After two months of excitement in the Philippines it would have been a major letdown if I made it from my apartment in Manila to the airport and on to Japan without some sort of dramatic event… I was not disappointed.
My flight left just before 7am so I packed the night before and was awake at 4am to take a quick shower and get dressed. By 4:30 I was out on the main road flagging down a taxi and when one stopped I hopped in, told him we were going to the airport, and then directed him back to my apartment to load all my luggage. He was a nice fellow and a great help getting my quite heavy bags safely stowed in his taxi. Once everything was loaded, I turned off the lights in the apartment, locked up, hid the key, and hopped in the front seat. It was then that the adventure began.