Table of Contents
- The Delayed Davao Departure
- Cruising to Cebu
- The Cebu Cake Dance Circuit
- Soaring to Singapore
- The Changi Chase Challenge
- Heading Home
- The Warmest Welcome
After two weeks in the Philippines, it is now time for me to return home. Part of me is sad that I have to leave Elgen's side, but another part of me is happy that I get to leave her horribly hot and humid home behind and return to climes that I feel more comfortable in. As such, it is with mixed feelings that I look forward to...
The Delayed Davao Departure
4-Aug-2022
My flight only departs in the evening, but we have to check out of our Airbnb way before that. Packing our things, we leave yet another empty room behind shortly before noon.
For me, that's nothing new. However, an odd twist is that this time around, I've been asked by the owner of this apartment to turn on a special UV-lamp when I leave for disinfection. Turns out that's easier said than done. In the end, I leave it plugged in and in a state that I believe is supposed to be on, but with no visual indication of it actually working, I notify the owner to check whether the lamp is broken.
At the ground floor, we check out of the Avida Towers at the reception desk, which means we're getting our ID documents back.
The receptionist also kindly calls us a taxi. And by that I mean, she tells one of the security guards to go out on the street and wave in one of the cabs passing by in intervals measured in seconds.
True to most things here in the Philippines, this final taxi trip turns out to be exciting once more as we end up having a driver who's so good that he can drive hands-off. Sitting in the back seat, all buckled up, I can only watch in horror and pray as our driver frequently takes out his cell phone and writes text messages while driving in the middle of a busy road, and every few seconds absentmindedly puts a hand on the wheel to make minute adjustments. Next to me, Elgen, meanwhile, does not seem to be bothered at all by this sort of reckless behavior.
Fortunately, the route to the Airport is rather straightforward. First, we head down Roxas Ave and then turn left onto Quezon Boulevard, which also takes us past Magsaysay Park. The road changes names a couple of times as we follow it, but eventually we reach the Daang Maharlika Highway, onto which we turn right, and which takes us the rest of the way to the airport, which as a matter of fact is quite close to the city. In fact, our stray to Abreeza Mall (see An Abreeza Adventure) took us almost half the distance to the Airport already.
Mostly, that ride only takes us past the house- and storefronts of Davao, but while driving across the Agdao Flyover, we briefly get a look at the roofs of the city. Also, near the end, there's a slightly more rural part right before we turn into the driveway of the airport.
(Click here to view the video if the website fails to load it)
Security at the airport is tight. And not just tight tight, but tight tight. At the gate, there's a guard that asks both the taxi driver and us the reason for our presence here, and Elgen is not even permitted into the departure hall.
Since it's now just a bit later than noon, and my flight does not depart for several hours, Elgen and I instead venture to a hall of restaurants located at the other side of the car park. Thankfully, there's a lot of shaded walkways, but we also have to cross some distance in the merciless heat of the sun.
Actually, "restaurants" is probably not invoking the correct picture for what the places here are. Rather, "foodhouse" seems to be a pretty adequate description. At first, I am hesitant about which one to pick, and Elgen leaves the choice to me. So eventually, I just pick the King's Zone Foodhouse.
There, I pick one last exotic local food to try here in the Philippines, and go for Siopao and Coconut Bread. Siopao is a kind of steamed bun with a filling, and I don't know if they're generally this... uhh... "bland and foamy"... or if that's just the case in this place. Either way, I instantly regret my choice and look forward to more tasty food in the future.
And then, we wait in the relative cool of the foodhouse, killing time until it's 15:00, and my flight's departure is getting within reasonable reach. While waiting, I also take note that this place also has some XMas decorations, much like the houses in Lampangang (see Book V ~ Chapter 10 ~ Languid Lampangang ~ The Flair).
It is also in there that I have to deal with my final Filipino toilet. This one does have a flush case, but it's not working, and so I have to "flush" the old-fashioned way. Also, the floor is wet, and I sincerely do not wish to know why.
Afterwards, we cross back over to the airport across the car park...
...where it is time for not one, but two farewells. First, I naturally say goodbye to Elgen. But second, I am also saying goodbye to Emilious, who accompanied me to so many places already. I leave him with her to keep her company in my place. Meanwhile, I will get a Fennec plushie to keep me company in hers, and Elgen and I promise each other that we will see each other in Germany again, and that she'll bring Emilious then so that he can be together with the Fennec plushie I have yet to get. At this point, I should not yet know that this would be a farewell forever.
