1. Why I had to fly during the COVID-19 pandemic
I arrived in Cebu city in December 2019, and was planning to spend a few months there as a digital nomad. I wanted to work intensively in Cebu city for about 2 or three months before discovering the Philippines.
I already had my ferry and flight tickets for March, when it became obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to be very serious. In fact, I was already planning to travel to another island, when the news came that Cebu city was locked down, all travel to and from the city and even the island was banned.
I quickly extended my Philippines visa for another six months, but I was hoping to be able to move on in a month or two. Little did I know back then, that it was only getting worse and worse, and not only in the Philippines, but all over the world. You can read about this and my detailed diary in this other post.
As time went by, things became more and more unbearable for me, and the situation in the Philippines was also becoming more and more dangerous. So I decided to do everything I can to escape from the country, and get back to Europe, where the pandemic was already becoming less deadly, especially in my home country, Hungary.
2. Flights availability and things to arrange
You can read more about this in a separate post titled Trying to escape from the Philippines during COVID-19. I will only highlight the problems here.
First of all, it was very difficult to find affordable flight tickets. I eventually chose Qatar Airways. It cost a little more than a Turkish Airlines flight would cost, but Turkish was only available at the beginning of August, and I just didn’t want to wait another three weeks.
Getting permissions to be able to leave Cebu city and the country was a pain in the ass, and I went through some of the worst times of my life during this time, always worrying whether I would manage to get everything in order in time.
3. AirAsia flight from Cebu to Manila
Cebu has an international airport, but all international flights have long been banned. First I had to travel from Cebu to Manila, and I chose Airasia as the cheapest option.
I was hoping it wouldn’t be cancelled, but I was preparing for it anyway – which you should also do, if you are planning to do the same route. I hear Philippine Airlines regularly cancelled their Cebu-Manila flights.
How can you prepare? Choose a flight in the morning, but not very early, because you will have to get to the airport, and you’ll have to use some service which has proper licences to travel. If your flight gets cancelled, you can still quickly buy another ticket with an another airlines.
AirAsia did fly though, so this didn’t cause a problem.
I got to the airport more than 3 hours before departure time. I was preparing for long queues, but there was actually none. The airport wasn’t empty though, although half of it was closed down, and there were very few shops open.
Boarding started one hour before departure, probably because they wanted to leave time for slowly letting everyone board and find their seats.
The flight was uneventful, so much so, that they didn’t even give us food, which I had paid for when booking the ticket, and they only gave me two small packs of inedible snacks and a tiny bottle of water.
For smokers: the smoking area was open, but they confiscate your lighters or matches at security, and even though they say there will be an electric lighter on the wall, there is none. There were, however, quite a few other smokers who managed to smuggle their lighters in.
4. Flight experience with Qatar Airways
I had a two-leg Qatar flight, from Manila to Doha (9 hours), and then Doha to Budapest (5 hours). I had 10 hours from late night until the early morning to spend at the Doha airport. I was expecting it to be deadly tiring and uncomfortable, and I was right: it was one of the most exhausting trips I have had.
4.1 Manila to Doha
I arrived at the Manila airport 4 hours before departure. Again, I was expecting to have to stand in a queue for hours, because this was the experience of some other foreigners before me. But it turned out to be much less busy this time. In fact, I didn’t have to wait too long for anything at all.
There was a longish queue at check-in, but I checked in online, and at the baggage drop counter, there was only one person in front of me.
I was, however, afraid that I would have to spend a long time at immigration, and I was also preparing for possible problems with my ACR-I card (see this post), but there was no problem at all. I think immigration took about 10 to 15 minutes, and I was stamped out of the Philippines. Now I had too much time to spend at the area after security, where unlike the Cebu airport, there were no smoking areas at all. Even the fee-paying lounge with a smoking area was closed. But prices are reasonable, so I had a pizza and a coffee, and spent all my remaining pesos on stupid things.
I had quite a lot of Philippines cash with me, which I exchanged for USD – thy didn’t have euros. I was stupid enough to exchange my Indonesian rupees, too, a considerable amount, and I only realized much later, that the exchange rate was so terrible, that I lost almost a hundred dollars! F…ck! These criminals should be persecuted!
Otherwise, the airport was so empty that you could expect some ghosts to appear. It was a terrible feeling, actually.
At boarding, Qatar Airways distributed plastic face shields, which you must wear throughout the journey, besides of course your face mask, which you must always wear at all times, except when eating or drinking.
On board, they also distributed a “protective kit”, which was a pack containing a face mask, a pair of gloves and a small pack of disinfectant.
The MNL-DOH flight was almost full. This was surprising for me first, but then I thought it is surely some of those thousands and thousand of Filipinos, who work abroad, including in Qatar. It just seemed strange, that they should travel to Qatar now, at the height of the pandemic.
They did serve us dinner though, and the food was really good. You can also get wine or other alcoholic drinks, which was a pleasant surprise for me, Qatar being a very muslim country.
Sleeping, however, was impossible, at least for me. With all that stupid gear on my face (the face mask and the face shield), I just couldn’t relax at all.
4.2 Ten hours at the Doha airport
Unlike in Manila, the Doha Airport was quite busy and crowded. Even though you could actually find seats further away from other people, there was no way you could sleep on those seats, the arms of which are unmovable. I didn’t sleep a moment there.
I did visit the smoking areas several times though. I was wondering how dangerous it is to spend any time in there, since obviously no-one is wearing a face mask, and everyone is exhaling smoke. Now I was trying to find information about the coronavirus spreading with cigarette smoke, but I could find none. All the sites talking about smoking and the virus only say smoking badly damages blah blah. Like we didn’t know.
In de facto dictatorship Hungary, where government communication is not better than in any other authoritarian regimes, a journalist asked the head of the virus committee whether people in quarantine are allowed to smoke on their balconies. The answer was something like “I do not recommend smoking for anyone”. Oh, Jesus! The question was not whether you recommend smoking for people in general, and especially for people in quarantine…
Why can’t people say “I don’t know’, when they don’t know the answer?
Doha airport prices are high, at least for me. A coffee costs 5 US dollars, and one small bottle of water is 2 dollars (1,35 but you get the change in local currency, which you can just throw out after that). At most modern and civilised airports, there is free drinking water, but not at Doha airport.
4.3 Doha to Budapest
The DOH-BUD flight was almost empty. This was a good thing, because I could actually lie down and get some sleep. Not an awful lot though, because you are still wearing your face mask and your face shield, and that makes it very difficult.
We got a good breakfast, and arrived in Budapest well ahead of time.
At immigration in Budapest, we had to wait what seemed like eternity. I have no idea what they were doing, because when I got to the window at long last, it didn’t take more than a few minutes. Yes, I have to spend 2 weeks in home quarantine, but all I had to do is give them my address, my telephone number, and we were done. Yes, I am Hungarian, so I was returning home, but I don’t suppose it should be much more difficult in the case of a foreigner.
Anyway, now I am in my home, and I cannot leave the apartment for one single moment until the quarantine period is over.
