Philippines Trip January 2011 #3

We are in Tabuk now. With Ginny along I had decided not to subject her to the 12 hour night bus ride and fly north to Tuguegarao where Christy and Eduardo could pick us up for the one hour ride to Tabuk. By the time our flight got airborne, I was wishing we had chosen the night bus instead. The SIL Director’s office in Manila had graciously arranged for a ride to the airport for us. Unfortunately there was some uncertainty about which of the 3 terminals was the right one. Our driver seemed quite certain that T2 was correct, but after we had paid him and let him go, the guard at the door to the terminal informed us that we were at the wrong terminal. So we had to hop a taxi at the curb to take us back to T3 which we had passed on our way to T2 (not a short ride either). The guard at the entrance to T3 tried to send us back to T2, but by this time I had had enough of cab hoping and asked him to check with the airline check-in counter inside. T3 was correct and he let us in. Check-in went smoothly, but getting from there to our departure gate involved a few more hoops than I am used to. First we had to line up to pay a departure tax. Then we lined up again at a booth where someone verified that we had paid the tax and stamp our ticket. Then there is the line for security screening (they had already passed our bags through Xray at the terminal entrance), but now we had to form two lines, one for men and one for women to pass the full screening including pat down. All the way to the Philippines Ginny had been carrying a small umbrella in her carryon, but here they would not allow her through with it. So, I had to sprint back to the check-in counter, where they graciously checked in the umbrella with another luggage tag, and then back through the various hoops to where I had left Ginny at security. After security we went to our departure gate. There we learned that our flight was to be slightly delayed, which is not unusual for airlines here or in Canada. From there they shuttle passengers out to the tarmac where the various planes are waiting. That went smoothly except that apparently 2 passengers missed the shuttle, so after boarding we had to sit and wait for the 2 remaining passengers – another 15 minute delay. Once we were all on board and both turbo prop engines were running we got in line with the other planes waiting for clearance. We were #4 in line so it would be another few minutes of delay. Meanwhile the plane was beginning to get quite warm in the mid day sun, as it seemed that we would need to get airborne before getting any cool air into the plane. For reasons that I could not understand there was a 10 minute delay between each departure, so by the time we got airborne we had been sitting in the hot plane for another 40 minutes. Meanwhile Christy and Eduardo were waiting for us at the airport in Tuguegarao. The rest of our flight was uneventful, but we had another small adventure after landing. Christy and Eduardo and Doleng (Christy’s mom) were waiting to meet us and it was great to see them again. But when we all got into Eduardo’s pickup truck, it would not start. Like most Filipinos he is somewhat mechanically inclined, so he fiddled with it for a while along with a couple of other guys standing around giving suggestions, but they just could not get any juice flowing to the starter. This is where Filipino ingenuity really shows up. One of the people standing around the truck with Eduardo knew an electrician who lived nearby. So a couple of guys hoped on a tricycle (motor cab) and went to get the electrician. He came on his motorcycle, pulled a couple of tools from under the seat of the motorcycle and before long he had identified the problem and fixed whatever was wrong in the electrical system and the truck started. By now it was dark and we were all a bit hungry and looking forward to getting to Tabuk, a meal and a bed all awaiting us at Christy’s house where we have now had our first nights rest. It is a very pleasant (almost cool) morning and we look forward to our month here and all the adventures awaiting us.