We did take the 9:50 am bus out of YCAT, and arrived at Narita at around 11:30. was supposed to be on another terminal so April and I said good bye to her on the bus, which really sucked, but which I guess, was easier. We got our tickets, and checked our luggage. We were so worried that we might have to pay so much excess (we thought 20kg was allowed) that our big-ass suitcases were just a little over 20kg. When we went there however, the lady at the counter told us that Filipinos (since we were taking Philippine Airlines [PAL]) were allowed 30kg. She weighed our tinier suitcases that we planned to hand-carry, and told us they were too heavy (only 7kg was allowed), and told us to transfer some of the stuff from the smaller luggage to the bigger one, since it didn't reach 30kg yet. That was a real pain in the butt. Days before, I had packed and repacked my big-ass suitcase just so that it wouldn't weigh so much, and there they told me it was too light!
We had no choice, we started to do what the lady said (you can imagine how funny that looked in the middle of an airport), when two Filipino women approached us and told us that if they didn't have excess baggage, they'd give us a couple of phone cards that allowed an additional 10kg each. Indeed, they didn't have excess, so they gave us the cards. It was quite interesting, it was just a phone card, but then the company apparently has a partnership with PAL. We were thankful for that, and we ended up checking in all the suitcases we had, including the smaller ones that we meant to hand-carry.
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| A PAL A330 at Narita |
We boarded the plane, which was occupied to the last seat, mostly by Japanese who were going on vacation to the Philippines. April and I were given seats near one of the emergency exits, and one of the flight attendants made us read some instructions and told us that if something happened, we'd have to be the ones to open the door, jump first, and catch everyone. If we wanted to transfer seats, we should just tell her. Hmmm. That's a lot of pressure, but I thought to myself, it's better that I'm here because I'd get to jump first, and most of all, I understood the English instructions. Forgive me for saying this, but I thought that having April and myself there was better than having a Japanese in our place who could very possibly not understand the emergency instructions.
Anyway, a little after 2:30 pm (scheduled departure) the plane started to taxi down the runway, when suddenly, the captain's voice came on the speaker and said he noticed a problem with one of the engines and that we had to go back. Now, isn't that scary? The funny thing is though, all my anxiety about flying disappeared when that happened. Maybe it was because something already happened, but nothing bad happened to us {you know what I mean}. But I know it was also largely because of the nice flight attendant who was seated right in front of us, talking and telling us jokes. We finally took off at around 4:00 pm, and the flight was pretty much ok--no turbulence and stuff, but it was really cold and they ran out of blankets, so April and I didn't have blankets. Abused, eh? Silly this might seem, I found comfort in the manifestation of something truly pinoy (i.e. really cold air conditioners), as you might have remembered my complaints before of Japanese air conditioners being put at warm temperatures.
We arrived in Cebu two hours delayed, just a little after 8:00 pm. We lined up at Immigration, and then the first Philippine reality came crashing down on me: long, slow lines. LOL. We passed through customs, and as I braced myself for questions, opening of luggages, and the possible need for some under the table, the man just asked to look at our passports, nodded and let us pass. Hmmm. Interesting, but I am very grateful. Anyways, one of April's sisters met her, and a lot of people met me. :) My mother, my two uncles Noli and Nene who live in Cebu, my uncle's wife, Merly, and my cousin, Tope. Cathy, my other cousin would have been there, too, but she was on a business trip to Leyte so I wasn't able to meet her that time. We had dinner at my uncle's house near Gaisano Mactan, and there was so much food because it was my cousin Pangging's birthday. We checked in at a pensionne house just in front of Gaisano, and the next day went shopping around SM.
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