Well lets just say today we realised how easy our journey has been before now. We have been lucky to not suffer any major problems. I'll admit I was not looking forward to flying into Manila. I would rather have avoided it, heard too many bad things & wasn't keen on placing myself where most people travel with bodyguards!

It was the night before our flight & whilst we were in our room in Ho Chi Minh City we thought we'd check the status of our flights. We struggled as couldn't find the internal flight we had booked on departures from Manila to Puerto Princesa. Sy called the airline to find out that the flight number & time had changed. Our already tight 3 hour layover had shrunk to 2 hours.

After numerous calls & online customer service chats it was now 3am & everyone had advised us that we couldn't change to the later flight as it was a change within 24 hours. It was ridiculous, we had to be up at 6am to leave for the airport knowing we'd probably miss our connection & noone was offering us an option.

The international flight was further delayed for 40 mins and we were waiting for another 15 mins when we landed as "someone has parked in our spot". Our 2 hours had just changed to 1 hour, this was gonna be like Challenge Anneka to make the connecting flight. We did what I hated and ran, through the airport & through customs to collect our baggage then try and get to the other terminal. For once the customs guy was super friendly & cracking jokes.

Our baggage had been labelled as priority but that clearly meant nothing as they came out last. We were trying to make sense of how on earth to get out of the airport & saw the MASSIVE customs queue. I pleaded with a security guard who scooted us through & just as we were finding which terminal we needed someone shouted at me. "Hey your stuff is falling out of your bag" confused, I stopped and saw some of my stuff on the floor. It was from my day bag, which had been on my back the entire time. The main compartment had been opened. I searched through it , panicked as this is the bag you keep all your valuables in & someone had just tried to help themselves. I was so lucky as nothing was missing but then I was pissed off, we hasn't even made it out of the airport & someone had tried to rob me. "Welcome to Manila" I muttered as we decided to head to the ticket office to see how they could help. Seeing as it wasn't our fault the plane was delayed we were hoping they could pull some strings to get us on the next flight.

After a patient wait in the airline customer service office & a couple of phonecalls we were promised we would be on the 7pm flight out. The last one of the day. They also kindly offered to transport us from this terminal to the one we needed so we trundled off happy that it looked to be fixed. The other terminal was much further than I had anticipated as the super speedy scary driver took us there.

When we arrived we found the person we were meant to speak to but she told us we had been placed on standby and had to wait until the check in had closed & if there were spaces then we would get tickets. I was fuming as this is not what the First Lady had told us.

2 hours passed as I got more anxious. This was the last flight, we had nowhere to stay & after b***** all sleep and a bad journey I just wanted to get to Palawan. Then I noticed people over the over side giving money to the staff after waiting for a while then they headed off. I suspected they were actually still selling tickets for the flight. I asked the staff there and they fobbed me off saying that they were paying for something else. I'm not stupid, I was convinced they were selling tickets & then I worried if they'd sell our spaces over what had been promised as ours.

The time finally came and check in closed and a panicked 10 mins came as they said there was space, as they issued tickets & took baggage. They were so flippant I truely was concerned that our bags might not follow us. Oh well, just get on the plane. We were walked to the plane as the last passengers to board (or so we were told) but as we reached the gate there was everyone still waiting. And surprise surprise there were the people I saw buying tickets earlier. I was so annoyed they'd put us through that when they didn't need to but did, just because they could. I wanted out of Manila & was so happy when the plane took off. We were finally on our way to Puerto Princesa, Palawan.