Boracay and Typhoon Frank: The Rest of the Story

Never in my life have I been more frustrated with traveling or in being in a large group. Usually we keep the packs of travelers minimal, but this time, there were 17 people on the trip, which should have lead to more fun, in theory. Instead, it turned out being much, much more difficult to accomplish ANYTHING.

The weekend began simply enough. We checked the weather, saw that the typhoon in the area was not heading towards us, then hopped on a plane to Boracay. Of course, the plane was older than my parents (and they've been around since there were dinosaurs on the earth), and we hit some scary turbulence, but all was OK. View from the plane:

And, the resort was beautiful. All was set for a wonderful weekend.

Until the next morning, when it turned out that Typhoon Fengshen (Frank) was heading right for us!

Instead of sunny skies and beautiful sand, we had this for 2 whole days:

The worst part of the storm was Saturday night, and there was a ton of wind and rain. We were well protected, so we drank a little, crashed a wedding party, got into the hot tub, and made the most of it.

The next day, the beach was kinda messy, but the sand was still soft. And the clouds were still there.

And, since Manila was also in the path of the storm, that meant that even if we could take off for our Sunday afternoon flight, we had no place to land. Perfect. Stuck here, when we need to be in Manila to finish up our work.

And that's where the fun begins.

Since we were on a package deal (flight and hotel), we asked the hotel to take care of booking us on the next available night. By Sunday night, they told us that they could get a couple of people on flights Monday, and the rest would go out on Tuesday. Nothing could be booked that night, as the ticketing office was closed.

Monday morning, we follow up with the hotel (6 am), and they then tell us that all flights were booked--next available flight, Wednesday. Oh, and they only checked 1 cheap-ass airline (4 airlines fly into the nearest airport). Clearly it was time to take matters into our own hands.

Thus begins hell.

We spend all morning trying to find flights--just a few of us. The rest of the folks were on the beach. Finally, we manage to get confirmed on different flights, but everyone would make it out Tuesday. All we had to do was go pay by 3 pm.

As we had been in contact with management the whole time, they had also managed to book us at another nearby airport, Kalibo, at which larger jets could land, as opposed to the prop planes. Local hotel management told us the airport was closed for the next 2-3 weeks, as it was in the hardest hit area, and its under a few feet of water. After a few hours, we were able to confirm that flights were landing and taking off from the airport.

Here's the fork in the road: do we take the flights from Kalibo (which management had booked for us, gets us back earlier, and is cheaper) or do we do the guaranteed thing, and take the Tuesday flights? What could we do--we had to try to make the Kalibo flights. It's 1:30 pm, and the flight leaves at 4:55 pm. It takes about 40 min. to make it to the big island, then another 1.5 hours driving to the airport.

Kids, pack up your shit. We're hauling ass outta here.

As we get off the boat onto the big island, we see this:

Little did we know that the entire trip would be full of these kinds of sights.

About 15 min. into the ride, we get a call from management--only 7 folks are confirmed on the flight. And then, we lose signal. We only have 2 phones that work with the provider in the area, and we're in the backwoods of Philippines. So, no signal, no way to communicate, except in the moments where we actually have a signal.

So, management wanted us to fly from this airport:

And we had to drive through all this to get there:

Guess what? It took us longer to get there than the travel agency said it would. We roll up at 4:45 pm and beg them to let us in the airport, which has no electricity, no phones, no systems. They won't let us in without printed itineraries (which is relatively common in Asia) and are being real sticklers because they have no systems to verify anything. We get one person in, she begs and pleads with the ticket agent, runs on to the tarmac crying and screaming to the captains of the plane, but we do not get on the plane.

So now, we have no flight, we can't stay where we are because the whole place is destroyed, we have no reservations where we came from, we have to drive back through the destruction we came through, and its getting dark. Not a very good position to be in.

Back on the road, we are desparately trying to find a hotel to stay in. We finally find one, but the coast guard has decided that its not safe to cross in a boat to Boracay because its dark and its storming. One group goes to the airport to put our names on wait lists, my group heads to the dock to see if we can find a boat. We have to go to another dock, and 3 of the guys are gone into the first boat they see, leaving everyone else behind.

The group from the airport shows up, and now we're 13 people with luggage in a 9 person van. The driver knows a guy that will take us over, but they can't leave from the main dock because the coast guard was watching. So he takes us over into the woods to leave from a different place. It begins to pour. We all hop back in the van. We leave the woods, drive around a bit, go back to the dock, and there's a boat that we could take. Given that I'm terrified of the water, its dark, its storming, I refuse to get on the boat. One other person stays with me, and then the owner of a welcome center at the airport shows up, and says we can stay there. Management was advising us not to get in the boat.

8 people get in the random boat, which was not covered, without seats, and in stormy water (from what they told me). But they made it to the other side safely, had a meal, and slept in a real bed.

The 5 of us who didn't go on the boat, tried to find food, but the only place open was out of food. The only thing we could purchase was a liter of Coke and a liter of Sprite. These were the only drinks/nourishment we've had since breakfast. We "sleep" on vinyl benches, in an unlocked building, with a security guard. Now, someone in Manila has managed to book and confirm us on an 8 am flight.

By 5:30 am, they are opening up the welcome center, and we walk our exhausted asses to the airport and arrive at the ticket office, wanting to pay for our ticket and get on the plane. However, the ticketing office people are total jackasses, and tell us that we can't pay for the ticket here because it was not confirmed at this location. It must be paid for from the office from which it was confirmed. We all knew that was total shit, but we had to eat it.

At this point, we scatter, and try to find other options. So, we find a place that with some toast, and have a little something to eat. Then, we caught a break, and one of the team got us inside the airport, and talked the gate agent into letting us on the plane. I'm not sure if he didn't know any better or if he thought one of us was cute, but he actually gave us boarding passes! Who-hoo! As we were waiting for our flight, he finds us again, and says, but you haven't paid for your flights. I need 38k pesos, in cash, because our credit card systems aren't working. Natch, we weren't able to scrape up that kind of money. So, we beg again, can we please pay by credit card?

The dude leaves, and comes back with a credit card machine. We have to go back to the ticketing office, run the card, fill out 7 tickets MANUALLY, and then, we were finally able to leave Boracay.

When its not storming, apparently Boracay is a pretty place.

For now, my nerves are completely shot, I'm physically and mentally drained, and I really need a break. I don't want to deal/see/talk to anyone who was on the trip for months. No offense, but I need to not be around anyone.

I'm very glad this is the last week of the project and almost everyone is leaving. I need some MJ time. And, I'm going to HK alone this weekend for some much deserved retail therapy. Mama DESERVES a new handbag!

photo credits: SW and TB