After a goodbye with a heavy heart, I head for the very rustic departure lounge, where I have to go through a security check before even entering the building.
Inside, I realize that the whole airport is actually little more than the departure lounge with a few gates behind it. Dimension-wise it is maybe about the same size as the one of Foz do Iguaçu (see Book III ~ Chapter 3 ~ Crash & Burn).
That realization fills me with dread as it makes me re-live all the horrible, horrible complications that happened to me there (also see Book III ~ Chapter 4 ~ The Traumatizing Transatlantic Terror Trip). It's been over three years now, and I am still traumatized by that experience. I fear I may never get over it. As such, I step up to the check-in counter summoning all the confidence that I can muster, and praying to Inari that everything will go well.
As feared, it turns out to be a hassle. I explain to them that I'm travelling under my "religious name", which is true on a variety of levels, and show them all my papers and official proof of residency, and they still have to give it to the upstairs office and leave me praying for roughly half an hour. Then, and only then, do they thankfully say it's acceptable, and hand me my boarding passes... although they insist they have to print my old name on them in addition to my real name, which is also a first.
Relieved that the worst part is behind me, I make my way towards the gate, but not without stopping by The Souvenir Shop for some pizza... Just kidding, for some souvenirs, of course. Since I gave most of my leftover Filipino cash to Elgen to help her apply for a visa to visit me in Germany, I can't get a lot, but it's still enough for a keychain and a magnet.
However, on my way to the gate, there's still another obstacle in my way, and once again it is of a kind that I have not yet encountered on my travels: A toll booth! Turns out you have to pay an extra fee to access the terminal, and even had I not bought the souvenirs just now, I would not have had enough Filipino cash on me to pay that! It goes without saying that you can't pay by card either, which is just fantastic.
Fortunately, though, there's a money exchange service at a nearby café, and I already have readied a number of € bills in my wallet in anticipation of my return to Germany. In the end, I exchange another 20€ here in order to be able to pay the terminal fee. And so it happens that I get yet one more unusual souvenir in the form of a terminal fee ticket. And unlike keychains and magnets, this really is something that you can only get in the Philippines (or at least I haven't been to another place that uses such a system yet).
Anyway, after yet another security check (just in case I bought a bomb in The Souvenir Shop), I arrive at the gate lounge where I now finally allow myself to breathe easily. From here on out, the remainder of the trip should be a breeze.
Or so I thought! Because as I look out of the window, I realize that there's still something missing. Something rather essential, in fact: The plane!
As announcements should soon inform us, the plane, which is incoming from Singapore, is going to be delayed... which is making me just a tidbit nervous because I only have a scheduled layover of less than 2 hours in Singapore airport, and that airport is big. Add to that the fact that with unboarding and boarding taking at least 15 minutes each, and that reduces the actual layover to less than 1.5 hours. More then enough reason for me to be worried.
By the time the plane finally arrives, it is already late by roughly one hour. At this point I still have hopes that it will recover some of that delay with a shorter layover here in Davao...
...but that is not the case, and by the time we finally get to board, it looks like the flight will stick to its one-hour-delay.
Well, at least the staff is still nice and friendly despite the delay. I might have been flying with Singapore Airlines one time to many, though, if boarding one of their planes starts feeling like homecoming to me. The plane is a Boeing 737-8 MAX again, by the way, which makes sense since this is the same "line" that I used to get here (see Archipelagic Aviation).
Incidentally, this "line" is a really unusual triangle flight, going from Singapore to Davao, then from there to Cebu, and then back to Singapore. Which means that rather than going straight to Singapore from here, the impending flight should have me...
Cruising to Cebu
4-Aug-2022
Flight Duration: 1h 5min
Approximate Distance: 400km
Average Speed: 370km/h
Now, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that apparently I checked in too late, and as such was unable to secure a window seat on either of my flights. The good news is that despite that, the window seat on my row remains spectacularly unoccupied, and as such I get to sit by the window after all.
The reason for this is actually quite simple: Since this is a triangle flight, the person who booked this seat is obviously not aboard yet, and will only board in Cebu. But that still means I get to sit by the window until then. As a a direct result of that, I get to see this interesting rainbow-patterned building of shifting colors, which turns out to be the KJC King Dome, a combined cathedral and sports arena for the Philippine-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ church. I suppose a light show like that is one way to make religion cool again.
