False start to Palawan

AIRPORT DISASTER

Pam came to see our hotel room in the red light district. We then left in a taxi, taking Pam home first. She said, "do you know which terminal you're departing on?" We didn't know, and she asked if we wanted to use her internet to find out. If we get the wrong terminal, it would take us another 20 minutes to get to the other one. Matthew said, "I'm confident we'll make it" and off we go to Terminal 3. Wrong terminal. 20 minutes later, we get to Terminal 2. We didn't have our boarding passes so we go to the Philippine Air office to get them. There was a line. We are 30 minutes from departure.

The lady gives Matthew the ticket but says the plane departs in the other terminal. What? We were just told to come here! So we go out and try to flag a taxi, but none of them wants to take us. We ask the security guards for help and they flag down a private shuttle that cost less than a taxi. Very nice of them to do that.

In the shuttle, I ask Matthew if he'd gotten a ticket for me too. He didn't. By this time I'm pretty sure we would miss our flight.

PHILIPPINE AIR ROCKS

At the counter, we find out that our flight had been canceled, but they had been unable to notify us since we did not have a local number. So, they put us up in a hotel in Malate (close to airport, near Makati), gave us free transport there and back, as well as 3 meals - lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next day. I couldn't believe they were giving us all of that. GO PHILIPPINE AIR (NOT Air Philippines). We had the option of Century Park Hotel or Trader Hotel. I asked which one they recommend and the guy hesitated a little and said Century Park. Later we would realize he really had no idea since Century was literally a century old and Trader is a recently renovated Shangri-la arm.

CENTURY PARK HOTEL

Well, this means we lose another day but what it also means is - TRANSFORMERS! The caps and exclamation marks are for Matthew. We taxi to the Century Park hotel and the lady who checked us in looked Chinese and quite young. I probably saw her the way many people see me. Maybe it's her ponytail. She put us in a smoking floor so we came back down and requested a non-smoking floor, but all the rooms were taken.

We used our lunch buffet voucher. It was nearly 2pm and lunch was petering out. The food was gross. The veggies were limp, over-buttered or salted, the meats tough, and the baked goods dull. The only redeeming aspect was the fresh mango crepe that they make on the spot. And the salmon sashimi.

We over-ate nonetheless and decided to walk around and check out the gym. It looked like an old basement gym and the attendent jumped up when we walked in. We said we were just looking. The scattered weights and 2 treadmills were pretty sorry-looking under the fluorescent lights. It was nothing like the Mandarin Oriental gym.

MALL OF ASIA MARCHING BAND

This is Matthew's chance to watch Transformers on IMAX. We take a cab to Mall of Asia, one of the newest mall complexes in greater Manila. It was packed. There is a Mall of Asia Marching Band that walks around the outdoor complex playing jubilant tunes. Awesome! I love impractical but novel ideas like this. It must be really hot to be in full marching suits.

TRANSFORMERS

This is my first IMAX and the screen was way too big. The theater at 4pm on a weekday was packed! The movie was pretty bad, but Matthew liked it. There were scenes of an East Coast college with ivy on the brick building walls and I felt a pang of nostalgia and anticipation. I really enjoyed living amongst the neo-gothic architecture and breathtaking landscapes of Wellesley. One should not underestimate the ability of a beautiful setting to uplift the bodies and minds of human beings. Why, then, do I choose to live in a crappy old apartment and sleep on a mattress on the ground? I do not know. I always think, ah, well I'm going to leave in a year or two anyway, it's not worth spending time decorating. But that is how my dad was when we grew up. "We're only going to be here a few years, no need to do up the house." Hence, no framed pictures on the walls. No vases, decorations, or aesthetic effort of any kind. I grew up living in transition, and I've carried that perpetual temporary state with me into adulthood.