Jim jumped on the bus at Narooma on Tuesday at lunch on his way to Canberra. The Murray’s coach arrived on time at 6:00 pm. Harry was waiting to take him to his house for their last home cooked dinner, then off to sleep but not before we weighed our luggage both the hold bags and the more valuable cabin bags – most within limits.
The taxi arrived early at 5:15am to take us to the bus station for the vital trip to the Sydney International airport.
On arrival at the airport there was some confusion regarding where to check-in and deposit our hold bags. Finding the right desk we presented out passports and with lots of baggage labels with promises of transferring our bags they went down the black hole into the Sydney sorting complex. Thankfully we were not flying with Qantas so the probability of them arriving at our destination was much higher.
NOW the dreaded security check – We had arrived almost 3 hour ahead of departure schedule and like all good passengers waited in line as we were directed to one of many security station. I was separated from Jim. On my arrival (for those that travel frequently you may skip ahead but for those expecting a smooth effective well controlled service read on and see how to quote Alan Joyce “You need more practice after COVID” played out for me.
I arrived at the station: “take your computer out of the bag and put it in the tray along with your belt and the content of your pockets. Step this way and stand on those two foot prints and raise your arms” Higher, higher. “Cant do that” – Ok then Now turn again. Sorry we will have to start again Empty your pockets What? My cotton handkerchief? Yes. Step into this etc etc etc Thanks you can now find your computer and hand luggage and of course you cotton handkerchief.
I find my computer but find some “Security Officer” fiddling in my carry on bags. “Can I help you?” “No Sir, I can fiddle in your bags with my dirty gloves which have touched other passengers drugs but don't worry we will not test your bags for drugs.” Or so the interchange went. He removed not one but two plastic zip lock bags of Raspberry Pi (Are they real computers?) and parts and put them in two trays and the balance of my bag in a separate tray and they went through the scanner for the third time. The operator called the “Security Officer” over and after much pointing and discussion the two trays got through but the cabin bag had to go again (Firth time).
More pointing and more discussion and then back to my bag and his dirt gloves into the content and finally he finds what he was seeking – Now wait for it…. Six 100mm white cable ties (used to secure my bags) “Sir I have to confiscate these because you are not allowed to take them on the aircraft” With delight and pride he had found the dangerous item I was trying to use to endanger the aircraft. “You can now go and find your possessions and repack you bags” The international flying public may sleep better tonight knowing that our skies are safer tonight.
Now for the wait to board. My daughter insisted I wear a mask.
We landed, then through Immigration (no paperwork) to collect our bags. As is always the case in these situation one stands in anticipation that your bag will be the next bag that pops up but no we waited and waited and finally saw our bags and onto the trolley and Now for Customs but they were closed for the day so we walked out into the wide world of Manilla to find the transfer bus to the domestic terminal.
Arrival at domestic and found our check-in counter and off to the departure gate – wait then board for the two hour flight to Cebu. We landed on the island flying over the creeks and inlets with the many houses built on stilts (unfortunately we heard 800 of these were burnt to the waterline only last week leaving many homeless).
We collected our bags and walked out of the terminal to confront the traffic of Cebu in our selected and negotiated fare in a minibus at about 11:00 pm. The traffic was heavy even at this late time of night but a description of the traffic in a city of 4 million deserves a full post on its own save to say here that it flows slowly but smoothly with very courteous drivers who give access to cars changing lanes and motorbikes speeding between lanes and weaving between cars with one, two, three or many persons on board. One can even do a U-turn in a 4 lane highway and cars will let you cross the middle strip and join their lane going in the opposite direction – Amazing.
Great sleep and off to the buffer breakfast
We were in search of a local SIM card at a store Jim had previously visited but in the end we found a “Recharge Booth”. Jim recharged his previously purchased SIM but no landline calls available. I declined and will depend on my cheap Amaysim International Roaming and Whatsapp via the Starlink (more on that later)
Now to the food section - Supermarket to purchase just a few items to tied us over until the main provisioning shop. That did not quite work because it appeared that this supermarket was well stocked with many of the things we needed on my 6 page shopping list.
We filled two large shopping trolleys with chicken, potatoes,milk powder, flour (but no yeast), oil, margarine and many other items – no cleaning material because we knew that almost every cupboard on Sea Dragon contained some form of cleaning liquid. The food was diligently packed into reusable green bags and back into the trolley along with 7L of water.
What waited us on board Jim’s dream?