Being in the tropics, night falls quickly while we wait inside the plane for final preparations to complete, and by the time we're ready for takeoff, the sun has already set. This has ups and downs. On the plus side, it means that I get to behold an ocean of lights as we take off over the city. But on the minus side, I don't get to see much of the surrounding landscape. We take off towards the southwest, which means I'm facing to the southeast at first and look out towards Island Garden City of Samal. The plane then turns right towards the north, which gives me a view on the city of Davao, and even Mt. Apo as a silhouette against the twilight sky of dusk. After that, the lights of civilization quickly fade, and before long the only thing still visible on the ground is the string of lights marking the busy Davao Bukidnon Road.
(Click here to view the video if the website fails to load it)
This flight should be my shortest one yet... as in, ever. With a flight distance of only 400km, the only excuse for this waste of kerosene is that it takes us across seas with straits wide enough that building tunnel or bridges to cross them would set new world records, and thus hardly the thing that I would expect a developing country to set their sights on, especially when they still don't have any railroads on Mindanao in this day and age. The route takes us north along Mindanao's central mountain range, and then over the Bohol Sea. We also fly across the eponymous island of Bohol, and then the Cebu strait before we reach Cebu, which is located on the island of Cebu, which in turn makes up most of the Cebu province (cuz why go through all the trouble of coming up with different names for all these?).
The brevity of the flight becomes even more apparent when you look at the speed/altitude chart. The flight is so short that we don't even reach the typical airline cruise altitude of 33,000ft, and instead briefly - for approximately 5 minutes - level out at 29,000ft, and the rest of the flight consists of either ascent or descent.
That time is just short enough for the crew to serve us a cup of environmentally harmful packaged apple juice. And since it's already dark outside, that is also already the most noteworthy event of this flight.
Shortly thereafter, we already approach Cebu Airport from the northeast. Ironically, the airport is not actually located on the island of Cebu, but rather on the small island of Mactan, which is separated from Cebu island by a roughly 500m wide strait.
That having been said, the landing is not very visually exciting, on account of it already being dark and me looking out towards the sea rather than the island of Cebu. I only actually start seeing some lights a minute before the landing as the houses on the landspit of Punta Engaño come into sight. Shortly afterwards, we fly low across the M.L. Quezon National Highway, and then we already touch down on the runway.
(Click here to view the video if the website fails to load it)
As we reach the terminal, I can already see that this airport is considerably more modern than that of Davao...
...and I should indeed get a chance to sea it, for an announcement informs us passengers that even the ones who are bound for Singapore have to get off here, for no particular reason. And here I had hoped I could skip the usual disembarkation jam for once.
We should actually get right back on board after a rather pointless circuit on the airport, which I am going to refer to as...
The Cebu Cake Dance Circuit
4-Aug-2022
Thus, I end up leaving the plane at Cebu, across the jet bridge, and into the terminal.
There, me and all other Singapore-bound passengers are given a large plastic transit-card and ushered in one direction, while the passengers whose destination is, in fact, Cebu, are going another way.
What follows is a loop round through the Cebu airport, which is not only more modern but also considerably larger than that of Davao. Also, there's attendants posted to make sure none of us loses our way in regular intervals.
Along the way, I pass by the encoding center, and then go through my third security check today, just in case I somehow managed to procure a bomb or something on the flight from Davao.
After that, I have to walk the same distance back towards the gate, passing an interesting ramen shop add along the way. I also appreciate the modern design of the airport with its wooden ornaments and flowing shape. Not only is it more modern than Davao, but it also clearly beats Munich. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this airport does not fall very short of Singapore itself in terms of design.
Well, I suppose a bit of physical activity is good between flights, and before long I reach the gate lounge again, where I elect to sit down rather than stand in line like many others. The plane is still waiting for us outside, and there's no indication that we might make up even a single minute of our one-hour delay. I suspect that the air controllers have by now consolidated the delay into their flight plans, so there's little hope of recovery. Incidentally, this is also where I have to hand in that transit-card again (though since at this point the transit passengers are already mingled with the new passengers from Cebu, I don't suppose anyone would have noticed if someone had just slipped it into their coat pocket or carry-on luggage - ideally someone not wearing a conspicuous custom fox-themed facial mask).
Anyway, boarding soon commences, and roughly 20 minutes after I disembarked via the jet bridge, I am walking the same jet bridge again, this time into the other direction to get back aboard the jet that I just left to participate in this lovely pointless little cake dance.
