I am in Manila now, or should I say Quezon City.  It was a really strange flight after some delays and changes and all, but I got here after all, so I guess it is not so bad.  I got off on Friday somewhat early and stopped by the bank to get some cash and all.  I then went home and posted my final messages on my blog after making sure that everything was packed.  I then started waiting on Cloud 9 shuttle and was really worried when they were 15 minutes late. 

I then got to the airport and went to the ticket counter.  There was no waiting but the lady behind the counter was very new and had a lot of confusion over how to handle an International passenger.  I finally got through her after her manager helped her out and I got through customs very quickly.

After that the flight to San Francisco was uneventful and quick.  When we landed I set off for Philippine Air and again that is where the hold up started happening.  The lines were ridiculously long and the people behind the counter were ridiculously slow.  Also friends and family were cutting into line at the front and the whole thing was a good demonstration of incompetence, but I have learned to expect this from this carrier.  After all that the plane was going to be delayed for 2 hours and would be bypassing Guam, and going straight to Manila, getting there an hour earlier.  I went ahead and went through security there since it had huge lines and all.  I figured I would send Laila an e-mail telling her what was up, but then when I got to the International Terminal they only had WIFI, and since I did not have a WIFI device that was all over.

So finally we got on the plane and off we went I figured I would try and get some sleep on the plane, but some guy with some really bratty kids was sitting across the isle and they kept making noise until they finally started to sleep.  Then the younger of the two started having nightmares and that woke everyone up. 

Eventually the kids woke up again and started disturbing everyone again.  Anyway, I had just given up on sleeping.

When we landed I was behind some smart ass from business class that decided that he had the right to hold everyone up because he spent a little extra for his tickets.  Anyway I waited for him to finish taking his good old sweet time and then when we got off the plane, since I knew where I was going and this guy didn’t I was in and out of immigration before he ever got to the counter. 

After that was the standard Philippines Airlines “where is my checked baggage game”?  It was good that we got to Manila n hour early because I had lots of time to stand around and wait, until Laila showed up.  Well baggage took acre of all that extra time I had.  I waited and waited, and my one bag never appeared.  Finally it looked like all the baggage from my flight was unloaded so they directed me to the next carousel over and there was my bag.  It had managed to book itself on another flight.  At least it made it.  When I got outside Laila appeared almost immediately and then we headed for home and I took a nap.  I was so glad the travel day was over and that we could get rested up and start spending some time together.