Like the southwest roadtrip, I started off this venture with an attempted all-nighter. Bestest and I stayed up reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, with naps in between and a 5AM coffee stop at 7/11. We finished the book and had minutes left to say goodbye as we loaded luggages into my uncle’s 15-seater van. Somehow in the rushed confusion, I stubbed my pinky toe and it swelled to a persistent purply lump for the rest of the day. After squeezing Bestest for the last time, I hopped in the van and we set off to pick up Grandpa. (There are two Michaels in a our group: my brother and my mom’s boyfriend. I’ll refer to my brother as Mike and the other one as Michael to make things easier.) As we pulled out of the driveway, Michael and Tristan realized they didn’t have their passports. Luckily they live within a few blocks away from each other, so we didn’t spend too much time detouring. We picked up Grandpa and made it to LAX about two hours before boarding time. Apparently no one had reminded Grandpa about the 3oz. limit on liquids for carry-on luggage. It didn’t help that Michel had left a knife in one of his carry-on bags and Mike had to be frisked because he was the one carrying the bag. So…security checks took a while.
We finally boarded our China Air flight and took off at around 1:00PM. Usually I order ginger ale when I’m on airplanes, but that didn’t work out this time.
Stewardess: Wha wou you lie to dwink?
Me: Ginger ale, please.
Stewardess: Wha? Tea?
Me: No, gin-ger ale.
Stewardess: To-ma-to juice?
Me: No, GIN GER ALE.
Stewardess: Wha?
Me: Nevermind, I’ll have water.
I slept for about 5-6 hours out of the 12hr flight. Roughly 2 hours were devoted to changing positions trying to fall asleep. The rest of the time, I ate dinner and breakfast and watched Shrek. Dinner consisted of saucy chicken, rice, a small salad, yogurt, and bread and butter. For breakfast, I had fried rice, yogurt, fruit, and bread and butter. In between meals, I snacked on cherry tomatoes with goat cheese that Mom had brought from home. The flight was mostly boring because I had an aisle seat and my toe was killing me. I walked up and down the aisles to get some circulation going on in my left foot and saw that the plane had little bassinets for baby passengers. I think there were about four babies and they were all little angels, sleeping and rarely crying 🙂
We landed in Beijing, which was stiflingly humid, and were held up at security again. This time, Grandpa’s mouthwash was taken away, along with Mike’s bottle of Axe. They don’t fuck around in China. We barely made our transfer flight, with a mere seven minutes left until takeoff. I slept longer and more soundly on this flight. The flight attendant served the same chicken dinner provided on the previous plane.
I don’t mean to sound like a horridly odious and ignorant tourist with an unforgivingly cruel vision of the Philippines, but I understand if I sometimes come off that way in recounting these experiences. Before we landed, I didn’t expect we’d have much fun here. As a child, I learned that there wasn’t enough food for people in the Philippines; my grandma often guilt tripped her grandchildren with that notion in order to avoid leftovers at the dinner table. When my mom gets out of sorts about the chores not being done or something, she sometimes threatens to send us to the Philippines so that we may be humbled by its poverty and stop acting like spoiled brats. The doctors gave us typhoid vaccinations, prescribed emergency diarrhea pills, and warned us not to drink the water. Even my dentist the day before had instructed to carry valuables in a frontward fanny pack at all times, or the beggar children would pickpocket us. My mom made us watch short YouTube videos about the Philippines. Almost every local in the videos looked tired, old, and poor. The only spirited, healthy person was the filming tourist.
I would’ve been more excited for the Philippines if it hadn’t been forecasted to rain through our entire trip. I’d heard good things about the Philippines as well, like how its coral reefs were absolutely breathtaking, and that the tropical fruits were exceptionally delicious. But, I thought, I wouldn’t be able to swim much due to the rain. We probably wouldn’t even be able to go outside every day. Such were my misgivings as the plane started its descent into Manila. My first glimpse of the Philippines wasn’t so impressive because night had already blanketed the land. Although, the sight of twinkling electric lights all over the city was reassuring. As we neared earth, I could see highways and billboards, crowded streets, and high-rises silhouetted against the sky. It looked like LA. But it was hardly like LA.
Blog of a Buenz 