Our journey got off to a great start. The Belfast flight left on time. It even arrived 10 mins early. I ran on through to get a place in the queue to get the next plane, as the airline had moved it forward an hour, and Ian and Davy grabbed the bags.
When I arrived at the check -in desk the girl told me that the desk was closing at 9.30. It was 9.25! I rang Ian, they were still on the train. The girl said that she could check me on anyway (well, someone was going to have to meet Alvin).
Luckily enough the guys arrived at 9.29 and 30secs, and were allowed to fly! Ian did say that years of martial arts training gives you the skill to not waste any time, while Davy muttered something about accuracy, distance and timing. I was still waiting for my heart rate to drop!
Kuwait Airlines replaced their fleet in 1991 after the end of the invasion, and it seems they haven’t paid much attention to their planes since. After discussing which movies we would spend the flight watching it turned out that you couldn’t listen to the movies anyway due to the shoddy wiring in the ancient plane (it still had ashtrays in the seat). We did take solace in the fact the this was one airplane that was unlikely to be hijacked.
We stopped off in Kuwait airport and, after spending an hour and a half getting our money changed, and then another 30 mins trying to work out what the currency was actually worth, we went for a snack. As we were familiar with Costa coffee we went there. After getting a coffee, roll and biscuit each we discovered that we had just spent £30. Note to self: don’t go to Kuwait on holiday.
Our £30 coffee break!
Upon re-embarking the plane we were split up, each of us in a different row. At this stage we had all been awake for about 24 hours straight and were trying to catch a doze on the plane. When we arrived in Manila, Ian complained that he hadn’t managed to get a wink of sleep and blamed it on the girl sitting beside him. I’m not sure if she was just a fidgeter, or whether Ian is now a member of the mile high club.
We were allowed through customs at Manila airport despite Ian accidentally ticking the ‘munitions to declare’ box on the immigration form, and we were relieved to meet Alvin where he took over the arrangements. Not to disparage our own planning and organisational skills, but everything ran smoothly after that!
We were now in the Philippines a mere 30 hours later and no sleep. Only one day and more flight to go.
We got to the hotel in Manila, got a much needed shower and headed out to the largest shopping mall in Asia to get a bite to eat. Steak dinners for about £2 followed by ice cream helped alleviate some of the tiredness.
Driving in Manila is something that I hope I never have to do. There doesn’t really seem to be any rules to the road, the lines painted on them does not create orderly lanes of traffic and everyone just seems to drive towards wherever they need to go, beeping at everyone in the way. We spent a total of 10-15 minutes in traffic going from the hotel to the mall and back, and we witnessed a crash, which was in the process of being made worse as we passed due to one driver continuing to reverse into the car he hit (this was after he had stopped due to the initial impact).
Back to the hotel for a nightcap and bed for 10pm. At this stage we’d been on the go for about 35 hours. We were all looking forward to a good night’s sleep, which was a pity because our taxi from the hotel back to the airport was booked for 2am!
We landed in Davao at 5.45am, watching the sun rise over the beautiful island of Mindanao during the descent, and were checked in at the Apartelle by 6am. During breakfast in the Aparetelle restaurant our hire car arrived and Alvin was then able to take us round Davao city.
Where we are staying is a place used by Filipinos and whilst the Apartelle complex is quiet, we are in among the real life of the city, and not in a tourist area. So far the Philippines is as exotic and as warm as you might imagine. The ground is too warm to walk to the pool barefoot and the palm trees are laden with coconuts, but we are now stocked up on chicken, rice, fruit, veg and a protein powders, ready to start our first training session tonight at 6pm until about 8pm. Hopefully then we’ll be able to get some sleep!
