The prelude to this trip is a tummy flu.

Must be a physical breakdown of some sorts from all the stressful activities since November, or that I just really caught a bug from dirty food or water, and for 5 days before my flight I was just taking in a soft diet of Gatorade, crackers, and soup! How pathetic. Or I could suspect food poisoning, but it wasn’t too bad for me to be detained in the hospital. Anyways, after praying hard, taking Diatabs, and being a good girl with my diet, my tummy got well enough to enjoy Singapore!

Aside from the stomach problems, I had stressful experiences pre-departure.  In my frantic packing at home, my Sun broadband stick got misplaced wherein I immediately concluded that it got lost among my things. Pack, unpack, pack, unpack. Time was ticking, twas drizzling non-stop, and the traffic build-up was getting horrible that I just lost my head, screaming at my sister for putting the wireless internet on top of the pile in my hands that I had to fix earlier. We eventually found it on the floor. Okay, first problem over. Next problem: transportation. I made my life convenient by deciding to book ‘Go Lite’ flights, and my waterproof backpack was ready to go. I just realized that I couldn’t take the fastest way to the taxi bay in the nearby mall because I’d have to open the mountaineering backpack for inspection! Thank God it was just drizzling, but the roundabout way outside the mall that I had to traverse to get to the friggin’ cab bay hassled me a lot. Several taxis were in line, only to discover that they were on coding. Damn it! After several minutes, I flagged down an Avanza where I pleaded to manong that I needed to get to the airport and will pay extra just to get there. He hesitated a bit but kindly let me ride out of pity. Roads were a bit clogged because the ex-Phil. president’s move from one hospital in the Taguig area to Mindanao Ave. was a national event, and I was reserving my curses for GMA if I didn’t make the flight. I started to calm down when lolo manong offered me Mentos and started a conversation. Turns out that he was a former family driver of a local singer/balladeer who scrimped on his wages badly he wasn’t able to eat for days in one occasion! The showbiz gossip amused me, and the long ride to the airport was entertaining enough that I left him my umbrella (because I don’t have check-in baggage and it’s forbidden as hand carry) and gave him a nice tip for the kindness. Problem #2: solved!

Still miffed with the travel tax and the travel fee I had to shell out before checking in when the country’s airport was empty and crappy. I had a third problem after my baggage x-ray: an unidentified swiss knife-type of utensils were detected! I just borrowed the backpack, and didn’t notice anything in its numerous pockets when I was packing. We discovered a real steel foldable spoon and fork with an inch-wide KNIFE. Cold sweat formed on my forehead as I denied having packed that item, yet admitting that the bag was borrowed. I had to leave it with them of course, and took some ragged breaths as I walked away from that last checking point. Immediately informed my friends who lent me their brother’s backpack that I got freaked out at the prospect of being detained for carrying a dangerous weapon, haha. Over my spanish sardines meal and coffee dinner, I slowly unwound the stress knots in me and tried to relax. Pre-vacay worries usually disappear once you’re at your destination already, so I tried to imagine a good and safe flight, and lots of fun with my good friend, J.

Next up, the vacay experiences with photos. This prelude deserved a separate entry, haha.

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