korea this time, but things didn’t work out with the flights. I found some cheap enough flights, less than $200 for two people round trip, but that airline had to connect with another airline and I just couldn’t get them to match up without staying for a day or two in a hotel in both directions. Plus the wait times were very long both ways. When we have more time and more money, I may be using that airline though. It’s Jeju Air. I hear the seats are pretty tight on their flights, but I guess you get what you pay for. Pan Pacific was actually the best airline for us to take but I couldn’t get their website to work properly. Too bad for them. I will try them again some other time. I was hoping to find an airline for when we finally do get to travel more. An airline I can depend upon that doesn’t cost so much. We’ll see.
Our schedule ended up being pretty tight in one place and if the flight is canceled or delayed too much, we’re going to be in trouble. We will leave here next Wednesday (the 9th) and travel to Tacloban to catch our flight to Clark. When we arrive at Clark we will have only 2 hours, 5 minutes until our flight to Singapore leaves. That’s the tight one. If Asia Air messes up their flight from Tacloban or the Cebu Pacific flight at Clark has to leave early, then we’re really in a jam. Things should be fine, but I’ll slightly worry until we arrive at Clark and find everything to be good to go. Some day I’d really like to be able to go to Singapore to see some of the sights instead of just the airport. We will do it and not too far in the future.
From Clark, we fly to Singapore (3 hours, 45 minutes). We will have to be there for 24 hours, 45 minutes. I ordered a wheelchair for Lita because she can’t walk very far. They should meet us at the ramp and I’ll be sure to let them know that we will be there for so long and that we want a place close to Cebu Pacific, but also comfortable enough to wait it out. I know they are one of the best airports in the world so they must have nice places to wait somewhere in there that we can use, hopefully without having to pay. I can walk around the terminal to and look at things and locate the Subway. As I was typing that last sentence, I found out that Singapore has sleeping quarters with showers for like $20. Each session lasts 6-8 hours, he wasn’t sure about that. We may do that for 1 session, 2 at the most. Maybe not at all though, it depends on the waiting room that we are in.
We will leave Singapore going back to Clark on the 11th and will stay the night at our favorite cheap hotel in Angeles for only 1 night. Early on the morning of the 12th, our flight back to Tacloban will leave. Most likely from there we will head straight to the van terminal and head back to Calbayog. Maybe get some breakfast someplace first. I do like the sausage McMuffins at McDonald’s. Maybe get 2 or 3 of those for the 4-hour trip back.
I will be back in time to make any fantasy football changes and not miss any games either. Next month when we have to go to the Embassy in Manila, I’ll try to make similar arrangements around the football games. I’m not sure of those dates yet. It all depends on what I found out on 9 Oct when the Embassy calls me. I’ll be sure to post something on that also. I’ll also have a post post of how our trip actually went. We all know that things don’t always go as planned.
Salamat Y’all