As for the reasons why they did this, I can only speculate. It seems like a huge waste of time for me. I mean, imagine the same thing on a train or bus. If everyone hat to get off and back on again, that would lead to massive delays as the people struggle to get out and back in again. Speaking of which...
Reinforcing my theory of the consolidated delay, the plane should stubbornly remain on ground for roughly half an hour after everyone is seated, and thus, our stopover in Cebu ends up measuring a whole hour by the time we take off again and go...
Soaring to Singapore
4-Aug-2022
Flight Duration: 3h 40min
Approximate Distance: 2,500km
Average Speed: 680km/h
Unfortunately, my prediction turns out to be correct, and the seats on the window and in the middle end up being occupied, which leaves me with the seat farthest away from the window. Its a bit of a waste, really, since the people sitting there don't appear to make particularly good use of their privilege, but I'm also too shy to ask if they'd mind switching seats. Two times around the world, meeting hundreds of people, living in several dozen families and I'm still too shy. At this point I'm pretty sure it's terminal.
Oh well, it's not like I would have gotten any particularly good shots anyway. Not only is it going to be dark for this entire flight, but by now it has also started to rain, so the conditions are about as photo- and video-averse as they are realistically gonna get.
I may or may not have noted this before, but the flight map system on these Boeing 737-8 MAX planes really sucks. What bothers me most is that it does not track the actual flight route but only displays the current position and from there draws straight lines - not even great circle lines - to the origin and destination. And on top of that, the information it displays can be somewhat inaccurate. For example, while we're still stationary on the ground it displays us not only as being 9 meters under, but also as having a ground speed of 5 km/h. And somehow I also sincerely doubt that the winds outside are blowing at speeds exceeding 180 km/h. On the other hand, I can also still remember the times when planes didn't have any of those fancy screens at all.
Our route takes us first southwest across the Sulu Sea, and then merges with the flight corridor that the plane took on the its trip from Singapore near the coast of Borneo. From there, it's pretty much the same as on my outbound trip, only this time in the dark.
Dinner is served shortly before we reach Borneo, and takes the form of braised pork with rice, vegetables and bread (which I naturally chose over the boring "chicken"-option). As expected of Singapore airlines, it's a wholesome and tasty meal.
After that, I try to nap a little in order to prevent jetlag while most of the other people in the plane prefer watching movies, and by the time I wake up again, the lights of Singapore (or probably rather the surrounding islands) ore already visible. Using the zoom function of my camera, I even manage to take some pictures from my rather window-remote seat.
One landing later, and we're on Singapore ground, with roughly the predicted hour's delay. There's an announcement regarding connecting flights, but it's kinda hard to understand. All I hear is something about attendants at the gate. The typical plane exit jam turns into a torturous wait as my mind starts counting down the seconds until my connecting plane departs, and I'm not the only one with that predicament. Trying to distract myself from my anxiety, I strike up a conversation with an equally anxious woman next to me who also worries about missing her flight.
Eventually, the line of people starts moving, and we're on our way out of the plane. What follows next should be the most hectic segment of my flight trips yet, namely...
The Changi Chase Challenge
4-Aug-2022 - 5-Aug-2022
The situation that I'm in now is what I'd call a Game Master's dream: It is a situation where there are two distinct outcomes, and both are possible, yet it is impossible to say which one will occur. Both of them will have different consequences and cause the story to progress down different paths, and which one of those will occur depends on both the players' actions and also the whims of fortune. In this case, the player is me, and the question is whether I will catch my connecting flight or not. The game field is Singapore Changi Airport, and the challenge is to get from literally one end of the airport to the other before the gate closes. My arrival gate is C14, and my departure gate is F58. And by the way, the direct path through Terminal 2 is still closed for renovations. Accounting for all twists and turns that entails, the distance that needs to be covered equals roughly 2km on foot, and 1km by sky train (which runs every 5 minutes). The time limit is roughly half an hour. Good luck!
Disembarking via the jet bridge, there's only so fast I can go, what with plenty of people ahead of me. Fortunately, most of those are in a hurry too, so the going is generally fast.
Now, one of the principal problems is that while I just gave you a map going exactly where I need to go, I, at this point in time, don't have such an aid, and there's absolutely no time to leisurely figure out which gate I need to go and how to get there. Fortunately, Singapore Airlines has kindly posted a big "Flight Transfers" billboard right outside the gate, with my flight and its gate in the "Immediate Boarding" section.
