In an attempt to somehow reunite with my beloved Alma Mater, I joined the Out-of-Classroom-Learning-Activity
(OCLA) participated by UP Diliman Tourism students, my friend Erick being one
of them. Upon hearing that this year’s OCLA is a CDO-Camiguin-Bukidnon tour, I
immediately signed up.
Honestly, when I decided to go, I was imagining a stress-free
vacation in paradisiacal Camiguin, not caring too much about Bukidnon and
Cagayan de Oro. Never did I think this was going to be the most stressful trip I
ever had in my life.
It all started pretty smooth: straight after doing night
shift at the office, I hung out at the Early Bird Breakfast Club and Bugsy’s in
The Fort while waiting for my 5:40am flight. After a couple of beers, I headed
to NAIA Terminal 4 to meet up with Tourism friends. We checked in, waited, and
finally boarded, but a few hours after…
… we arrived BACK IN MANILA!
The culprit? Zest Airways! We were unable to land in CDO
because of the foul weather; we just hovered for a couple of minutes above the
clouds, desperately hoping that the storm would vanish in an instant! When it
didn’t, the captain decided to fly to Mactan instead. The same thing happened
in Cebu! Dizzy with too much turbulence, I fell asleep and when I woke up, I
was back in Pasay City!
We deplaned and scattered around Terminal 4 like poor,
miserable evacuees. You’d think Zest Air would be quick to address the problem,
but no, we waited there for almost 5 hours just to be informed that we would be
flying the next morning!
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| Not a Zest Air fan. Not a hater, either. *sweet smile* |
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| Erick: "Will I ever fulfill my dream of seeing the White Island?" |
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| Erick trying to be bright and sunny, assuring me we will get there ... someday. |
So basically, I was in the sky for 3 hours for a supposedly 1-hour
flight, then I waited in the airport for 5 hours to get my ticket for the next
day, and effectively, lost one day off my vacation.
Paradise, right?
 |
| What else is there to do but take random pictures? |
To add insult to injury, I have already paid my
CDO-Camiguin-Bukidnon tour in full (STUPID ME!), so that’s added stress for
refund issues.
(In addition, the OCLA organizers weren’t quick to response
to problems as well. They were incredibly helpless that I was tempted many
times to just leave and threaten their lives and demand for refunds. Oh wait, I was just a saling-pusa in this OCLA. Besides, this is a blog, not a school reflection paper!)
FORTUNATELY, the next day, everything became bright and
sunny and we were able to land in Cagayan de Oro successfully! Yes, our Zest
Air plane, which had no air-conditioning until about halfway through the trip,
landed successfully—omigod, congratulate them! We landed alive as well! Yipee!
 |
| Dance for Joy: rejoicing that we arrived ALIVE in CDO! |
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| mandatory airport pic |
Hey, I just read that Zest Airways operations have been suspended by the Civil Aviation Authority because of safety violations. Missing
fuel caps, fuel overflow, defective flight controls, missing personnel licenses—kind
of makes me want to throw a huge party right now and celebrate my prolonged
life and the end of Zest Airways.
Luckily, Camiguin salvaged the entire trip. But that's for another blog post! Tune in for the next posts in the "CDO-Camiguin Series":
- My 3D2N Vacation Summary: 30 Minutes in White Island, Camiguin
- 8 Things I Learned in CDO and Camiguin
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