Arrived in Manila....Finally

Thursday June 28th 2:30pm – Depart Portland International Airport

Friday June 29th 10:30pm – Arrive in Manila

For some reason I expected the airport to be somewhat barren so late at night. Instead I found myself in a baggage claim, the best comparison to which I can make, is the New York Stock Exchange. There was no playing nice if you wanted to get your bag off of that conveyor belt.
Just when I thought the worst was over my co-worker Tara remembered there was a tube containing a huge Yahoo banner that was amongst her check in baggage. With the conveyor belt essentially empty I begrudgingly made my way to the ‘Lost Baggage’ counter.

My experience in the USA with lost baggage has been relatively uniform. Approach airline representative, give him/her baggage number, describe baggage, and give address for delivery….then representative says “next!”. Filipino protocol involves a lot more debating, yelling and counter banging. I think that if I could have actually understood what in God’s name that they were arguing about I would have minded less that I hadn’t moved forward one position in over 20 minutes after 16 hours of air travel. So when my turn came and an old woman zipped in out of nowhere to cut me I was having none of it. Sorry honey. Unbeknownst to me that fucking tube popped out all by its lonesome about 15 minutes after I went to lost baggage. Figures.

Now to find out where the Shangri-La shuttle service pickup spot was. Upon setting foot outside we found it instantly and in the same moment came to understand that the name Shangri-La is well earned. They, and they alone, had their own nicely furnished, air-conditioned, beverage stocked waiting room. Within a few steps of the red carpet leading into this room they had my 6 bags in their control, bottled water in my hand and sweet sweet air condition blasting my direction.

After that I can’t say I was too surprised to find that the Shangri-La is the most immaculate hotel I’ve ever seen. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. After that had a couple of “put me to sleep” cocktails with my co-workers at the hotel bar. Other than the old men staggering out with high priced hookers on each arm, we were the only ones around. Lights out.