Gina and Pete's Triumphant return - Philippines holiday blog

I noted when I left a message saying it was that time of year for us to travel back to the land that once brought us together, some of you asked if i would do a Pete special on how things are, I am absolutely delighted to do a sort of daily blog, perhaps there will be some things of interest to some, I love to read about what others do on their holidays, so here it is for what its worth.


Day 1 - The Hanging around - waiting to Fly.

Friday was a pretty funny day, in that it did not seem real, after all we had been sort of packed, well not actually, but Gin had packed all her suitcase, I had done absolutely nothing the night before, but then again I was not working.

The time seemed to drag, and Friday morning I got most of my clothes together and bundled them into a bag, Gina's suitcase was huge, and I was worried about baggage allowances, as most years we really do get hammered for excess baggage, and Cebu Pacific can be donwright awkward when it comes to this.

But at around 3 pm in the afternoon, our taxi arrived and we headed down to Heathrow airport, this time to terminal 5, our flight being with British Airways, Flight BA031 departing at 21.15 pm.

What is great about British Airways for those who have not flown with them before is that they have a baggage weighing area, in terminal 5, plus on online check in service, which enabled Gina and I to get our boarding passes at home, and allocating our own seats, some of you I know will be very familiar with this, and you can do this 1 day before check in, a good idea because you are not rushing to get to the airport in quite the same way.

British airways were very generous in any event, as they did not charge us for any excess Gina had 28 KG of baggage when the allowance is only 23 KG.

I had a flymo box with me, about 12 KG my bag was carry on, so not a problem there, she also had a carry on, and a bag.

So no real problems, the flight was on time, and the food was very welcome, the best morning full english breakfast yet, staff very courteous, and our flight landed safely in Hong Kong at around 16.00 in afternoon, thats when the usual problems start when you transfer to one of the Philippine registered carriers.

Day 2 - Delays and problema.


We transferred through quite happily to the landside of the airport, but as there was little time to go, we did not feel there was time to go around Hong Kong, our flight with Cebu Pacific was scheduled to leave at 19.30 so we had coffee and cake at the Pacific coffee company on the upper level before check in, the airport free wi fi was pretty crap, so we just sat and waited to check in.

As usual Cebu Pacific had not changed its spots, talk about things being in their nature, the baggage allowance for Hong Kong to Manila is at present 15 KG can you believe that ?

So we were 15 kilogrammes over the top, but the funny thing is they charged us HKG 250.00 to pay the excess petty I am sure you will agree, I also had the fortune to be stood next to a Philippine Army Colonel who kept me amused for the 3 hours the flight was delayed, their was a big sigh and faces of resignation when they announced that the inbound flight from Manila was 2 hours late due to a typhoon crossing the Philippine sea.

What did I care, I had my Ipod and the Colonel to kee me amused, I think he was just about as bored as we were, a very pleasant gentleman, very well spoken.

Finally after3 hours of hanging around, we boarded the flight, as we were about to board, 3 young chinese girls working for airport services came around relieving us of our hand baggage saying that the flight was full, and Cebu pacific had requested hand baggage be checked, as it was they sent an A319 the smallest aircraft in the fleet.

At 23.30 pm we finally landed at NAIA terminal 3, exhausted, and hot, however the typhoon had cooled the air, and it was only 25 degrees local.

We headed into a taxi which by the way costs P750.00 from NAIA 3 to Makati Avenue, arriving at 0030 hours, at our hotel the Great Eastern for anyone that stays there, they had no record of our room reservation telling us that perhaps Quezon City had taken the booking.

After all i had called 3 times, e mailed 3 times, and had an e mail confirmation, nevertheless I was determined not to let this SNAFU get the better of me, I told Gina to flip out a package of Cadburys chocolates to smooth the way forward.

Amazingly, they did have a room for us, a superior room, and to be honest the way we felt we would have taken a nippa hut, we were so tired, an hour later, we were fast asleep, end of day two.