It takes me a moment to get my bearings, but fortunately Singapore Changi Airport is pretty well signposted, so I quickly figure out the direction of the F gates, and then I start running. It works out in my advantage that it's almost midnight and the huge halls are relatively empty.
The first stage of my frantic chase takes me to the sky train connecting terminals 1 and 3. It's not all that far away from my starting gate, but since I've been running full speed and with my (probably overweight) carry-on luggage backpack on and having to wear a face mask, I arrive pretty out of breath, but do manage to catch the sky train before it departs. In there, I try to catch my breath as best as I can.
However, by the short time it takes to reach it's destination is by far too little to get me back into running condition again, especially considering I pretty much spent most of my time in the Philippines recovering from one sickness or another. And so, rather than run, I resign myself to a hasty walk through the main body of Terminal 3. I still don't know exactly where I'm going, but fortunately, there are signs pointing me into the right directions posted in regular intervals, so I just have to follow those. I even pass by a little garden along the way, but have no time to truly appreciate it.
Fortunately, I also manage to catch the second sky train, which is also the only way to get to the disconnected part of terminal 2. This one is already considerably less full, and I wonder if any of the people in here are also racing to make it to the gate.
By now, I am getting more confident that I will make it in time. Nonetheless, upon getting off the sky train, I continue onwards as quickly as my constitution and face mask allow me, hastening down the travellators to get to my gate.
And make it I do! I arrive at the gate pretty much exactly at midnight, and the status is already "Gate Closing". The guard quickly ushers me inside, and there I have to go through yet another security checkpoint (that makes four). However, since I'm no already inside the gate (panting heavily) I am no longer worried that the flight will leave without me.
Boarding starts just as I put all my belongings back on after getting through the security checkpoint. After me, the couple that I saw on the sky train still arrives, and then my boarding group gets called, and and is time to get aboard.
In fact, boarding turns into another jam, so I figure I would probably still have caught my flight if I had missed one or possibly even both sky trains. After that, it would have heavily dependent on the local policy regarding tardiness.
But anyway, I have done it. Despite my fears, I have managed to catch my connecting flight, and while I'm sure that missing my flight and seeing what happens then would also have made for an interesting story to tell, right here, right now, I'm just glad that I'm now...
Heading Home
5-Aug-2022
Flight Duration: 12h 0min
Approximate Distance: 11,100km
Average Speed: 925km/h
Once again, I did not manage to secure a window seat.
However, in consolation I have managed to get myself an interesting seat. It is the frontmost seat in the economy class, which means I have extra legroom, extra extra legroom, as well as a nifty fold-in screen hidden in the armrest as my seat faces the hallway going through premium economy and business class. I pretty much only need to tuck in my legs if someone wants to pass through or the flight attendants need to access something from the cupboards in front of me.
This time around, I got a slightly better view of the window, but it's still not good enough to capture more than a blur of lights out of the window as we take off. The type of the plane this time is an Airbus A350-900, by the way, same as on my outbound trip.
During takeoff, I am also privy to experience a minor cupboard malfunction right in front of me. Fortunately, that particular cupboard is either empty or only lightly loaded at the bottom with things that do not fall out, and after I call an attendant they quickly manage to take care of it.
Food is soon served, though I am a bit hesitant about what to call it. I already had breakfast, lunch and dinner today, and there's one more meal scheduled before landing that will definitely be breakfast. So what do you call the fourth meal between dinner and breakfast on an eastwards-bound 30-hour day cycle? It's definitely too big to be called a midnight snack, so maybe I'll just call it a midnight meal. Anyway, the midnight meal consists of tasty crusted baked fish with vegetables, potatoes and bread (or at least the more interesting option does, the alternative being chicken).
And for dessert there's once again the ice cream with attitude.
Following dinner, I try getting some shuteye while everyone around me sets themselves up for jetlag syndrome. And while sleeping in a plane is certainly not the most comfortable way to spend the night, I have to say it still beats the painful pallet I had to put up with in Lampangang (see Book V ~ Chapter 10 ~ Languid Lampangang).
By the time I wake up again, the majority of our journey is already over, and yet I am startled to find that we appear to be roughly 1000km off-course and headed for Egypt, or possibly Libya or Algeria. Has the plane quietly been hijacked while I was asleep? Is there an armed terrorist in the cockpit threatening the pilot to stay quiet and take the plane to a secret airfield in the Libyan dessert? For a moment I am so worried about that possibility that the censored city on the map barely registers on my radar.
