The Amazing Race

The last couple of days was a bit like “The Amazing Race” for the House of Queens.  We started our journey in Tokyo.  Our flight out of Japan was in Osaka.  So we had to take the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka.  When we reached Osaka, we realized that we have not had enough of Kyoto – so we took the Bullet train once again to Kyoto.  This time we went straight to the Gion district for the tea house photos.  That was a quick trip and we went back to Osaka.  The next day prior to our flight, we wandered around Osaka.  We decided to visit the Osaka castle which was beautiful but it was a bit of a hike.   When we got enough of the Osaka castle we headed for the Kansai airport for our flight to Manila.  There was a typhoon in Manila and all passengers were praying for a safe journey.  The weather bureau (PAGASA) did not foresee that the typhoon will hit landfall in Manila which is why our flight attempted to land at Manila.  The winds were blowing too hard and we were banking to our left which made the pilot coordinate with the air traffic control to get us diverted to Mactan, Cebu.   We landed at Mactan, Cebu and were told by incompetent ground staff that we can’t opt to just get off Cebu and stay in a comfortable hotel instead of that box they placed us in without food and water.  After a lot of prodding – they did let us out and we are now in Cebu.  We are waiting for a newly booked flight back to Manil and the earliest available flight we got is for tomorrow morning.   Gosh … writing this entry and recalling the whirlwind of events for the past three days is making me really tired.  Five cities in three days – can you beat that?

Blogger’s Note: I’m happy I’m safe but I terribly miss my dogs.  News from the house say they were scared of the howling winds.