We almost missed our flight to Tuguegarao

I think, now that Kuya's wedding successfully pushed through, it can now be told that we almost missed out flight to Tuguegarao. 

The last time I rode the plane was November last year when our family and relatives flew to Davao for my birthday weekend, I always seem to not remember what stuff to bring and what to check in. Good thing, we're shipping flowers for Kuya's wedding which allows us to have more kg for check in. Not only I am a terrible light packer (I always tend to bring more clothes than what I can actually use), I'm a paranoid flyer as well. 

It's been almost a year and NAIA Terminal 3 really did change from the last time I saw it. First, you can now bring hairspray via hand carry. I even remember seeing another passenger leaving his brand new bottle of perfume because he did not check it in and it was not allowed to be hand carried.

We arrived 3 hours before our flight so we killed time by having a really heavy brunch at the Terminal 3. I was surprised that there are more options now for eating. (so hungry, forgot to take a photo).

 And they have PNP Help Desk scattered around. Good Job!

 And it's fast becoming a mall/duty-free

 I did not know that a lot of people fly to Tuguegarao everyday.

It turned out that some people prefer to fly to Tuguegarao and just catch a bus going to farther north, like Ilocos Norte, to cut down the dragging travel time by land. Good thinking!

We're about to land...

Touch down Tuguegarao Airport:

 Welcome bandwagon. (Got it? No? Okay. Moving on...)

 Tourism officer's stand to entice people on what to expect up north

 Waiting for the luggage. When I saw this I remembered our horrible experience with Puerto Prinsesa airport  when we went to Palawan in 2006.  Our luggage was not handled very well. They were not pushed inside the baggage area, but instead was placed on the wet ground.

But Cebu Pacific seemed quite organized.

 But after a few minutes, this is how they roll:

 G.Y.O.B. - Get Your Own Bag.

I saw a nearby pushcart, but someone claimed to have dibs on it first. Fine. I can probably get another one in Tuguegarao airport.

But I was wrong. There is only one push cart in the entire Tuguegarao airport and you have to have dibs on it first before you can use it. (Read: paid someone to reserve it for you/ you must know an airport official or something)

Here we are waiting to be picked up. We flew in two huge boxes of fresh flowers from Manila.

After arrival, within 15 minutes, the place looks deserted!

Going back, though we arrived 3 hours early at the airport in NAIA Termnal 3, we almost missed our flight to Tuguegarao.

We intentionally sat at the wrong gate, because our designated gate was jam packed, sharing the lounge with travellers flying to Puerto Prinsesa and Cotabato.

Since we were seated at the wrong lounge, we saw these Filipina celebrities, Geneva Cruz and Rachel Alejandro, right behind us. We could not help but gawk through our sunglasses that we did not hear that the boarding time have started 15-20 minutes ago!

If we missed our flight, we would not make it to the wedding. Kuya will not have a beautiful church aisle, because upon landing, we learned that there's only 1 round trip flight for every airline ( Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines) and it is always at noon.

Whew!