However, my fears are alleviated as the plane eventually turns north and gets more or less back on course again. Maybe the Singaporean flight attendants managed to defeat the subdue the hijacker with mystical Kung-Fu powers, maybe the pilot finally woke up again after accidentally setting the autopilot for Casablanca, or maybe they just felt like flying over Alexandria for a change.
It is also possible that the geopolitical climate has shifted again while I was away, and we're now having trouble with Turkiye and Iran in addition to Russia, Syria and Afghanistan, which would narrow down the valid flight paths a little. In the big picture it's not even that big of a detour. Even if it feels like being a thousand kilometers off the shortest route would lead add a lot to the total distance, in reality it barely adds 500km to the already over 10,000km long flight. Spherical geometry sure is a fun thing, isn't it?
Anyway, with that little spoiler out of the way, here's our flight route. We start out by flying over Sumatra, passing over We Island as we leave its northwestern tip behind. Then we cross the Bay of Bengal and south India before heading out over the Arabian Sea, and heading straight for the Gulf of Oman. As we subsequently cross the Persian Gulf, the plane takes an interesting route that seems to be a compromise between staying as far away from Iran an Qatar as possible. Afterwards, we head west and happen to end up flying over Eilat at the southernmost tip of Israel, at the northernmost point of the Gulf of Agaba, which is a significant point for me because that's where I went swimming with dolphins half a lifetime ago. The next waypoint is Suez, and then we turn northwest, passing over Alexandria and then the Mediterranean Sea. Crossing over into Europe, we fly over Crete and Greece, followed by most of the other Baltic states before finally crossing Austria and then arriving in Germany.
(Click here to view the video if the website fails to load it)
But it's yet quite some time before we get there. Right now, the coming dawn is just visible if I look out of the window on the other side of the plane. The black line, by the way, is not the horizon, but the right wing of the plane against the light.
Breakfast is soon served, and one last time, I get to choose the interesting option. This time around that one takes the form of Singapore fried carrot cake with prawn plus bread and yogurt. At least that's what the name says, because I'd personally describe it as a shrimp omelette. Regardless of what you want to call it, however, it's once again very tasty.
The sun has yet to rise by the time we reach the Greek mainland...
...and some time thereafter, I finally get my first glimpses of terrain ever since I left the Philippines. I wonder which mountain that is. It has to be somewhere in the Alps already.
Crossing over into Germany, I can see two lakes below, which I think might be the Chiemsee ("Gill Lake") and the nearby Simssee ("Ledge Lake")...
...and finally, the familiar farms and forests of Germany come into view, and I let out a sigh of relief as I realize how much I've missed this place. I've only been away for two weeks, but somehow, it has seem like so much longer.
The contrast could not be much bigger: In place of plantations there are field speckled with hedges and forests, the buildings are not slum-like wooden barracks with occasional metal roofs but sturdy shingled stone structures, and they are not sitting side-by-side along a straight road but sit in clusters along a network of curved paths that has organically grown over centuries. There may be fewer trees around here, yes, but somehow, the whole landscape still looks way more natural to me.
From there, it's not much longer until we begin our final descent to Munich, approaching the airport from the east. The weather is clear and somewhat humid, so I can't see all the way to the Alps.
After touching down, there's one thing I notice right away, however: The grass is pretty brown, which probably means that there has been no rain for some time - quite in contrast to the Philippines, where it rained pretty much every single day.
But anyway, after a harrowing journey to the Philippines, I am now finally home again. I still need to get through what I sincerely hope will be my last disembarkation jam for quite a while and then head home by train, but compared to what I've been through already, that should be a breeze.
Already, I am quite happy to be home, yet unbeknownst to me, I am yet in for...
The Warmest Welcome
5-Aug-2022
Stepping out of the plane and onto the jet bridge, the first thing that I notice is that it's warm. As in warm warm. In fact, the temperature is close the what I experienced in the Philippines, and yet it's much easier to bear because it's a dry heat as opposed to the oppressive humidity that I experienced back there. Turns out that Germany has been going through a little drought while I was away, and although Upper Bavaria is still looking mostly okay, parts of the country are literally on fire.
Nothing of that is noticeable in the sterile halls of Munich airport, however, with even the heat dissipating in the air-conditioned main building.
