I left my laptop glued to the website of the airline until I slept around ten; the on-line schedule says the flight is still on. As I woke up 30 minutes past two in the morning, the schedule has been changed from ETD of 6 in the morning to 7am. I’m staying at a hotel near the Manila Bay and from the inside; I can now fell the winds smashing against the glass window of the room. I took a quick shower, grab my things and went down the lobby to look for a cab.
Travelling to the airport, I noticed that a lot of establishments don’t have their lights on. Colorful streetlights the used to brighten the stretch of Roxas Boulevard doesn’t seem to be working today and the streets are sporadically littered with branches of trees that fell as a result of the strong winds. Parts of the streets were also flooded making it impossible for cars to move along. Thanks to gallant stand of the taxi driver, we were able to reach NAIA Terminal 3 just in time.
The new NAIA Terminal 3 doesn’t look beautiful the way it used to be. At closer look, I noticed that the terminal was dark and all of the escalators were not working. Then I got the answer from one of the terminal personnel, the entire Luzon is currently experiencing a blackout due to the typhoon. Then I realized, this must be a strong typhoon, and our trip to Singapore would be cancelled in a matter of minutes and Cebu Pacific might have updated their online flight status from delayed to cancelled.
My suspicion was even more validated by stories of some passengers that Philippine Airlines has cancelled all their flights scheduled for the day. I saw few or my colleagues from the different areas and we were asking each other the same question. “Tuloy ba tayo?” Then I saw Leo Adaptante (one of our CMs) emerging from the Cebu Pacific counter and he told me I can now check my baggage in and boarding will be at 5:55am. That boarding schedule is enough to reassure us all that we are indeed going to Singapore today.
While doing the check-in process, I can see around the corners of the terminal passengers who are still asleep. Their flights must have been cancelled and they choose to spend the night at the terminal rather than go out of the airport and be back again. I know that although our flight is on, we need to wait more hours longer than the usual. CB needs to ensure that they get a clearance from the transportation bureau that it’s now safe to fly down the globe.
The P750.00 terminal fee is not worth it today. We had to endure a waterless comfort room, coffee-less restaurants, and exhaust-less smoking area. The terminal services were fully crippled by the Luzon-wide blackout. We have to endure four agonizing hours at the waiting area with nothing but stories (old and new) and anticipation of how we, boys, will spend the nights (with "s")in Singapore.
We finally boarded the 5J801 Flight to Singapore 10 minutes past 7 in the morning. The skies are now clear with no signs of the typhoon that had just manifested herself early morning of today. We took of 20 minutes after. Travel time to Singapore from the Philippines is approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes; the best way to kill boredom on flight is to sleep. I did just that. At past eleven we landed at Changi International. We are finally in the fine city of Singapore!
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