Right, have a little more time now. It’s 11am here not 4am as this entry will no doubt say.
On the second plane journey I watched Head Of State, which was very funny in places and cool in others… nothing amazing though. Then I played tennis for ages 🙂 I beat the Level 1 computer easily and was 1 set a piece (lost the first on a tie-break, won the second 6-4) when they turned the entertainment off for landing. I’m sure you wanted to know that…
My flight landed over half an hour early at 8pm last night. So I disembarked, went through various procedures including checking visa, passport, picking up bags, customs etc. Lots of people to see. Then I was out. Out in a fairly large airport with no clue where to go, and no sign of anyone to meet me. I obviously looked lost because some hotel rep came up and asked me whether I wanted a hotel to stay in… OK, so maybe I didn’t look lost, just gullible. Anyway, I quickly cottoned on to the theme of people being nice to you in order to get their commission from selling you something. Anyway, this rep told me there was a separate pickup area and, following the signs that started well away from where they needed to be to be helpful, I headed that way.
Coming outside was a bit of a shock… it was 8.30pm at night and sauna temperature and humidity. Started sweating instantaneously. Anyway, I got down to the waiting area and was immediately accosted by various taxi and hotel reps wanting to be nice to me. I told them all to go away and leave me alone. Most of them did. But then I realised I didn’t have a clue what was going on, so I asked one of them who explained that the people meeting me would be on the other side of this nice wide road and would have to hold a sign up for me at which point I could go join them.
So I walked up and down looking for a sign with my name on… and nope, there wasn’t one. Realising that I was at least half an hour earlier than expected I tried to settle down for a bit of a wait. But pesky taxi company people kept bugging me… in a nice way… and kept putting announcments over the tannoy for me. They even had a little argument over who saw me first… it was nice to be in demand.
Anyway, after about 20 minutes’ wait, some guys turned up with a sign with my name on, so I headed over to them. So I finally met my people. We headed off to get some fast food (hey, I had been awake 29 hours and wasn’t ready for some cultural culinary experience OK?). Then it was back here to this hostel for the night… which is when I wrote my last entry.
Was asleep about 11, and up about 6.15. This morning we’ve had a look around, sorted some finances, done a little shopping. Now we’re off to meet the guy I’ll be working with here and also the guy I’ll be living with from now on. I dread to think what it’s like sleeping in this country without air con. I shall find out tonight no doubt.
Heather & Esther are arriving tonight, so I think I will go to the airport to meet them… at least I know what they look like and they know me, whereas with me I didn’t know the people and they didn’t know me. Fun.
Anyway, this costs a whopping 1 peso a minute to use (75 pesos = 1 pound hehe). Fast food last night was 50 pesos for the equivalent of a McD’s Extra Value Meal. I like it 🙂
Yes, off now. Should be able to communicate fairly regularly on here I think. But you never know.
Cheeeeeeers!
Great stuff! Glad you’ve found somewhere you can use the internet cheaply. Does that mean you can pick up your emails too? If so I might do that instead of going on a public site – can’t nag you about keeping warm, wearing a vest and eating sensibly when the whole world is reading it!
Lots of love,
Mum