Philippines: The Longest Flight Ever

Today Mr. Rogue and I arrive in the Philippines for Mr. Fruit's Wedding 2 week extravaganza. The super long flight was far better than expected. Either the service of the China Air company was far superior to any other airlines I have flown OR the fact that we were on a Chinese owned company and the culture had an influence on how pleasant the flight attendants were I do not know but either way I am VERY thankful for the hospitality and the pleasant flight.



We arrived at the airport without being late - in fact we arrived 4 hours prior to departure. This was done intentionally since; a. we had never flown so far internationally before, and b. we were really hoping to get Mr. Rogue an exit row seat so he could sit and still have adequate blood flow to his legs (something I think we should all hopefully expect at the VERY least on an air flight) . I am very glad we did arrive early, the lines were very long for economy. Unlike the express first class lines (OH God why did you NOT make me a trust fund baby) we in economy are herded like cattle to slaughter. We waited in line for well over an hour with screaming babies and seriously the masses of humanity were out in force traveling for the holiday season. Thankfully some of the pain we encountered was rewarded when TA-DA we were able to secure two exit row seats. Because now we have three hours to wait till our flight takes off we decided to have our last meal before I went off to the WILD UNKNOWN of the food in the Philippines. We dined at a nice bar and grill, my choice of last meal, PASTA duh!

Body rhythms and time are tightly tied. The 11 hour time difference and the travel time from take off to landing is 22 hours. By the time we arrive in Cebu I want to eat and sleep and I am not particularly sure which I need to do now as my BRAIN DOES NOT WORK!

Our first look at the Philippines was not what I expected. Mr. Fruit and his wife to be picked us up from the airport and as we drove through the streets of the city to our hotel at 2:30am in the morning we see people everywhere. Not partiers but everyone, kids, the old the middle aged. It was like nothing I had ever seen it was like it was it the middle of the afternoon instead of the dead of night. We get to the hotel and decide to eat before we crash on whatever flat surface is close at hand. Not being the most open-minded coinsure of food I decide to order one of the simplest things on the menu, something I learned to make when I was 6, grilled cheese. Yea I was severely way to optimistic that they could get this right. Oh how wrong I was. It was not toasty, not grilled, the cheese not melted, in fact I would NOT even call it cheese in the sandwich. It was more like orange mayonnaise that someone had left out in the sun to harden. Needless to say I would not eat it. I went to bed hungry and I hopped that tomorrow I would have more luck finding edible food.