We have arrived!

Well, after literally 24 hours of non stop travel fun we have arrived at the SIL Guesthouse here in Manila. This morning I am writing to you at 9:30 am Manila time, and Rachel is fast asleep. I think I must have slept more on the plane than she did because I am wide awake and she is practically in a coma.

I wanted to share a little bit with you about our travel experience, since we asked many of you for tips and tricks on how to survive a long flight. You will have to click the read more button because this is a long post, so enter at your own risk!




So yesterday morning at about 9:30am we begin to make our way to Ohare Airport to fly out to Seoul Korea. I think its funny that the drive to the airport, and then drive from the airport in Manila were both delayed by heavy storms. On the way to the airport and huge wind had come through and there were downed branches, and power outages the whole there. We had to drive a long time in traffic and to search out a gas station that was actually pumping gas.

We made our flight however, after saying good bye to our families at the airport. The first thing we did on the plane was watch the Adjustment Bureau over lunch (The movie was not that good.) For lunch they had a Gluten Free meal for rachel that was basically fish with pepper on it and some steamed veggies and fruit. I had bibimbap which is a Korean dish, and is delicious.

We then popped two Tylenol PMS and then slept a long while. I had told people I was going to attempt to read the entire book, East of Eden, on the flight. Yea right. I slept and watched movies most of the time. haha.

We landed in Seoul Korea and it was a totally new experience for me. Every foreign country I have gone before I have known the language decently, aka Costa Rica and Mexico (spanish). But if you have never looked at Korean characters before, you don't even know how to order something at the McDonalds in the airport. I think it was a really neat experience for us being in a place where English is the 4th language that they finally announce everything over the intercom, and where we were actually the minority. It made us feel like we are definitely in for some adjustments, and that made us excited.

We slept most of the flight from Seoul to Manila, and it was actually a really smooth flight(the flight to Seoul had been bumpy due to tropical storms). When we were awake we spent most of our time in prayer. There was a little boy who had been brought on the plane by a wheel chair that could not stop throwing up on the plane. Get got sick about every 5 minutes for the entire 3 and half hour flight. Even when the plane hadn't taken off yet he was sick. It was interesting because here we are so excited to come to this place with our heads in the clouds (literally) and having this boy that close reminded us of why we were excited to come here.

After that plane landed we made it through the mobs at baggage claim and at the pickup bay. We didn't see our driver and a security guard asked if I needed to use his phone. I said sure, and then quickly realized that oh yea, he's looking for a tip now. I didn't have a single small bill or coin on me, and I ended up giving the dude a 20.

Our drive Noel finally arrived and told us why he was late. He had literally been driving through flooded roads that were midway up the car. he had to keep his gas pedal down hard to keep the water from flooding into the exhaust pipe. He told us it had been raining like crazy and a lot of roads had been shut down. So at midnight we began what can only be described as the most epic crawl ever.

We were only going 5 miles an hour, but traffic was nuts, cars weaving in and out, and motorcycles everywhere! No one uses the lanes, they just honk so other cars know where they are. Since the roads had been closed the traffic was just insane. People had been stuck on the road for hours! Some people even decided to just park their car on the side of the road and walk home.

What normally take 3o minutes to get to the guest house took us 3 hours, but that was ok because it gave us time to talk to Noel. He was a great driver, and was very friendly. He likes Christian Country music, so if you are into that too send this guy a CD.

The guest house room we have is very nice. In fact the bed is very cozy and they have giant fluffy pillows. I have unpacked a bit this morning and it is raining quite a bit today.

Today we are going to do some mild exploring and tonight we are going to a get together with the Monsoon Staff.

Well that was long enough! Sorry about that!
Take care
Colin