Thursday, October 3, 2013

Butuan I: The Way to the South and Back

It's been two weeks since we came back from Butuan, and it's thanks to Father, who claimed possession of my laptop for the past few days (he's back in Iloilo now), that I'd been unable to blog about the trip.

The idea of Hospital Management I & II is still vague to me, but of course that's something I wouldn't dare say before our superiors. I'd probably blurt out something that's presumably to their liking: "Management teaches us to be leaders in health care!" "Our field work in Management is wonderful exposure to the administrative and financial machinery behind a hospital!"

I surmise the above sentiments would probably get me into some sort of trouble, but truth be told, that field work was one big holiday. That we got to spend five days away from the noise of Taft Avenue, the musty, narrow streets of Malate, and that distinctive smell pervading every ward in PGH could not have been a more welcome treat.

1. This post is all about the plane rides (but the detailed aerial shots will appear in the next post). Our journey began at 7AM in NAIA Terminal 3. We had four airplane virgins, which is always a cause for celebration. Our plane was in a remote parking slot, or the ones that use stairs, so we assembled at the ground level pre-departure area. Ray, our wonderfully flamboyant, Pharmacist Licensure Exam topnotcher classmate paid us a visit; his group was headed for Davao City.


2. An All Nippon Airways special livery B767-300ER waiting for its mid-morning return flight to Tokyo Narita. Inside the airplane, a couple shot!


3. Clouds, taken by Pia. Meanwhile, Teddy won his first Cebu Pacific game!


4. More clouds! This was over Masbate, if I'm not mistaken.


5. Arrival! Butuan Bancasi Airport is small. There's no other way to describe it. There's a wisp of a baggage carousel in the arrivals hall that's no bigger than a regular National Bookstore outlet. The plus side was getting to walk on a tarmac under prickly sunshine after so many years of buses and airbridges.


6. Now, photos taken during the return flight to Manila, beginning with Bancasi Airport's check-in area. The recent senselessness in Zamboanga - at the time, it was just a day or two after the Davao mall bombings - reached in spectral form even this relatively peaceful city. Hence, the tightest airport security check I've experienced.  


7. The pre-departure area, a similar style to the old Iloilo Airport, where my first concrete memories of the airport were formed. Passengers bound for three cities all fit in the area, but before entering, a final security check!


8. Our plane was relatively on time. A view of the entire tarmac of Bancasi Airport - the smallness of it exudes a charming rusticity.


9. Creative shot of Pia and a Cebu-bound A320. The tarmac, viewed from a left-window seat.


10. Arriving at NAIA, I finally got to see one of the ex-Iberia A340s that Philippine Airlines has leased. God, what an awfully tasteless sight, especially when put side by side with a sleek B777-300ER.


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