I’ve never been out of the Philippines until last July 2, 2010. It was my first flight to another country and I was taking it alone. My colleagues took an earlier flight and I was left at the office due to my workload. So right before I headed to the airport that Friday night, one of our seniors briefed me on what I was supposed to do.

I was carrying three pieces of luggage and a tarpaulin. I had my suitcase, my carry-on bag and a laptop bag. I had to pay for excess baggage at the Cebu Pacific counter. They don’t accept dollars as payment. Our office gives out our per diem in dollars so luckily I brought some extra money in Pesos for the excess baggage.

I grabbed a coffee at the SBC branch inside the terminal while waiting for my flight. The flight to Vietnam from Philippines is just two hours and a half, the same length of my trip from the office to our house when there’s heavy traffic. I boarded around 9:30pm. I filled out my immigration form while inside the airplane to avoid having to struggle with my luggage and the form before lining up in the immigration counter. Our senior advised me to have my passport details ready and attached somewhere to avoid having to bring out the passport for the details. It lessens the risk of dropping your passport. Everyone knows your passport is like your life when travelling.