Day 21

Despite being exhausted when we arrived last night, I really didn’t sleep well. I was still thinking about all the happenings from yesterday, not to mention that this room has a noisy air conditioner. I did manage to get another hour of sleep in, but we also needed to get up before the breakfast time was over.

One plus about this hotel are the friendly staff, and the breakfast served was pretty good too. We asked the receptionist if we could possibly check out later due to our late arrival last night, but she was only able to give us an extra hour. It was better than nothing, so we thought we would explore Manila before needing to come back and get ready before our flight tonight.

As it turned out, Manila wasn’t as great as we would’ve liked. For starters, our hotel is not in the nicest area as we noticed quite a few beggars. This was made more difficult when two young girls came up to us and begged for food whilst we were waiting to cross the road by pulling on our clothes.

We walked towards the waterfront which wasn’t as great as it sounds, as it was more industrial. On the way, we saw a demonstration of fire trucks, complete with sirens blazing. Since it was so near the American embassy we initially thought it was some military emergency! Across the road was Rizal Park, which was a large open space of parks and Chinese gardens. We then headed towards Intramuros, which is the historical walled part of the city.

To be honest, that wasn’t the greatest either. Anything historical usually interests me, but the area was neither beautiful nor appealing. When Ted suggested returning to the hotel, it seemed like a great idea since the heat was getting worse anyway.

When we got to the hotel, we showered, changed and packed up before organising a Grab to the airport. That wasn’t the most pleasant experience either, as we saw plenty of shanty housing, as well as a woman with a baby who kept tapping on the car window when we were stopped at the traffic lights. It was certainly an eye opener, and unfortunately not a pleasant one.

The airport experience wasn’t as easy as we’d expected - when we went to check in, we were told our bags had to be security screened first. Apparently this is a requirement for all flights to Australia, Canada and the United States. After waiting half an hour for screening to open, the process involved opening our bags so they could do an explosives check on the content. After that, we could finally check in our bags, although we did wonder if we would’ve had to go through this process if we had our bags checked all the way to Melbourne yesterday.

We had about three hours until we needed to board so we went to the Mabuhay Lounge. As far as lounges go, it was not the greatest as the selection of food was poor and the bathrooms weren’t that clean. But it was still a quieter, less hectic place to pass the time. When we went to board, our boarding passes were checked, and we were told we needed to put our bags through security screening (apparently there wasn’t the right stamp on our boarding passes). We tried to explain that we had already done this, but we were still led downstairs to do it again.

Sure enough, our bags weren’t there and we reiterated again that we had already done it. Fortunately the lady who checked us in was there and confirmed our story so we were taken back upstairs to the boarding gate. When we went to board we were told - again - we couldn’t board as our bags needed to be screened. This time, the same guy who took us downstairs had to tell the boarding staff we had already been checked so, after all the initial hassle, we were finally onboard.

Business class on Philippine Airways again exceeded our expectations as everything was wonderful. After dinner had finished, I settled down to sleep and managed a good four hours. I started to watch the new Doctor Strange movie during breakfast but didn’t quite get to see the ending before we arrived in Melbourne.

The differences of being in Australia compared to many other countries was so obvious, as the immigration process was so fast and easy. We did however stand nervously at the baggage carousel wondering if our beloved bags had actually made the flight (they had!).

As I type this last day entry on our flight home to Adelaide, we are very grateful to be back in Australia. We have seen some beautiful destinations, but the trip has also opened our eyes, and made us again grateful for what we have.Lue lisää