Expat Community > Philippines

philover
Joined 2013
Posts: 110

speaking of mistakes we all make

10 years ago

My first trip to The Philippines was about 1998 as I recall.. It had been many years since I had flown commercially so when I received just a computer generated E ticket I assumed systems had progressed to the computer age and that the old card tickets were a thing of the past. With that and my passport in hand I boarded in Newark NJ and flew to Detroit, then changed planes and flew to Tokyo, a few hour layover and boarded yet another 747 to Manila. It had been 26 hrs since I had first boarded, man was I tired. Well, I approach an immigration officer in the terminal and wait my turn in line. When I got to the man and presented my passport and E ticket to him he said "ticket?" I said" that is my ticket", he frowned and said "no ticket?"
Next thing I know another man in uniform who looked rather important comes over to me and says "follow me" so of course I did. We went back into some awful run down office where there was a woman at a desk with a typewriter and the only place to sit was a couch (of sorts) that looked as though it was left over from the war with coil springs sticking out of the cushions. The important looking uniformed man said a few words to the woman in Tagalog and left. As I sat there I was assuming that this man had gone somewhere to procure my "ticket" or otherwise solve the issue.......boy was I wrong. After sitting there over 1 hour and not having been allowed t0o go claim my bags I asked the woman very politely if I might be able to do so, she just looked at me, no answer. I waited. After another hour the uniformed man came back and spoke with the woman, again in Tagalog and gave her papers. As he left she began to type. After another 1/2 hour he came back , got papers from the woman and stepped in front of me. He said "you will board the next available flight back to the United States, I have an expulsion order for you, please follow me" I got up and began protesting. He didnt want to hear it and it wasnt until I insisted that he talk with a Northwest Airline ticket agent that he would even acknowledge that I said anything. He said "wait here" so I sat on the springs again. In 5 mins a Northwest agent came in, looked at my papers and said "yes, this is his ticket"
All of a sudden papers were being torn up and tossed in a waste basket and everyone was smiling at me and laughing......I wasnt smiling, in fact I was quite irritated having missed my people who were to pick me up and now being stuck in that old run down terminal at 2 am., a really unnerving situation having never been there before or what to expect
I had tried to be very polite and not be a troublesome tourist but in retrospect I realized I should have asked more questions and demanded why I was being detained earlier in the fiasco. They were semi-apologetic then sent me on my way. Not something a foreigner wants to deal with for sure but those kinds of things do happen. Apparently no one at Manila customs knew of or ever heard of an E ticket. It was then that I realized that I was in fact in the 3rd world where technology hadnt caught up yet.
It was a learning experience and I was ever so thankful that there was in fact someone there from Northwest to vouch for me or Id have been on my way home before I even got there
One of the things that I love about The Philippines is that so much of it is a step back in time, before technology changed everything. Life is simpler and its for certain, people are happier with far less than in western countries.. It is one driving force that tells me I want to be there

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Expat Community > Philippines

speaking of mistakes we all make

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