December 22-23, 2008: Transit

Epic first day, if you could even call it a single day.  It was a relatively early morning by my standards.  We were at O'Hare by nine with the flight scheduled for almost noon, giving us plenty of time to brave the long line and still be able to eat crappy airport snacks.  Then came the flight: 13 hours to Narita.  True to form, I might have squeezed in an hour of sleep.  It certainly didn't help that the sun never set - since we took off at noon on the 22nd and flew west, we just flew into similar portions of that same day, and then once we crossed the date line it was afternoon on the 23rd.  They tried to force a day on us by turning off the cabin lights, but it didn't work, at least not for me.  None of the in-flight movie choices were particularly appetizing either, so I spent quite a bit of the flight playing "Aces" on the in-seat monitor, a card game somewhat similar to FreeCell.  On the bright side, I did discover "Sky Time," which Japan Airlines bills as their signature drink.  It's made from the juice of the yuzu and both Alma and I rather enjoyed it, to the point that it was almost all we got on all four JAL flights.  The best comparison I can make is to Lemon-Lime Gatorade, without that kind of sliminess you get when you drink Gatorade despite not being sweaty.

After a three-hour layover in Narita and a further four-hour flight to Manila, we finally arrived in the Philippines.  At this point I had pretty much been awake for 24 straight hours, but it wasn't exactly right to bed - simply getting out of the airport (including clearing immigration, getting the luggage, meeting up with Alma's uncle, and navigating the crush of people outside at arrivals) took another hour or so, and we eventually made it to Alma's uncle's house after midnight.  And then, just for good measure, there was a light meal prepared, which we were expected to eat.  I did and it was fine, actually, although I was certainly tired by this point.  I didn't get a ton of sleep on Saturday night or Sunday night, so by the time this "dinner" rolled around I was working on about 52 hours of real time in which I'd had maybe ten hours of sleep, and that following a mediocre night of sleep itself.  All this and the next day was Christmas Eve, weirdly enough.  (If you think it didn't feel like the holidays, you're right.  Stepping out of the airport for the first time was like entering a steam bath, although most of the rest of the trip was not nearly so humid, mercifully.)  After everything, I fell asleep about 2 am local time, hoping against hope that I would be allowed to sleep somewhat.

It's impossible to do it justice, but this gives you a slight idea of what the arrivals area was like at the Manila airport.  Bear in mind, this is at like 11:30 pm.  We're actually outside here; to the left of the photo is where all the cars are hanging out waiting to pick people up.  So, this many people, and then it was also hot and humid.  Crowded places on Luzon was kind of a running theme of the trip, but it wasn't usually quite this hectic.

The table set for us when we arrived at almost 12:30 in the morning on the first night.  On the lazy Susan there is a bowl of lugaw, or rice porridge (similar to congee, if that means anything) with chicken in it, with fried tofu, pork, scallions and soy sauce to mix in.  I went with the tofu and scallions and a dash of soy sauce.  While it was weird to be eating so late, I can't say I wasn't hungry, and it was a good start to the trip meal-wise.

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