Travel Daze

It’s been a long 24 hours. I don’t recall the last time I was awake for a solid 24 hours but right now we are on hour 25 of being awake.

I am ashamed over how I packed for this trip. I pride myself in my carry-on only packing. I’ve easily done two weeks in nothing but a carry-on bag and a backpack. But somehow for this trip we each ended up with a LARGE checked bag. Part of it is not being able to rely on being able to do laundry partway thru like I normally plan for and part of it is that since Brandon and I are traveling together I actually care more about how I look then when I’m off on my own hiking trips! I even brought my own full-sized pillow this trip – but mostly because I am worried about making sure we always have feather-free bedding, especially with potential language barriers. Plus, we left some room so we could accommodate any shopping we might do. And really, after looking at the rules for all the airlines, we were going to HAVE to check bags for some flights so we figured if we had to have checked bags we might as well go all in. We may regret that when we are lugging suitcases around three countries.

Speaking of our flights. We have a bunch of them this trip! In the next two weeks we will take ten different flights to move us around including San Francisco to Taipei, Taipei to Manila, Manila to El Nido, El Nido back to Manila, Manila to Bangkok, Bangkok to Krabi, Phuket to Hong Kong (just a layover) to Taipei, Taipei to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Sacramento. These ten flights span seven different carriers so we’ll get to do all sorts of airline comparisons.

We had loosely planned to hit the road to SF by about 7:30pm but gettting ready took much longer than planned, no shocker there. With not really knowing what exactly we are doing on this trip packing took a long time (and we STILL forgot some pretty key items). Plus we wanted to clean up the house a bit and make sure that it was nicely set for the house/pet sitter. We ended up not departing home until 10:30pm. Spending time giving all the pups hugs and kisses took up a fair chunk as well. It was so hard to leave them, our little piglet-pup Lizzy knew we were packing and was super depressed. It worked out well to leave late though. The pet sitter was getting back from a trip that day and wouldn’t be there until 11:30pm and leaving so late meant no traffic at all getting to San Francisco. We had struggled with how to get to SFO for our flight and in the end found a one-way car rental to be both the most efficient and economical choice. After about a 20 minute wait at In ‘N Out we were finally on the freeway and got to our hotel around 1am.

Our first hotel of the trip was the Marriott Waterfront SFO. I’ll give them high marks for convenient location, updated rooms (the shower was fully operated by an electronic pad!), and giving us our first ocean/bay view of the trip (with the end of the SFO runway thrown in). But super low marks because on the way there I called to confirm that our room was feather-free, was told that it was and that, in fact, most of the rooms there are feather-free, and yet lo and behold, feather pillows on the bed (I always double-check these days since I swear hotels have been getting worse and worse about honoring that allergy). We had the proper bedding brought up and prepared to hit the hay and get some rest.

It took me a while to get to sleep, even though it was 2am by the time we settled in, but when I did fall asleep, I slept like a ROCK. Not only had I popped some sleepy aids right before we got there, I also had to pop some Benadryl on top of them. Yup. Benadryl. Why Benadryl? Because upon undressing for bed I discovered that I had hives! Hives! I never get hives! And yet, my left butt cheek was basically broken out in hives (yah, total TMI). Still not sure what they were from but at least the Benadryl worked and I was hive-free by the morning.

We woke up on time, ran a quick errand, dropped off our rental car, and breezed through security at the SFO International Terminal. I love having CLEAR in addition to our TSA Pre-Check. There’s something about the menacing looks people in line shoot our way as we are escorted to the front of the line that just makes me giddy. I love privilege sometimes. Of course I shouldn’t feel too cocky since we won’t have that privilege again until we are back on US Soil for our final flight home.

For this first day of traveling, it was our longest haul and we flew EVA Airlines. A 14 hour flight from SFO to Taipei, a scheduled two hour layover, and then about a 2 1/2 hour flight to Manila. Tonight we are staying in Manila and in the morning we will head back to the airport to catch a flight to El Nido, and then a 90 minute drive to Taytay, and then have an hour on a speedboat until we are finally at our first actual destination, Apulit Island.

I know better than to fly basic economy on a long-haul flight, and the business class is ridiculously priced, so we flew Premium Economy class from SFO to Taipei. EVA Airlines does a really solid job. You may not recognize the airline name but you may have heard of the Hello Kitty airline, this is it. And boy do they take this theme seriously! Everything is Hello Kitty branded, from the paint job on the plane itself, to the pillows, slippers, napkins, food trays, even the utensils. It gave me Sanrio flashbacks to the 90s.

I was giddy from the moment they handed out the menus since the back cover says, “It’s time for an adventure!” I love my adventures. The flight included two meals and snacks. The first meal was served pretty soon after getting in the air and was delicious. This “Sky Gourmet” meal included a smoked salmon and grilled scallop appetizer, salad, curry chicken, fruit, and ice cream. The chicken curry I would seek out to order in a restaurant if I could. And the ice cream, yes, it was just a little cup of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream, but I can’t even remember the last time I ate a full-fat ice cream, it was divine. Drink service also started pretty shortly after take-off. I’m pretty sure I went through three glasses of sparkling wine in the first hour of the flight. It was so good! Brandon even liked the whiskey they served. I asked our steward how to say “Thank You” in Chinese and spent the rest of the flight practicing it every time he came by. My “Thank You” game is pretty strong now!

