I Almost Missed My Flight To Davao

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doi
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road going to the Mactan-Cebu Airport

“Tutuloy ka talaga?”  mom reacted violently when I was about to leave the house.

“O. Alis na ako, kiss.” was all I said before I kissed my mom’s cheek.

“Kelan ang balik mo?” asked my dad.

“Tuesday. Bye!”  and I hurriedly left our house already in panic mode.

10 minutes ago…

For some reason I couldn’t explain, I suddenly woke up. My eyes turned wide and I immediately reached for my phone and checked the time. 8:00am was what registered on its screen. My eyes widened and I immediately jumped out of the couch and thoughts of not being able to make it to the airport on time and just cancelling the whole trip crossed my mind. But I simply had to try making a run for it.

I went to my room, got dressed, grabbed Lenny and pushed it in my backpack and stuffed other things inside my 2 bags and bade my parents goodbye. Good thing I already took a quick shower the night before 😆

5 hours ago…

The plan was to stay up all night and wait as dawn breaks till I leave the house for my 9:15 flight to Davao last August 19th. Then somewhere in between, I started dozing off on my work desk and soon I sought refuge on our couch with the intention of napping for a few hours. The stupid me failed to set my alarm clock since I thought that I’d easily wake up as I slept uncomfortably in our couch.

5 hours and 10 minutes after…

I hurriedly went out and impatiently waited for a cab. The traffic was already building up from where I live and I really thought it was impossible to get a ride on that busy Friday morning. My heart was already pounding. My mind was imagining all sorts of things. I was silently saying “Please, please, please. Sana i-allow ng Airphil kahit late na ako” (Please, please, please. I hope Airphil allows me to check in despite being late!) as the night before, I registered for their free Web Check In service.

Then after a couple more minutes of waiting, a taxi pulled over. It was one of those old Toyota taxi cabs and when I got in, an old man greeted me. “Nong, airport ta. Pwede ta magdali kay late na ko sa akong flight?” (To the airport Manong. Can we please hurry since I’m late for my flight?) I don’t know if he heard me as I didn’t see any sign of acknowledgement from him. It was already 8:10am. That was my longest and most agonizing taxi ride to date. The driver’s speed never improved. I was seeing cars overtaking us and all I was thinking was “I’m doomed!” What will the people I was supposed to meet in Davao say? It even crossed my mind that if ever I won’t make it I’ll totally cancel the trip as I don’t have enough funds to book for another flight to Davao.

road going to the Mactan-Cebu Airport

Finallly! We arrived at the Mactan International Airport. After paying 100 pesos to the cab driver, I hurriedly went inside the airport as if I was one of the contestants of the Amazing Race. Their clock registered 8:23 am. I was already prepared to charm the Airphil Express personnel when I reached their counter and when I handed my documents, the lady behind the counter simply processed my flight docs and soon handed me my boarding pass. I let out a sigh of relief at that point. Whew! So I guess that was it! I was really going to Davao! =)

After paying for the terminal fee and after I found a seat at the waiting area of Gate 4, I tried to regain my composure. I was panting and my heart was still beating heavily from what transpired within the last 30 minutes. As I was still trying to calm myself, I then heard a voice over say “Last call for Check in for all passengers on Airphil Express flight 2P247 bound for Davao” Then I was like “Whatda???? @#!$#$%!!@#$ %%@!#@!#!!!!“

From that moment, I really felt sooooooo stupid. hahaha. I completely forgot that the 45 minutes required to check in was supposed to be at 8:30am. I guess manong driver knew I wouldn’t be late for my flight which was why he took his time in driving his old taxi going to the airport. Yeah right! This was one of those many bloopers were I’d get irritated at myself for worrying too much!

I was too excited to be in Davao to celebrate with the Davaoenos their yearly Kadayawan Festival. I guess part of that excitement goes with the fact that this was my first official solo trip as a traveller and this was my first trip to Mindanao.

I’ve heard so much stories about Davao, being the safest city in the Philippines among other “myths” and I can’t wait to see for myself if what I’ve heard were all true. Had I almost missed my flight to Davao I wouldn’t have experienced all of these…

and more…

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11 COMMENTS

  1. I actually love those ‘kara-kara’ moments doy hehehhe, gives you a heady adrenaline rush complete with utter nervousness hahhaha. Wonderful that you enjoyed Davao and Kadayawan!

    My worst plane-almost-left-me-behind experience was Christmas 09. I can’t forget that hahahah, storya-an lang nya tikaw coz I bet it’s gonna be a long, animated story too! hehhehe

    Go,go,go sa jetsetter life!

    🙂 *Cille

    • yeah. yun din naisip ko mica. inggit ako sa Davao mo. i want to go back to Davao din! 🙂 yeah, sana makasali ako sa DFAT next year! 😉

  4. In fairness ha, wa pa ko ka experience anang mudagan2x padulong check-in counter coz I always obey the 2-hour check-in rule (HAHAHA) but i’d love to to experience it. Shet adrenaline rush! Ala-amazing race! Glad that you made it Davao ate doi! Nice meeting you!!! 😀 😀

    • haay. ayaw nalang pangandoy maexperience ni nimo renz. after nasarad-an mi sa cebpac counters padung clark last jan, i vowed and told myself never again.. but saon man, history wants to repeat itself man. ahahaha

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