1:43am...MABUHAY! Finally settled! 25 hours since our flight took off, 27 hours since we got to the airport, 6 movies, 7 meals, and lots of green tea, and here we are!...My oh my, what a trip! Now I know why locals come and stay for 5-6 weeks at a time!
The 747Boeing was a cattle car in economy--a full flight of 12 hours. The Tokyo airport was nice, clean, quiet, and had a lot of good shopping (we will hit that on our way back w/our 2 hour layover).
Upon landing in Manila, Mom and Dad got teary-eyed knowing they had finally made it to their daughter's city. So close...a world away--and now so close. Amazing! Grandma clapped and started to sweat as we waited in the 81 degree weather at 11:30pm. Off of the plane we headed straight to Immigration with lines snaking far into the terminal. On to the Baggage Claim...swarms of people crowded to gather their balakbayan boxes of goods for their family and the luggage kept on coming. Grandma pushed her way up front grabbing all of the luggage and shoving her people out of the way. Thank God for assertive moms like her--we just didn't have the energy. Amazingly, all of our luggage eventually made it around. Where is the stroller? We waited and waited...until...Dustin stood proud pointing across the carousel. The stroller had made it. The next scene was highly unexpected and chaotic. We exited the building to the taxi area...Mobs of people pushing, shouting, crowding with their luggage made it scary for us to make our way towards our driver, Ramon. We navigated our way through the tiny cracks and finally figured out we couldn't cross where we thought we could to get to the letter "I" for Ide. Just when we started to panic a bit... Ahhhhhh! Like the sun piercing through the dark clouds, a sign shown: DUSTIN AND ALICIA IDE! It was our driver, Ramon, with the biggest sign of all! Thank the Lord! We jumped up and down and waved! He came over and shook our hands and led us through to the back parking lot to his air-conditioned van. We were amazed to see the amount of people waiting on the streets and yelling for family and friends who had just arrived home. Ramon said that in the past, there used to be a charge for people to wait out by the street--seems like a good idea. It was absolutely chaotic!
The drive through Metro Manila was nice--jeepneys filled every lanes, cars seized to obey any order. Ramon is WONDERFUL! What an educated, informative, caring man. He will meet us at 10am TODAY for some sight-seeing to Intramuros (the walled city) and some local shopping. More later TODAY! Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers!
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