This should be a happy post that I made it to the Philippines but it is not.
I arrived at Manila airport, well prepared with an onward ticket, hotel booking, Covid test. However, the immigration officer asked me too many irrelevant questions.
- Are you a student?
- When did you graduate?
- What was your major?
Then he stamped my passport after many more questions… and in the middle of the process, he spoke something in Tagalog with another officer, she replied in English “It’s possible, why not?”
I was frustrated with all the questions he asked. When I was in Singapore, it took me longer than other travellers, but the immigration officer asked me politely and all of the questions were merely related to my travel plan in Singapore. Anyway, when I arrived at the hostel, I found out that I lost my purse at the airport. After the immigration, I donated some cash and maybe I left my purse in the donation box…
Now my mind is frozen. I don’t know what’s next. I locked my card, no cash left here I don’t want to come back to Vietnam because my trip should be longer than this. It’s not easy to travel. It’s a blessing to be able to travel. And I will not stop. But now I’m blaming myself for not being calm enough after the immigration officer’s questions, or else, I will not lose all of my cash and everything else in the purse.
My hostel manager and other travellers in the room were so supportive. They called the airport lost and found. They couldn’t call the grab driver so they found him on Facebook and messaged him (we couldn’t find the wallet in the car), then brought me some food. I was eating some cookies to keep myself calm. On the way back to my hostel, I even asked my travel mate to buy me a latte (so confidently) even though I don’t know how to pay it back.
And then we went back to the hostel. My mind was completely blank. My legs couldn’t walk normally but there is one thing I felt so strong inside: I must keep travelling. I told the hostel manager to find me a job in the Philippines so I can earn quickly. Joking helps…
When I got back to the hostel, the manager told me he still had a feeling that I would find my wallet again. Some months ago, a guy came at midnight and lost his phone in the cab. They chased the cab around based on the “find my iPhone” location, and finally when they were in Manila Bay, the driver had already brought the phone to the hostel. We laughed and somehow I stopped and checked my email, just a bad habit from office jobs. There was an email sent to mine with only one sentence: “Hi your wallet is here in immigration terminal 3”. OMG! Quick quick, let’s go. I didn’t lose it at all…
To save money, we asked some motorbike drivers if they could drive us to the airport but they said it was too far (10km is too far???). Then we booked a grab to the airport. And on the way, we learned something from our grab driver.
I was swearing quite a lot about the immigration officer who made me frustrated then I said sorry to the grab driver about it. He just laughed and said it’s totally okay, you just need to let it out, but he is a driver, he is trained to have patience, or else he will lose his mind in the chaotic traffic of Metro Manila.
“If the street is so busy, it means that people are working, and shopping a lot, which means I have more customers out there. So why do I have to get annoyed because of that? I feel blessed to have more and more problems. Because it means God is still paying attention to me and wants me to learn more, live more.”
At this point, I just feel so lucky also. Alrighty, God or anyone above there, thank you for giving me this challenge so I know how lucky I am to have myself surrounded by kind people and more stories to tell.
Then he processed to tell us how he trained his mind. During Covid time, he had anxiety every day. Many times he looked into the mirror, cried, and shouted at himself to just die because he couldn’t earn money for his family (his wife and two children). And luckily his younger brother taught him about meditation, and he tried.
“My mind is clearer and I spend more time working on the solution rather than focusing on problems and nothing will be solved”. He finished the story when we arrived at the airport.
I ran quickly to the immigration and met the lady officer who found my wallet and emailed me. They all laughed when I told them how I left my wallet on a random box “the immigration officer asked me too many questions…”
Now I can laugh and write this story but I indeed felt helpless yesterday. Luckily, the story ended on a good note with the support of so many kind strangers. Hello, the Philippines!
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