Why?
So yesterday we did have one cloud appear on our horizon: Kim, the lady who organised our tour of north Luzon, emailed to say that a typhoon was going to blow across Luzon on Tuesday and perhaps our flight to Cauayan may be cancelled. Oh, and perhaps all the mountain roads will be closed due to landslides and travel in the area effectively impossible. Meh.
The flight warning turned out to be accurate, but Cebu Pacific were only good enough to let us know this after we had already taken the 10:40 ferry back from Bohol to Cebu, taken a taxi across Cebu City to the airport, and taken the 16:10 flight back from Cebu to Manila! So we found ourselves in Manila airport at 18:30 with no clear idea of what we’d be doing tomorrow.
For convenience (when we thought we were getting on a 7am flight the next day!) we had booked into the Wings transit lounge, which promised a private twin room and shared use of hot showers, as well as a lounge with free snacks and drinks. Nice. Except not. The room was miniscule and poorly lit, with nothing in the way of hooks or shelves or a mirror to help get a bit organised. And for some reason their idea of bedding was a blanket scarcely large enough to cover a hobbit, even though the air-con was chilly and unadjustable.
The communal shower was much worse: a tiny cubicle with exactly one bloody hook. This hook somehow had to look after your towel, your clothes, and any toiletries you brought with you. And the flip-flops you wore to the shower were destined to get soaked because the cubicle was so tiny. Wash basins were no better; two of them, so close together that if someone else was using the bathroom you were going to bump elbows no matter what.
Maureen couldn’t even get hot water and gave up on a shower altogether. This is actually bizarre running joke with us (maybe “joke” isn’t the right word! I can feel Maureen glaring). Everywhere we go she has cold showers. I don’t know why. The men’s shower here was perfectly hot. Back in Bohol Maureen’s first shower was cold simply because she didn’t spot that there was an option to make it hot. I spotted it. In Nepal I recall having a warm shower first, and then Maureen going second and finding the solar powered water heater had run out of sunshine. Nowadays Maureen always goes first, but that’s no guarantee. One time she endured a cold shower, which inspired me to go to the front desk and complain – they had a fiddle around and fixed the problem, so my shower was hot. To my knowledge I’ve never had to have a cold shower when Maureen’s has been hot.
Anyway, back to the Wings transit lounge. It will be no surprise that the coffee was crap and the snacks pathetic. We went out for dinner and found a place called Ramen Nagi for some Japanese comfort food. Needed it.
One other bit of comfort: Kim replied to our “so… what should we do now?” note to say that we would be driving from Manila all the way up to the mountains rather than taking the short flight to Cauayan. Though she was still uncertain exactly what would be possible to visit once we got there. Nevermind, tour on!
Comfort ramen
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