My Travel Adventures

My night bus from Manila to Vigan had its ups and downs – both literally and metaphorically. One of its indisputably positive attributes was its one-by-two seat configuration. I sat on the single seat, which reclined quite far, and the monitor in front of me had a USB charging port for my phone. These were already great improvements over my long-haul bus rides in Europe, but there were considerable downsides as well. First of all, the driver only turned off the lights once we were well outside of Manila and all the tickets had been re-checked. Second, it kept getting colder and colder on board, and while I thought that wearing all my spare clothes would provide enough insulation, I still ended up feeling chilly. To that end, I repurposed my pyjama trousers from serving as an eye-mask to becoming a scarf, and shamelessly put my black underwear on my face.

My final Southeast Asian trip of the year took me to the Philippines. I left Bangkok just before two o’clock in the afternoon on a flight bound for Manila: I could have taken a direct flight to Cebu, but all of them were scheduled for the wee hours of the morning, and I did not want to feel tired given the strenuous week ahead. The plane’s touchdown at Ninoy Aquino Airport gave me my first flavour of Filipino culture. The sound of seatbelt buckles unclasping, overhead compartments opening, and people fumbling about only got louder upon the attendant’s request that everyone remain seated until the plane finishes moving.