I started a blog to share with my friends and family. Here is my first entry:
Planes, trains, and gridlock
Take off from Greenville airport delayed about 30 minutes due to ‘wind sheer’ in Chicago. Very bumpy ride. Lots of turbulence. Sat next to a guy who was a traveling salesman(sold the machine that made boxes). He has been in just about every corner of the world. Showed me his passport, and he has been in Turkey, Argentina, Australia, multiple times in Spain. At least 15 times each to Japan and China. Oddly, he’s never been to the Philippines.
The 21st century gadgets on a Japanese aircraft are awesome! Each seat has its own ‘in-seat’computer, and you can IM other seats. The remote they provide had very small buttons though, and not worth the effort. Another feature is a camera in the nose of the plane so I can see what the pilot is seeing. In flight snack has “Expanion medicine” listed as an ingredient. What the hell is that? Pretty solid selection of movies and tv. Stewardesess changed clothes during different parts of the flight. Felt like I was being waited on by OCD clothes fanatics who forgot to pack their meds.
We flew into Narita airport, and had 12 hours to get to Haneda airport we were leaving from. My co-worker and I were happy to find many Japanese know English. I’m not sure how were would have been able to find our way to another airport if they hadn’t. Even with that advantage, we bungled a few times getting there. This was mostly due to us pretending to be the ******* love children of the three stooges and the keystone cops. At one point, after having gotten on the wrong bus for the third time in a row, I swear I heard benny hill music. After the 13 hour flight, we were exhausted and each got a hotel room at the airport. The “hotel” room was 7 feet by 4 feet. Comfy, huh?
After finally arriving in Manila, we walked to the customs area and got in line with the other 100 or so passengers. After 2 minutes, some airport security guy comes over and yanks us out of line. Thinking I was going to get shot for some mortal sin my Grandfather did during WWII, he instead led us to the ‘Diplomat’ area, and was ushered thru the process. I sheepishly glanced at the poor shlubs still in line, grabbed my passport, and slinked off. This was my first experience of what will continue to happen: Americans are treated differently in the Philippines. Almost as if I were royalty. This ‘king’ is not used to the weight of a crown. Alas, I am a minority, and stick out like a six foot thumb with large neon American Flags sticking out his ###.
At this point, I’ve only been here 2 days. Two things continue to stun me. First, the traffic. Go ahead and google random videos of “Manila traffic”. Go ahead. I’ll wait. What you are seeing is not abnormal. It took us an hour to travel about 2 miles. This is an everyday scene. Crazy traffic. Those ‘Jeepneys’ are everywhere, and are the main public transportation of the populance. Second, the food here is #######g out of this world good! Crazy good, and stupid cheap.
Remember the very bumpy ride I was telling you about earlier? Yeah, I come to find out it was due to typhoon class winds we passed thru north of Japan. I’m glad they didn’t tell us at the time.