All posts tagged Philippines

UPDATE: Philippines trip canceled, heading to Malaysia on Saturday

By On October 1, 2009 In China, Latest, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to UPDATE: Philippines trip canceled, heading to Malaysia on SaturdayPermalink

 

Because of flooding in Manila, I decided to cancel my National Day Holiday trip to the Philippines yesterday.

The group I was traveling with originally intended to leave Manila immediately upon landing so as to avoid the floods. But after talking to friends both here and back at home, it became clear that our personal safety would still be at risk, especially with another typhoon heading our way.

Instead, six of us will be flying over to Malaysia on Saturday afternoon. This actually works out perfectly for me because I’ve been wanting to go to Malaysia for quite some time. The beaches are supposed to be gorgeous.

(Eastern Manila, originally uploaded by bundlesofjoyorg.)

Guess I picked the wrong time to travel to the Philippines

By On September 29, 2009 In China, Latest, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Guess I picked the wrong time to travel to the PhilippinesPermalink
Should I stay or should I go?

Things aren't looking good in the city I'm supposed to fly into on Thursday.

My plans to travel to the Philippines on Thursday just got a little complicated.

The government said today that 246 people died in flooding caused by heavy rains from Typhoon Kestana. The storm hit Manila on Saturday when it was still considered a tropical storm. It is the worst flooding to hit the area in over 40 years. Reports say the rainfall on Saturday (16 in) exceeded the average for the entire month of September. Another storm is expected to hit a different island of the Philippines on Thursday.

Guess who was planning to fly into Manila on Thursday evening? (Hint: me).

At the moment, those plans are still on. I am heading over there with a small group of 6 other people from the CTLC program. We will go to the Hong Kong airport on Thursday afternoon and play it by ear. If the flight is canceled, we’ll travel somewhere else. If it’s still on, we’ll leave Manila immediately upon landing and head to a different island that wasn’t hit by the typhoon.

All in all, there are about 40 people from the program traveling to the Philippines in separate groups. We are traveling there as part of our week off for China’s National Day holiday celebrations.

Oh, typhoon season. You’re going to take some getting used to.

UPDATE (10/1/09): I canceled the trip. More details here.