Belinda knew it was a long flight. She boarded in Detroit, changed flights in Chicago for Los Angeles. There was a 5 hour lay over til she boarded for Honolulu. When she arrived in Honolulu she was supposed to have a 2 hour lay over but a typhoon caused a 48 hour layover. She was out up in a hotel at the airport, courtesy of the airlines. She did get a chance to see some of the sights in Honolulu and that was a real bonus. Belinda has never traveled anywhere before. She was born and raised in mid Michigan. So,seeing Hawaii was a real treat. It also allowed her to stretch and get her head around the fact that she was really leaving the good ole USA.
48 hours later Belinda boarded for Manila, Philippines via Tokyo,Japan. It was a really long flight and Belinda was very tired when she finally arrived in Manila. Manila was an international city and was huge (13.9 million people in the metropolitan area). It was by far the biggest city Belinda had ever been in. She had been warned of beggars and the cost of the 5 star hotels. Belinda had made a reservation via internet at a hostel near the airport. It was called Crossroads Hostel. It was located at 76 Mariveles Street in Mandaluyong City.She hoped it would be safe. She was traveling alone. It was also near the headquarters where she had to be by 9 am tomorrow morning to check in. It was very reasonable, too. At just $20 US dollars a night for non air-conditioned private room shared bathroom she was happy. Online it looked clean. Well,she was hoping it was just for a night or so. She really wanted to get to her placement soon. The next semester would be starting in about 6 weeks and she had a lot of preparing to do. For now she needed to gather her suitcase and get to the hostel.
As she stepped out of the baggage claim area she could see through the windows chaos known as Manila. There were beggars and many men grabbing bags and stuffing people into taxis. She took a deep breath, secured her backpack and suitcase with the tethers and stepped outside. She was assaulted by the heat and humidity,the noises and the smells. Wow. She blinked, afraid that if she closed her eyes she would be picked up and stolen away. It was overwhelming!
"Ma'am, taxi? Yes?" ...there 10 or 15 men saying the same thing and pulling on her or her suitcase. She kept saying,"No thank you." and made her way across 4 lanes of taxis before finding the mass transit stop. She wanted to take a thing called a jeepney. She looked and saw them...a long line of elongated open jeep like vehicles. She was trying to get a driver's attention but they kept flying by.
Just when she was about to give up and just sit down on her suitcase to think a multicolored jeepney pulled up and asked her where she was going. The driver had a charming smile and twinkling eyes,she felt comfortable with him. "Yes.I need to go to CROSSROADS hostel,please " "I know it. Hurry and get in." She threw her suitcase up and walked into the back open area and sat down. She had about a 15 minute ride before the driver,named Julio told her they were there. She grabbed her suitcase and paid the fare. Fortunately she had stopped at the exchange window at the airport to change some US dollars for pesos. She walked into the hostel and smiled. It felt comfortable.
She was here. She had made it to the Philippines.