Manila Stop-Over

8:23 A.M., Manila time-We’ve been traveling just about 30 hours so far, and we are lounging in the Philippine Air employee lunchroom, rehydrating. We can’t help but comment to one another that we have seen SEVERAL employees who look exactly like Orlando, Jerry Blank’s friend in “Strangers with Candy”, no surprise, I guess, as you fans will agree. (Are there any other fans out there?) We’ll have twelve hours in Manila before our flight to Denpasar, Bali, and in elementary education lingo, we are using our time wisely. Our mission- track down Roger’s missing Kindle, which should be languishing in the seat pocket of our US Airways Charlotte to LA flight, but is likely in the pocket of the airline cleaning crew member. Roger left it behind as we made a mad dash from the domestic to the international terminal of the LA airport, trying desperately to make a very tight flight connection. “How tight?” you ask? We had about 45 minutes to deplane, RUN with our bags about ¾ of a mile, check in at the Philippine Air desk, get through an enormous TSA line, and make our way to our gate, the last one, of course. Roger, ever the gentleman insisted on carrying both suitcases as Linda hauled the carry-ons. Our race through the terminal was intense enough that two TSA employees asked Roger if he had just run a marathon, and our flight attendant hovered as if he was suffering a heart attack. He was breathless and sweat-soaked. As he puts it, he was “as filthy as a Frenchman”, no offense intended.

Our last two big trips were group tours, making them essentially stress-free, and we are now terribly spoiled. So far, this trip has been stress and nothing but.  It will smooth out soon, of that we are certain, but these first few flights have been a bear. It began as we shopped for flights and were quoted absurd price tags of $6700 EACH just for airfare! Like THAT would ever happen- do they know who they are dealing with? We ended up with a string of inconvenient but affordable flights spanning 50 hours with fairly tight connections, but we were confident that it was doable. That blissful feeling lasted until Philippine Air changed our LA departure from 11:10 pm to 10:10, due to the unforeseen, unpredictable daylight savings time change. And so we found ourselves running through the airport like a couple of out-of-shape geezers (EXACTLY like out-of-shape geezers!). Tracking down the Kindle will likely be an exercise in futility. Philippine Air had been amazing and is doing what they can to help us. US Airways are, in Rogerspeak, “dicks”. It looks like it’s time to hit the used bookshops until this is resolved.

Manila "Jeepney" 

Our day in Manila is very low-key. We’ve had little sleep and we are exactly 12 time zones away from our sweet Eastern Daylight Time, so we are beyond punchy. We gave up on taking a  tour of historical sights and are at the Mall of Asia, the biggest one in the continent and the Number One Attraction in Manila, according to Trip Advisor. It’s even nicer than the Gibraltar Trade Center, and with slender, stylish shoppers instead of chubbos in sweatpants. Shopping at a mall is not our usual way to spend time, especially in an exotic locale, but it is hot and humid out, it is air-conditioned inside, and we are weak and tired. Adventure can wait a day or two. Starbucks and Wi-Fi, here we come! Next stop,  Sanur, Bali!