March 11,

Today is a transition day!

We woke up at 0630, before the alarm. We readied, finished our packing, and checked out by 0705. There was not heavy rain, only a light sprinkling – so we walked the short distance to the MRT. By 0824, we were in at the beautiful Singapore airport. We are in a different terminal than the waterfall, so we did not see it again. We proceeded to self check in, but had a mild issue… Jeff’s name was misspelled – he was “Jefftey” instead of Jeffrey. 🤣😂🤣  We got a kick out of that. An attendant helped fix the issue, and he checked our bags on through to our first leg. We will have to claim them and do a self transfer for the second leg.

We got through security and to the lounge. There were not many people in here right now. Anyway, it was past time for Java! I had Americano coffee with some hazelnut syrup, yummy😋. Jeff just stuck with OJ, spiked, but nonetheless, juice. We then proceeded with breakfast. It was a nice breakfast with quite a few options. Since we were so early we spent an hour and a half here.

We went to the gate around 1000, and were boarded by 1030. The flight is actually emptier than most. At 1057, we backed up for takeoff🛫 and by 1105, we were taking off. It’s a 3 hr and 55 minute flight! We pass over some small islands en route but it was mostly a lot of blue ocean🌊 . Good flight without issues!! At1415, the plane touched down – 45 minutes early.

Welcome to Manila, Philippines!! 

At 1427, the plane stopped, but not through taxing. I guess we are early they are trying to get us a gate? The plane finally went in an “apron” and we unloaded at 1440 – still early. Out of the plane and through to baggage claim to transfer our own bag 300 or so feet! Then back through a Mickey mouse security. This airport here seems very antiquated- especially having just come from Singapore’s!! That taken care of we went to the lounge. OH MY!! This is a poor Priority Pass lounge!😯🤨☹️ Firstly, there is not any air conditioning! Second the food was very minimal. All that was available: one type of bun – a Mushroom Alfredo (bun with a piddle amount of puree of mushroom inside); a Chicken Arroz Caldo soup, that had been strained of all substance; and a Korean Beef Stew with Rice. We had the buns and the stew, which was flavorful… but very poor for selection/options! I had two baby Cokes, Jeff had a baby Sprite. There was only one high table with four chairs, the rest of the seating area was small with half of it being straight back chairs or cushioned ones with a few small foot wide circle tables between them. We were not impressed.

At 1705 we left the lounge for our gate, but first stopped for a Cinnabon. We bought a large roll to share, on the plane for our supper. At the gate we waited 10 minutes. We heard the announcement for group one. We were group three, but we noticed there was a lot of people for one group! I spied some boarding passes… all groups went up. Okay chaos reigns here. So we did go up also. We all boarded into buses, and loaded on the tarmac — so the groupings did not matter. Anyway, by 1735, we were seated, and by 1756 the plane backed out, 6 minutes late. At 1812 we took off🛫.  When all was settled, we pulled out our cinnamon roll. It was sooo good! We had been talking about cinnamon rolls for a couple of days. It was meant to be! We enjoyed sunset from the plane window. Sunsets from a plane are quite something!! Cinnamon rolls and sunsets, hmm maybe🤔, this is a thing?? Just kidding 😂🤣😂  We landed at 1900.

Welcome to Iloilo, Philippines!! 

We collected our bags and we’re in a Grab that Jeff had E-hailed by 1930. We arrived at our place, and checked in. It’s a condo. We will be here ten days. We unpacked and crashed.