Tuesday, Feb 7 — Puerta Princesa
JAL flight 77 HND > MNL. There are a group of English chaps in the JAL Sakura Lounge, so I ask how the skiing was. They reply, “What mate? We’re a rock band." I inquire further, and learn the are Don Bronco, and they have a Wikipedia page. I grab a nice dinner in the lounge and board the flight wich departs, on time, at 1:31am. Next to me on the plane is a mon traveling to Mindinao, to meet his new friend, a 30-year old Minanaowan. I ask his aga. “I was born in 1959.“ I’m not too sure where Mindinao is, but I think it’s the island which had some terrorist problems a few years ago, in the far South.
Our plane lands aroud 5:29am at Terminal 1. I have to get to Terminal 3 to drop off my ski gear, but as I soon learn, getting between terminals at MNL is a chore. Even though there is one runway, the terminals are spread on all sides, meaning one must go through Manila-infested traffic to get between them. There is a complimentary airport bus that runs every 30 mintutes between the terminals, so I throw all my gear through an X-ray machine and hop into the queue. The bus arrives and the driver stows everyone’s luggage inside the bus with the passengers, making it impossible to move from the front to the back. After the driver loads up about a ton of bags, we drive through the traffic to Terminal 4. Then Terminal 2, again trhough city traffic. We finnally arrive at terminal 3 an hour later. I go through another set of X-rays, take the elevator up, go through another set of X-rays and finally to the Belmont Hotel. I store my ski bag, chill by the roof pool for a bit, and then head to Terminal 2 for the flight to Puerta Princesa.
Wedensday, Feb 8 — Puerta Princesa
Here
Thursday, Feb 9 — El Nido
Here
Friday, Feb 10 — El Nido
Here
Saturday, Feb 11 — El Nido
Here
Sunday, Feb 12 — El Nido
Here
Monday, Feb 13 — Manila
19,000 feet flight. 31 degree Celsius.
Tuesday, Feb 14 — Flight home
Here