When I booked my ticket to the Philippines back in November of last year, I should probably have felt excited. And to some extent I was: excited to see good friends again, to do something different, to travel not only to a new country but a new continent. But in truth, I have to admit that, faced with my first trip outside of Europe, my first journey of the first world and my first voyage to a country where the Foreign Office Advisory map is not purely a reassuring shade of green, I was probably more nervous than anything else. Nervous about everything from jet lag to dengue fever, and also a little bit embarrassed to be so worried about what leaving my Euro-comfort zone would be like. I knew that it would be a worthwhile experience but my over-cautious brain was stopping me from truly looking forward to what I was going to do.
It was only when I set off for Charles de Gaulle airport that that started to change. As I checked in for my flight, I smiled at the fact that for the first time I was on a long haul flight to an exotic destination and not a short EasyJet hop, and I realised that while I did have a little knot in my stomach, it was made up as much of excitement as of nerves.
And my optimism proved well-founded. Far from being the equivalent of spending 15 hours on Ryanair (something akin to experiencing one of the deeper circles of hell), my flight with Cathay Pacific was actually enjoyable. I had a window seat and spent a large part of it comparing the position of the little plane on the screen with the view down below of Eastern Europe and the plains of Siberia. When it got dark, the selection of in-flight films and TV series was so good that I was reluctant to go to sleep. The knowledge that I would be arriving at 11.30 local time and 5.30 my time, having missed out on an entire night of sleep did push me to get some shut-eye, but only when I had caught up on a couple of the movies that I had recently missed in the cinema.
My transit in Hong Kong was ridiculously smooth and I was lucky enough to be by the window again for the short flight to Cebu. My only regret was not keeping my camera out as we prepared for landing, because the view of the Philippine islands with their lush greenery, coloured roofs and silver beaches nestling in the tropical turquoise sea was absolutely stunning.
And then there I was in the Philippines, suddenly ready for the experience of a lifetime.
