travelling light

Hello from Manila!

We arrived last night around 1 am. The flights were largely uneventful, and right up until baggage claim in Manila, I was duly impressed with Cathay Pacific. There was a two hour delay in San Fransisco due to an inconsiderate woman going into untimely labour, so we were put on a later flight to the Philippines.The food was (by airline standards) exceptional (pallatable by other standards), and there were 1000's of hours worth of entertainment on the fifteen hour leg from the US to Hong Kong. Immigration in Manila was a silent affair, taking up 15 tedious seconds. After some tense waiting in baggage claim, Ian's bag was one of the last to come up the ramp; mine never materialized. Sixteen other passengers were in similar straits; hopefully it is just that a whole cart was left off the baggage train in hong kong, to arrive later today. I've always extolled the benefits of traveling light, and am super glad to stand by it, if a little smelly.

Manila has the lovely pervasive smell that identifies the poverty that is everywhere. The sky is greyish brown (an unknown mixture of smog and cloud), but the temperature is very pleasant: something around 80.

More to come when more happens.

Gaelen