| They say it is better to be early than late. Of course, anywhere in the world whenever you travel by plane most of the time it never was on time. It’s been four years since the last trip was even considered holiday-related. Most of it is entirely work-related and there is not enough time to do some sightseeing in the places I visited.
The four-year gap resulted from the pandemic years of travel restrictions, and the last road trip I ever had was in the early months of 2020, a month before the world shut its doors and people were stuck indoors. You know, you get the gist of how things had happened, and fast forward to less than 24 hours ago I went Down South, Again. |
This was planned a month ago, and I was very reluctant to be enthusiastic about this trip. I’ve never been to the airport since November 2019. I haven’t been to Davao City in a decade, which was one of the not-so-high points of that last trip. I mostly spent the time going around the city and checking out the local area that does need to travel farther to those touristy places.
The last time I went to the province was 11 years ago, and it is unfortunate around that time a hard drive crashed and lost most of the files from January to April of 2012 that including that particular that summer spent nearly three weeks in a family member’s home town and it could not remember the time spent on that place.
But here we are again, taking the trip to where I thought I’d never go back. I have to put things on hold on my other plans and going to miss some of the upcoming events that I have planned to attend for this and it might be a good thing to get away from all the craziness that’s been about last five years living in a densely populated area.
Late Night Terminal
The airport is open 24/7 for incoming and outgoing flights, and I have never traveled at night. It was the cheapest ticket we could get going to Davao City. It had been a while since I went inside the NAIA Terminal II, which is for domestic flights and the last time I could remember was having missed a flight once unexpectedly in one of those “work travel” engagements.
There’s not much to go around inside the terminal gates other than food establishments all lined up just near terminals. There is a lot to choose from when it comes to finding food and some souvenirs. But the souvenir section is lackluster with the most common stuff you’ll find in NAIA terminals.
Bouncing Around Gates
Originally, we were situated near Gate 7 for the first few hours and then went to Gate 3, then finally, at Gate 2 it felt a bit confusing lugging around my hand carry but beat-up backpack. I never had the chance to get a better one due to the week leading towards to this trip. I haven’t packed in a long time and I also need to be conscious about the weight of what to bring back.
Dinner was just good having a light meal that mostly had to do with sandwiches and veggie salad they named it like it sounded like a pun. I spent most of the time glued to the phone. Thank goodness that there was free Wi-Fi in the airport, but not as unlimited as the one I had experienced going back to this country. The hours were long if you just stayed in your seat waiting for the terminal to open its gates to board the plane and it was kind of excruciating for most who are not used to being distracted by their devices or nearby television.
Boarding Time
Like most excited individuals waiting for the terminal gates to open, most of the people won’t be advised if there is a hierarchy to boarding the plane. If you are with senior citizens or with children you get to be the very few to go straight ahead to the tarmac and find your seat at the same time load up your stuff.
Stepping into the place seems kind of odd and at the same time can’t recall seeing the humidifier firing up on all the smoke inside it. This place is pretty much straightforward with its limited amenities like LCD screens or even a USB charger being unavailable like some old-school seats that only have pockets for the instructions on emergency and not even a magazine to read.
I’m not going to go through the details of people in my aisle about travel etiquette, and some individuals just need to disconnect themselves and activate their “Airplane Mode” to understand the reason why the pilots are heeding this advice that most on this plane have just ignored from following.
Landing before Midnight
The travel was fast but being seated and experiencing the worst of some is not the most pleasant thing, because the word “Mindful” does not exist in this country let alone when I get to the province. But this is what you have to put up with the domestic travel. It also happened in other places in the world, and it is not the worst that most that happened become viral on social media.
Arriving in Davao before midnight was quick, but getting out of the plane and claiming your check-in luggage was another story. In those past travels, I didn’t pay attention to other people’s luggage coming out of the conveyor. But I got a chuckle by chance I saw one out of the left field.
I’ve been observant since coming back to this country five years ago, and still, it amazes me what you see in airports that are really out of the norm. The passengers who just got out of the plane are just impatient to even know the word “Wait” for their luggage to appear. After claiming the check-ins it was another 30 to 45 minutes to get to the taxi that across from the airport. You can call it eventful, but I've never seen a disorganized display of getting a cab.
It was almost 1 AM when we got to the place where we’d be staying for the next two nights before a long road trip to the province. For now, we just jumped into the next taxi that has taken us to the place and this one likes heavy metal music.
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