Philippines, Part 1
*Continued from previous post (day 13)*
We get back down to the airport and have 3.5 hours until we can check in, go through immigration and get to our gate area where there are restaurants. That is all we want at this point – food!! There are little places out where we are but they are 7/11 and other convenience store types and we would have to leave that area and go through security again to get in. It all seems not worth it considering how tired we both are.
I leave to go to the bathroom and come back to find that the lady sitting next to us had given us some fruit. I have no idea what they were called but ate all of them.
Some fruit that start with the letter “L” (I couldn’t understand the rest of what the lady was saying)
To stay entertained we played Heads Up and Pictionary on my phone.
Me drawing ‘pipe down’
That worked for a little bit and then I started to get restless again. So I decided to roam that area and take pictures of random things.
Finally it was 9:30 and time to check-in. We go back to the same counter and little guy who told me last night that they had a “sophisticated system”. He checked us in and then told us to check a bag we had to pay. So we said ok, how much? He then pointed us over to this other counter area to pay and get the voucher that we had to then bring back over to him.
The whole baggage fee was a joke. The airport adds on a service fee of their own that you must pay in cash. We were planning on putting it all on a card but since we couldn’t put that portion of it on the card, we had to convert more money. It was all stupid and made me hate the Jakarta Airport even more.
We get the baggage voucher, take it back to the little guy that I wanted to snap in half at this point and head to immigration. We breeze through that area and are finally on the other side with the restaurants!!!! Hallelujah!
We start looking at different menus of the restaurants and aren’t really all that thrilled. There were a lot of seafood options that were grossing me out. We finally find this one that we both see something we could get only to find out they are out of it. So we get this really random plate of a food.
Weird plate with fish scales that I had to remove from my plate after this photo
Then since we still had some time to kill, we took a stroll through duty free to spray ourselves down with some perfume.
The Voice has their own perfume. Kinda feels like DWTS should, too.
This one smelled pretty good
We grabbed a Starbuck drink before heading over to our gate area to wait the final stretch. We lucked out and found these awesome lounge chairs. Then at some point we find out from these Aussie guys that our flight to Manila was delayed by at least 30 minutes. At this point it didn’t make a difference to me since we had lounge seats.
Day 14, January 11
12:00am: About 30 minutes after our original scheduled departure, we are finally able to board. The plane is not even a quarter of the way full so we are able to spread out and have a whole row to ourselves. I took full advantage of this setup and sprawled out and slept so soundly on that 5 hour flight.
When we landed it was a pretty quick and smooth transition through everything at the Manila Airport. We got a taxi (who sideswiped another car’s driver side window and acted as if that was common) and went to the new hotel that Taryn found that would sleep all 3 of us and hold our bags. We did early check-in so we could set our bags down and go get food. Nothing looked good around us so we just went to 7/11 and grabbed some waters and snacks.
This angle makes the room look nice & quiet. There was construction noise all hours of the night.
Then we pretty much took all afternoon to regroup. We booked our flight to Boracay (which is the island that we are going to next in the Philippines), our hostel there and started the paperwork on our visas for Vietnam.
Taryn and I decided we would try to do some laundry while my sister rested back at the room. We walked around to find a coin operated laundry mat and we finally found one only to find out that their water is off because they are fixing something. There are a bunch of laundry service places where you drop your stuff off and get it in a few days but not a lot of coin operated ones. So we had to schlep all our dirty, smelly clothes back to the room.
It was nice to see a little bit of Manila when we were roaming around looking for a laundry place.
So instead we decide to find a place for dinner and just try to do laundry at the next place we stay.
When Taryn and I were walking back to the room with all our dirty clothes, we saw this German restaurant that was really close to our place. So we decide after striking out with a Mexican restaurant that we found, to just go to the German place. It was, surprisingly, really good.
Curry Bratwurst with sauerkraut and potato salad
Scrambled pancakes for dessert just because I was curious how you scramble pancakes
Very excited for food!
After dinner it was back to the room to shower and pack up since we were leaving at 6am to head to the airport for our flight to Boracay.
Day 15, January 12
We woke up at 5:30am to head to the airport for our flight to Boracay. It was another smooth check-in which makes me realize how bad Jakarta airport really was. We are on the same airline as what we flew on to come to Manila. We had to pay for bags at the Jakarta airport but not here at the Manila airport so now we know that the Jakarta airport imposed the bag fee and not the airline.
We were there about 2 hours before our flight so we had time to relax and grab a coffee. While waiting Trayn showed us her visa photo she got yesterday. We died laughing because it looks nothing like her. They photoshopped the shirt on her and took away all her hair. Then we had to compare all of our visa pictures.
“Taryn” in her visa photo
3 beauties (these are not mugshots)
As we were about to head to our gate my sister offered to take a photo of another group of travelers because they were struggling to take a selfie. After the photo they insisted on getting a photo with her. And of course I had to capture that moment while laughing.
She wouldn’t do the pound sign even though I yelled out to her to do it
We’re about to board so I’ll finish out the day in my next post.
Jamecia Blount
January 12, 2017
So I always open the blog on my phone and I just realized that you could actually open the posts from the main page. lol I kept wondering why your blogs were so short and then I clicked it and discovered, wow, I’ve been missing all of this! And that you actually aren’t a lazy blogger, id been judging you! Lol Anywho, I thourghly enjoyed reading through each and every blog! I delighted in moments like finding the spider, the mugshot visas,and your sister taking photos with strangers!:) for it is in the annoying and awkward moments that create the best stories!! Your pictures of some of the locations are breathtaking, thank you for sharing the beauty of the world with us! Your blog has joined my nightly reading list; along with the book I narrowed from you, which I find to be a bit melodramatic, btw. Lol. Anyway, I am doing swell, miss you lots!! Xoxo, Mecia
Jillian
January 12, 2017
Oh Mecia! This comment made me laugh. Thank you for being a loyal follower. And yes, the book is a little dramatic but that’s just her. I liked the overall meaning though. I miss you a lot!!
Momma Payne
January 12, 2017
You girls are going to have to stock up on snacks to carry with you. You don’t want to have any more hangry episodes. I can’t wait to see more of the Philippines.
Sarah Brockway (Johnson)
January 13, 2017
POUND IT BETHANY!!!!! I have just successfully spent 30 min or so not working, so thank you for that break! The pictures on the beach are gorgeous. You ladies be careful out there.
Jillian
January 13, 2017
Haha, thanks Sarah!
Grammie
January 19, 2017
Where is Subway when you need them, right?
Jillian
January 21, 2017
Hi Grammie! We actually saw Subway in the Manila airport but yes, we would have given anything for some fresh food that didn’t have fish in it.