Francis, Pirjo and I woke up ridiculously early to start our journey back.
We first had to get a motorcycle “trike” to take us and our luggage (in the dark!) to the pier. It turns out we were getting on a different boat and they dropped us off at a little onboarding area to the side of the big pier.
It is so weird how all these “transport-the-tourist” people know exactly where to take us.
When we got to the boat, the locals started taking our luggage without us even asking… and then of course they want money for doing it. And we never seem to have the right amount. Ugh. We tried to find the smallest bill we had and paid for all of our luggage transport.
There was a steep plank from the road into the boat. Pirjo went first and slipped pretty badly. She hurt her wrist but only a little bit.
This was a creaky little boat, but it got us to this other little town where a van picked us up. This driver spoke decent English so we asked him where we were off to next. He stated that we were on our way to the big ferry and it would take at least an hour to get there. Oh, OK. That made more sense.
About halfway to the ferry, the driver received a call. Someone let him know that there was no ferry this morning. What!?!?!? There might be one that evening, but that wouldn’t make it to Manila in time to catch our morning flights. What the heck were we supposed to do? How were we going to get to Manila? I guess the ferry often gets canceled due to weather or tides. WTF!??!
So now, we had to figure out what to do. I was calculating how much this was going to cost me with airfare changes, etc. Was I even going to make it back to work on time?
We remembered that Anouk was going to fly back to Manila, but from where? Could we get on that flight too? How much would it cost us?
We had the driver call back to the 3P resort and I could barely hear anything but we asked Kathy about the flight. Where did it depart from? She stated that the driver could take us there in the van but that it would cost more.
OK, the 3P resort was already going to send us the final bill over email so off we went to the Airport to buy our tickets… many hours early.
And then we had too much time to think. What if there aren’t three tickets left by the time we get to the airport? What if there are no staff there yet to sell us tickets (since we are going to get there early and this is such a little airport)?
So we decided to call Kathy back and ask her if we should be concerned about these things. She said that she would try to purchase the tickets online for us.
Then she called back and said she needed our full names and passport numbers in order to do this.
Since reception was really bad and we kept losing a signal, I was put in charge of sending this information over text. On the driver’s phone straight out of 1992. Seriously. It’s one of those phones where you have to hit the number 2 three times in order to put in the letter C. Ugh.
It was near impossible and since we kept losing signal, I had to start over several times. We were pretty much at the airport by the time I got the information over to Kathy, so it wasn’t clear if she was able to book the tickets online or not.
We asked the driver to hang around until we had our tickets and were squared away.
We got to the counter and asked for three tickets to Manila. And they said they didn’t have them. What!?!?! We were pissed but then I stated that we were trying to have someone book them online and they looked and they had been booked. Whew, all three of us had tickets (thank you Kathy!) but we now had to pay for our (MUCH) overweight luggage. And they didn’t take a credit card or American/Euros. Crap.
The good news is that we had lots of time to go find Filipino pesos to pay. The bad news is that there was no ATM at the airport. Seriously!?!?!?
So the driver said that he would take us to “The Pawn Shop” in town (for a fee). OMG. That sounds so sketchy. But everyone agreed, that was the only place to get money today, so we left Francis to watch our luggage and off Pirjot and I went to “The Pawn Shop”, that magical money dispensary.
As we passed bank after bank, the driver kept saying “offline”, which I guess means that they are not connected or open today. We made it to the Pawn Shop which was just a little sketchy bodega like place with cameras and teller windows but no merchandise being pawned at all.
They didn’t take credit cards or debit cards so luckily I had US Dollars I could exchange and had enough for my share of the extra taxi ride and the overweight luggage (but just barely).
We made it back to the little airport and then sat for hours before the flight came. Anouk had heard of our troubles and joined us in the waiting area. As our plan arrived, we caught a glimpse of the new guests on their way in. Teri Goslinger was in that crowd. I met him once in Chicago. He’s a well known nudibrancher that everyone respects. I was bummed I didn’t get to dive with him, but I left a little “drinking buddy” bikini clad female figurine for him at 3P. I hope he likes it!
We were able to make it back to the hotel in time to get a crab dinner at our favorite place. We even walked around the mall and took in a cool flower display they set up.
My flights back home were uneventful and I was glad to be back home. On schedule.
So this trip brings me to 1801 dives. I did 51 in total on this trip. That’s halfway to my goal for the year. J
Until next time… Remain Curious, Neutrally Buoyant and Remember to Turn It Over.
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