The circle of my journey closes as I reach my favorite restaurant at the airport...
...and I manage to get through the automated border control without any issues too.
Even the luggage claim poses no problem this time around. My trusty backpack of flames - well wrapped in a duct-tape-marked black bag - is among the first items out. With the flight delay, I would not have been particularly surprised to find my luggage missing again like how it happened that time in Toronto (see Book III ~ Chapter 1 ~ The Bad Beginning), but apparently the Singapore staff really know their stuff.
By the time I get out into the arrival hall, it's only 7:30. This early in the morning, there's no one here to pick me up, so I have to make my way back home on my own.
Heading for the underground S-Bahn station, I stop by the vending machines to by my 9-Euro ticket for this month - the third and last of its kind, because this is only a limited-time program that expires at the end of August. Interestingly, this one comes out in a different format than the last two that I used, probably because I got this one from an MVV (Münchner Verkehrs Verbund = "Munich Traffic Association") vending machine and the others from an MVG (Münchner Verkehrs Gemeinschaft = "Munich Traffic Society") machine.
The S-Bahn soon arrives, and once again I am grateful that I am now back in a country that has a public railway transit system. I am also looking forward to a ride without any security checkpoints along the way, or having to worry about being blown up by a bomb.
The train is about half full, and unlike in the Philippines, where everyone was always wearing their masks outside, here we only have to wear them inside the trains, and some people don't even do that anymore.
The train ride to Moosach passes without any issues, and looking out of the window along the way, I take note that while a lot of grass is brown, the bushes and trees still look generally healthy. There are a few clouds in the sky, but it generally looks like it's gonna be a hot day today.
Arriving in Moosach, I realize that I've apparently been away too long, because I end up getting off at the wrong end of the train, and thus have to walk for a bit until I reach the bus stop.
From there, I have to take the bus to cover the remainder of the way home. Fortunately, that's not a problem whatsoever, because the city buses here in Munich are so much better than the ones in Davao.
There's maybe half a dozen people inside, and while that would have made a Davao bus crowded already, here that means there's lots of space for everyone, and once again I am really grateful and appreciative of the almost luxurious conditions that our local public transport offers us.
A short and blissfully checkpoint-free ride later, I am back in Untermenzing again...
...and from the bus stop there it's only a short walk back to the Fox Loft.
The final challenge is getting up to the second floor with my heavy luggage, but I am rewarded with Toledo giving me a warm welcome right inside the door. He's clearly missed me.
And Jamie soon makes an appearance too, though she's not as forthcoming as Toledo.
The joy of reunion lasts precisely until I have a look at the house and start screaming. The Kitsune Room - my work room - is still in the best shape, with only towels and plushies lying around on the floor.
Unfortunately, it gets progressively worse from there. The Map Room - my living room - not only has cushions scattered around, but also an overturned waste basket...
...the Fushimi Room - my bedroom - features cat poop on the carpet and a dirty cat toilet, as well as unhinged bed curtains...
...and the Sakana Room - my kitchen - even features cat poop in the sink. Well, I suppose that one is easier to get clean than the carpet.
An old friend of the family has been taking care of my cats while I was gone, but maybe the next time I'm gone for this long I'd better hire a professional pet care service instead. In addition to all that mess, I also notice that the cats have somehow managed to get into the dry food again, despite it being stored inside a lockable cabinet onto which I even posted a little reminder: "Caution, always lock cabinet door! Toledo will get it open otherwise"
In addition, I know I had cat food for three weeks in the cabinet and left very intuitive instructions about the dosage posted on the cabinet door, and yet now there's only a single can left. So rather than to stay and recover from my journey, I have to first get the worst of the place back in order, and then need to head out again to make an emergency cat food run.
The last surprise awaits me when I finally happen to see the back of the Kitsune Room door and see that apparently a certain cat who likes to climb on doors (yes, I'm looking at you Toledo) has damaged a print of artwork I bought at an Eurofurence. Fortunately, I can still fix it up, and the main part of the print is not damaged, but it will still never look like new again.
What a nice homecoming. Still, despite all that I feel much more at home here than I ever could in the Philippines, so it's definitely good to be back. As it is, I am happy and grateful that I managed to return alive from this adventure, and am looking forward to some less adventurous trips in the future. And those should happen, and I will tell you about them here, on the Travelling Fox Blog. But that is then. And now I rest.
