March 2nd - Off We Go to the Philippines.

Up at 6AM and by 6:30 AM with Kristy's help we set off for the airport to make our flight on Delta scheduled to leave at 8:45 AM.  the Captn told us there was too much fuel on board, so after taking some off, we left, 40 minutes later.  We flew to Portland and just had enough time to change gates for our 14 hour Tokyo flight.  The flight to Manila via Portland and Tokyo went rather well.  Even after the change I had to make with our reserved Economy Comfort seating we had pretty good seats and the long flight between Portland and Tokyo was rather comfortable.  Between watching movies, reading and sleeping we made the long trip with little wear on us. We arrived in Tokyo where we had about a 2 1/2 hour layover.  It was so fun to meet so many missionaries who were flying with us to begin their missions in Thailand.



SLC Airport - Departure

Sister Murray, Darby, Elder & Sister Uzelac

Sister Murray, Darby and Uzelac



 

 

 

Upon our arrival in Manila at 9:50 PM I was greeted by a flight service rep informed me that one of my bags did not make it from Tokyo to Manila.  I had to report to the baggage counter to fill our some paper work.  After 30 minutes of that we cleared customs and were met by Bro. Clem from the Area office who took us to our hotel. We stayed at the Remington which is not even 1/4 mile from the Airport.

Our Hotel in Manila

Foyer in the hotel

We discovered that the two Sisters were sent to the not-so-nice Hotel Manila, which was really the roach motel.  They did not have a good experience so I went forth to get them transferred to our hotel for the remainder of their stay.

Each morning we had vouchers for breakfast next door in a very nice restaurant in the mall.  The very upscale mall is actually a casino in the middle which reminded us of Las Vegas. We also had dinner in the very nice restaurants each evening.

Cafe

Resturant

Inside Mall

Tuesday we were taken to the Immigration office by church employed drivers where we had to complete our immigration papers before going on to Cebu.  We had previously been warned and forewarned about the traffic in Manila but let me tell you, nothing describes the traffic in Manila.



Normal traffic at first

THEN it really got congested

Then it got a bit more congested




On our way to the Immigration Office we drove by the American Embassy Office.

 

 

 It took us one hour to go approximately 5 miles, finally arriving at the immigrations office.

 

 

 

 

This is where the fun and excitement began.  In the Philippines things do not run expediently and they certainly do not understand what a simple process is all about.  We had to go through a four step process before we could get our pictures taken and fingerprinting done. Delay after  delay occurred resulting in us being sent back to the hotel rather than sitting in the hot building to await each process. We had to make the same trip three times today and at the end oft he day we still had not completed everything, which meant we had to return early Wednesday Morning. 

 

Wednesday morning we once again arrived at the immigration office where we discovered that everything was cleared so we could get our pictures taken and fingerprinting done.  Once completed  we headed off to get our Philippines drivers' licenses.  This was another adventure! 

 

It took us about an hour to get to the place where we had to have our eyes & blood pressure checked (a medical clearance) before we could apply for our drivers license- somewhere else?  From there we drove another 30 or so minutes to the drivers license office where we encountered another series of processes to get our license. First, we could not find parking, so we drove around the parking lot for about 20 minutes before finally getting a parking place.  You see, most of the parking lot was for either employees, or impounded vehicles! We then walked to the office and discovered 100's of people applying for a drivers license. Certainly not like home!  Here in the Philippines it was a six step process, each at a different window with much wait time in between. Lucky for us, a Sister member of the church recognized us and proceeded to give us the red carpet treatment.  We were invited to sit in a comfortable air conditioned office (while everybody else sat out in the hot and humid area) as we went through the six step processes.  You won't believe the funny looks we got every time we came out of the office, parading in front of the audience, to the next window process. Finally after about two hours we ended up at the release station where our pictures were taken and our drivers licenses' were issued.

 

Finally lunchtime, so we sent to Jolliebee's and treated our driver to lunch.  Jolliebees is the Philippine equivalent to Mc Donalds. We arrived back to the hotel at about 3PM (remember we started the day at 7:30 AM) where we all crashed and rested before going to dinner.

 

We had been told of the unique transportation system here in the Philippines - known as Jeepneys.  The description of these vehicles was in my estimation truly under described based on what we encountered.  They are of every color and decorations as one can imagine.  They reminded us of the vans in Africa, packed to the hilt with people.  The saying here is "how many can you get into a Jeepney - "ONE MORE."

 Along with the Jeepney's there are thousands of small motor bikes, motor bike carts, tricycle carts and all sizes of regular cars.  Take a look for yourself and then picture the streets being inundated with these.  No traffic rules except first come - first go, if you dare!  It is like dodgem cars- you have to drive aggressive and just take your place in the traffic using one's best judgment or defensive driving.