Around 7ish hours into the flight it was time for the “Leisure Delight” – a Jimmy Dean ham, cheese, and egg croissant sandwich and some more nuts and crackers. I absolutely love the salty cracker mix they serve. I am not ashamed to admit that I even hoarded some away in my backpack!

The last “Refresher” meal was served about 2 hours before landing. The Western Version of this meal included roast beef and ham cold cuts with cheese, a leek and cheese frittata, fruit, and tiramisu. The frittata was ok. Definitely better than any breakfast I’ve had on any US airline but not amazing. The tiramisu was delicious, light and fluffy and not too sweet. Thank god calories don’t count on vacation!

The rest of the EVA Air Premium Economy amenities were pretty decent. I did love that they gave us slippers for the flight, we wore them the entire time. They also included a little amenities kit with socks, toothbrush/paste, lotion, chapstick, earplugs, and a sleep mask. Plus the bathroom, though super tiny, was stocked with toothbrushes, ear plugs, sleep masks, lotion, face spray, and body spray. Now what the hell is the deal with people and airplane bathrooms?! It is downright ridiculous how much time some people spend in there. At one point Brandon was waiting and someone was literally in there for over 20 minutes. Over 20 minutes! I just don’t understand that. I spent waiting time doing yoga in the aisle to stretch and I’m pretty sure I got in a solid hour of yoga time over the course of the flight just in bathroom waiting time!

My newest long-haul flight pro-tip is all about face washing. Of all places, European Wax Center has come out with their own skincare line, including a gel face wash. The gel face wash can go on dry and even be wiped off dry for a complete cleaning! But I also discovered little compressed single-use wash cloths that are about the size of a mint and when you wet them they magically unfold into a wash cloth. Game. Changer. It was so awesome being able to wash my face so easily mid-flight!

The flight was super uneventful. The 14 hours went by pretty quickly. Neither of us slept at all but kept busy with movies and tv shows. We played a little chess but I still can’t remember all the rules and which directions pieces can move so Brandon won 😦 We passed over Japan and I could see a volcano! Mt Fuji I am guessing? It was beautiful. Now I am yearning to climb another volcano and sad that we won’t have any volcanoes on this trip. I need to pick my next volcano climbing destination soon! I am glad we did the long flight during the day to try to throw us into the time zone here but in the future will probably stick with overnight flights in order to make it easier to at least get some sleep.

Based on our long-haul flight experience, I would’ve put EVA Airlines high on my general recommendation list. But then I learned better. Our flight from SFO was close to an hour late getting into Taipei so our long layover shrank down to only an hour from the time the plane touched down until our next flight. Thankfully transfer security was easy to get through and we got to our gate with about 20 minutes to spare. The gate area was like a sterile paddock. We boarded the flight and I’m pretty sure I noticeably cringed from the smell. The plane smelled awful and was dingy and ugly. We were tired and this damn plane was tired. Shortly after take-off they announced meal service. We were both still full from our last flight but decided to accept the meal to see what it was and if there was anything worth picking at. There were no options, only “chicken noodles.” It was terrible. Now I understood why the plane smelled, because this food tasted like crap. We each ate one slice of apple and Brandon ate some fermented looking thing we couldn’t identify. That was it. I got angsty waiting for them to take our trays away, the chicken noodles sludge smelled and it needed to go. We both probably would have lost our minds if that flight was longer than 2 hours. It was rough. The landing did not help instill any renewed confidence in the airline. As we touched down on the tarmac something didn’t feel right, the plane came down on the wheels on only one side, then came down hard on the other side, and then did some rocking and rolling. I would absolutely fly EVA again for the long-haul but they’d be my last choice at this point for short flights. Of course, we still have six other airlines to fly over the course of this trip so we’ll see how that evaluation holds up.

Customs in Manila took some time due to four flights all coming in at once but was easy to get thru. I actually don’t think I had to speak a word to the agent. And our bags made it! That was exciting. The worst part was walking out and trying to figure out how to get cash converted for a cab while carolers LOUDLY serenaded the arrival area. Mind you, it was 11pm local time. They were soooo loud we couldn’t even talk to each other without shouting. I couldn’t wait to get away from them.

We grabbed a cab and made it to our hotel for tonight. Noting heavily armed law enforcement at the gas stations and throughout our short drive. Tonight we are at Hyatt Regency Manila City of Dreams. I picked it because it was close to the airport and I could use points. I had no idea that this area is like the Vegas of Manila and the hotel was a giant casino. Our taxi driver stopped short of the hotel entry for “inspections.” Inspections? Before I could even ask what the inspections were all about he popped the trunk and an armed guard with a dog did a quick once over. Interesting. After getting cleared he pulled the extra 20 feet up to the hotel entrance and we hopped out. A bellman came and started grabbing our bags. I told him we didn’t need help and he replied that he had to take them to x-ray them before we could go inside. Excuse me? Yup, every item we were bringing in had to be x-rayed and we had to walk through a metal detector and get a light pat down before being allowed inside the hotel doors. I’ve never had a Hyatt welcome quite like that before! The hotel is very nice with a beautiful lobby and a spacious, clean, stylish guest room. We are here for a whopping 9 hours and then we head back to the airport to catch our short flight to El Nido tomorrow morning. Will be writing from the resort every night but not sure WiFi will be good enough for uploading.