Bohol, day 1

Third Time's A Charm

It was a bleak saturday morning, the PAL domestic airport was foggy and the sky promised of rain yet to come thanks to the typhoon Frank. We arrived early to get good window seats since it would be my first time to board a plane. It would be my first time to fly.

We had breakfast at Delifrance while waiting for our flight. Excitement turned to worry when we heard of flights getting delayed and cancelled left and right. Soon it was announced that our flight was delayed due to weather conditions at Tagbilaran. Worry turned to hoping-against-hope when we heard notice that our flight was delayed further. We suddenly realized we might be going home.



We held our breath as the PA asked for the attention of our flight's passengers a third time, and breathed a sigh of relief as they told us that we could board the plane. We were there in an instant, excited as I was. But little did I know that I'd be boarding a plane two more times in the same day.

When we got to Bohol the weather in Tagbilaran was "below minimum", so the pilot decided to circle around a few times to see if the weather would improve. It didn't. It "deteriorated", so the captain said, and he decided to land on the much clearer Mactan Airport in Cebu in the meantime. There was hope yet.

But the weather in Tagbilaran was not getting any better. It had "deteriorated" even more, (I was beginning to hate that word), and the plane was needed at Manila for a different flight. To make the situation even more irritating, a Cebu Pacific plane that took off just after us had landed in Tagbilaran despite the weather. Several passengers opted to de-plane at Cebu and forfeit a refund/reschedule. We thought of getting off too but decided that a refund is better than the hassle and extra expense. And so we took off for Manila. And that was my first time in Cebu.

By the time we were back in Manila, we've accepted that this holiday wasn't going to happen and we'd probably just refund our fare. But then this official-looking PAL guy shows up and tells us that if we wait awhile he'd see if he could put us in another flight that's going to Tagbilaran that afternoon. It turns out there were limited seats available, so only those few who came in earliest could be accommodated. Good thing we were early. And so we were off to Bohol once again.

I never thought it would take three plane rides to get to Tagbilaran, but once we landed (in thankfully better weather), I immediately appreciated the previous pilot's hesitation to land in bad weather. The runway was very small compared to NAIA or Mactan, such that we never saw the runway until we were on it, and I was afraid we'd land on houses on the way down. The runway was so narrow that the aircraft's wings went well beyond it on either side.

When we got off the plane, a Toyota Adventure was waiting for us to take us to the Bohol Bee Farm.