DJ
Ernest
Gene
Kristine
Melissa
NikkiLast Hurrah
When we finally arrived at the airport, the driver didn’t even want to help us with our luggage. Ernest, at this point, was already agitated, so he stubbornly insisted for the driver to assist us. The driver did so bitterly. It was a small wonder that K was able to treat the hostile and rude driver patiently while paying for the overcharged ride. As a last salvo, Ernest closed the trunk of the cab with such a loud thud that I feared that the driver would retaliate. Thankfully, the driver just sped out of the airport and out of our lives. We met up with Gene, DJ, Nikki in front of the airport and after comparing notes on our taxi experiences, proceeded to the main entrance of the airport.
We were quite early as the Cebu Pacific counter had not yet opened when we arrived. We first took care of claiming the VAT refund. Our luggage wasn’t even insp
ected. Maybe they only check the big-ticket items. Money was claimed after checking in; a 100 baht processing fee was charged. The process was pretty fast with detailed signs everywhere. The many byaheras with their mounds of luggage made us a bit paranoid about being charged for overweight as they claimed that Cebu Pacific was normally strict about baggage limitations. In addition, the grandpa in front of us had weighed in his very small metal case of medicine at 18kgs. In my mind, I sifted through what else I could reasonably handcarry even as we were loading our luggage up the scale. We were given an allowance of 22kgs each, and as group excluding Gene, we managed to make it exactly into the limit. 
While walking around the airport looking a place to eat, I dragged my very heavy bag throughout the huge airport which even had an Hermes. Instead of having a full
dinner, I had 
French Vanilla ice cream instead. We all separated after dinner to finish off our baht. Melissa and Gene were gracious enough to take care of the trolleys holding our luggage. I blew my money on Godiva chocolates and body washes from Boots. At the last minute, Nikki bought Shu Uemura cosmetics even as we were short of time. We ran all the way to the other end of the airport where our boarding gate was. We were the last to board while Melissa and Ernest had to wait outside for Kristine who was uncharacteristically late and whose cellphone couldn’t be reached.
We were approached inside the plane and asked if Kristine was part of our group and where she was. We had no idea where she was especially when it seemed that because we had different mobile signal providers, we couldn’t get through to each other’s phones and when everyone had clearly agreed on the designated meeting spot. It was a tense moment for all of us especially for those waiting at the boarding gate. Planes are known to leave passengers behind. One thought that kept recurring was “What would Kristine’s parents’ say?” We all breathed a sigh of relief when Kristine and the rest finally boarded the plane.
It turned out that Kristine saw some of us loitering near a gate which also led to our boarding gate so when we weren’t at the designated meeting spot at the appointed time, she went all the way to the other gate she initially saw us at. After going all the way there, she realized we weren’t anywhere there so she had to run all the way to the original meeting spot especially with her name being called over the PA system. The stress was compounded by the fact that we couldn’t communicate to each other during all the confusion. When Ernest jokingly asked what could’ve happened had K not managed to make it to the plane, I told him he would have to be left behind by virtue of them being blood relatives. So in the end, we left Bangkok with an “all’s well that ends well” but not before a little bit of drama.
We arrived in Manila by 4:30AM and parted ways with Gene who had to catch a connecting flight back to Hong Kong. I was exhausted but I managed to unpack my things before going to bed. I woke up at 5PM and was disoriented that I was back home. It was a good decision to come home on Sunday so we could all rest before tackling work the following day. Later I found out that Kristine and Ernest managed to go out that very afternoon.
It was a good trip—well-planned and in light of what transpired days later, well-timed. Even with all the compromises made, it still turned out to be an awesome one. I’m happy that I was able to go to the 3-Country Odyssey with my good friends. I look forward to whatever’s in store for 2009 and beyond.
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