April 3, 2024

I am incredibly tired and experiencing the intense indigestion that trails me following long-haul flights. However, I have a job to do, and that is spend the day in Manila’s historic Intramuros district!

While the trip from the airport to Intramuros was not so demanding, I expected the return to the airport during rush hour to be prohibitive – however, it is anything but. The traffic flows evenly, with only a few momentary bottlenecks, allowing us to arrive relatively quickly at the airport. On the final approach to the airport, few cars are even present on the ramps leading to my departure terminal, Terminal 1.

Incredibly, there are only seven gates in Terminal 1, probably the smallest free-standing terminal I have seen anywhere. There is virtually no lineup for immigration, and clearing security takes little time as well. Coming to the airport hours prior to the flight, I will now spend an excessive amount of time sitting on very hard seats at gate 7.

Strange people at the departure gate for the flight to Indonesia, a young woman ranting aggressively non-stop into her phone as if she is possessed, then an older Russian ranting loudly into his phone, which seem somewhat less unexpected.

A young Indonesian man tells me he is returning to Lombok after several years of working in a machining factory in Japan, but now would like to think about pursuing something different, such as going to school, or developing unique products to sell, such as charcoal made from coconut. I can imagine that the money earned in Japan would be generous, but the experience of living there for an Indonesian not so easy; he corrects me, telling me that living was not so hard, but the workplace prejudices from coworkers difficult to tolerate.

Exhaustion is setting in; I could have come here much later and probably made my late afternoon far more interesting and pleasant. But then how could I have known …