My 3 week vacation to the Philippines is finally here. My goal is to keep a record of whats going on here and post some of my findings every day. I kinda have a late start since I started flying on the 13th of December. But I can make that up no problem.
We took Hawaiian Airlines since it was the most direct flight from Portland. My family and I woke up at 6am to board our plane at 8 and we were off to our first stop; Honolulu, Hawaii. Our flight had a 24 hour layover in Honolulu (which I must say was wonderful) so when we arrived we decided to go out for lunch and then go for a swim. 81 degrees on a December day. Anyways our little stop there was quite nice and I just couldn't come to the fact that I was actually in Hawaii. Just insane since I haven't had a vacation in a while (about 6 years since Hawaii I believe).
But this morning I woke up and took a pleasent walk on the beach. Watched some locals catch some small waves and tourists waking up and flocking to the beaches. At about 10.30 my family decided to head off to the airport. We arrived there and waited our usual 2 hours. As everyone was waiting an announcer came over the intercom saying, " Ladies and Gentlemen on flight 422, we are sorry to inform you that there will be a slight delay in our flight..." a slight delay in the flight? What? Why everyone was wondering, "Since our plane is too heavy we need to make a stop to refuel the plane before making the final trip to Manilia." Little did I know that about every single Filipino on that flight decided to pack their whole lives plus another families worth of luggage with them, "Our flight will make a stop in Guam to refuel and then you will be on your way. If you have any questions or concerns please ask the front desk and they will assist you as best as they can. Thank you and Mahalo." So....everyone was shocked that we needed to stop since our plane couldn't carry enough fuel to get us to our destination. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I have no clue...a first for me. I believe the only really good thing about that flight was the movie's they had for us to watch. Made the time go by a little faster than it would have otherwise. But anyways; never seen Guam before so when we saw land everyone was looking out their windows (myself included) Took some pictures coming in and of our lovely fill up tank...such an interesting island...didn't think it was that large actually.
It took about an hour to refuel the plane but we were off again. This time it took about 3 hours to get to Manila. But finally we saw lights! From there it took about 30-40 minutes to get to the Shangra-La Hotel. Man, driving here would kill me. I'll try and get a video of it cuz it's so crazy but I'm glad we had someone drive us. It looks so different than I remember (course it was 1998 the last time I was here). But more will come. 2 days down; 21 more to go!
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