Stranded In Cebu Philippines – LBW Trip Cut Short Due To Coronavirus!

Hello you, yes you, the one that opened this article to find out how we were stranded in Cebu City in the Philippines. Did we make it out? Are we infected? Will this make a good story? Well yes, we did make it home, otherwise, this blog post would be titled something along the lines of ‘Up Shit Creek Without a Paddle’

Some of you may already know, but recently me and Olly had a trip booked to the Philippines. This trip was with Life Before Work. We had signed a contract with them, to help them promote their new tours around the beautiful islands of the Philippines.

Shortly into the trip, the Corona Virus took hold of the world, and unfortunately, our tour was cut short. Our advice was to get home ASAP. That turned out to be easier said than done.

We spent the next week at airports, queuing, crying, arguing, eating, sleeping, and refreshing the government website more times than my thumb has ever known. So, here is our story of how we were stranded in Cebu.

Stranded In Cebu Philippines – The Tour is Cancelled 

Back in June 2019, we signed a contract with Life Before Work (LBW Travel) which saw us travel to the Philippines in March 2020, to promote their new tours. We love the Philippines and the itinerary looked different from the things we had done before, so we jumped at the chance to head back.

When we left for the Philippines, the virus was slowly growing, but our government website and tour guide reassured us that we would still be able to take part in the trip. Our initial flights were canceled due to the outbreak in Hong Kong, but we were soon moved to similar flights, transiting in Abu Dhabi instead.

The Philippines tour with LBW Travel is cut into two sections. The first leg of the trip saw 15 people unable to make it, due to flight cancellations, which we suspected might happen. It left us with 6 of us traveling around the island of Palawan, visiting places like Port Barton and El Nido. The first part of the tour was for 9 days.

Meeting the new group in Cebu Philippines

The second leg of the tour saw 4 of us stay on and we were joined by 7 new people, everyone was Canadian except for me and Olly. The new group were all friends or related to one another, it was very hard to keep up in the beginning.

 

Day 2 with the new group and we were all getting ready for a boat trip around Siargao Island. We were suddenly all called together for breakfast and a chat next to the beach. This is where our tour guide informed us that the capital of the Philippines, Manila, was going into an enhanced community quarantine in two days and the tour had to be canceled for our safety.

All of us had flights home leaving in a week, either from Manila or Cebu but were instructed to get home ASAP.

If you don’t know about the Filipino president, he is slightly nuts and will do anything he wants at a drop of a hat, so it isn’t the safest country to be in, while a pandemic is going on. 

The Philippines has famously awful internet, so all of us sat down and tried to look for routes home, check our flight status and come to terms with leaving a lot sooner than expected.

As we hadn’t been on the internet much in the past few weeks, me and Olly decided to call my Dad to see what we should do. Our flight hadn’t been canceled, we didn’t know much about what was going on and at the time and we weren’t sure if our insurance would cover the cost of the flight change.

This is when we thought, let’s not panic, and let’s see if we can ride it out.

The others all booked flights to Bali, as there was a better chance of getting home from there, as there was no time limit like here in the Philippines. Once there, they could figure it how to get home… or so we thought.

Stranded In Cebu City Philippines – The Lock Down

The Philippines is made up of hundreds of islands. The biggest being Luzon, where the capital Manila is and the island of Cebu. These are also 2 of 3 international airports in the Philippines.

The other is Clark which is 3 hours north of the city of Manila. When we all landed back in Cebu, we waved goodbye to the Canadian’s and tried to make good use of the internet at the airport to see how we could get home.

Little did we know, we would be spending the next 5 days in this exact spot, searching for a way home.

Some time had passed and I decided to take my eyes off of my laptop for a second when I noticed 7 familiar faces walking towards me. The Canadians that had left for Bali booked through a third-party website, which oversold the plane and unfortunately meant they couldn’t leave Cebu.

2 out of 9 made it through, but they also had issues connecting to their second flight and had to spend a day in Manila, waiting for the next plane.

As we had been reunited, we thought this was a sign, and we should take advantage of being back together. We thought it would be a good idea to continue the trip but on our own. Me and Olly booked the next flight to Clark in two days.

All the flights to Manila were sold out. All of us headed to a hotel, got Mcdonalds takeaway, and started to relax once again. This didn’t last long, as the news was changing every hour.

2 am and the Canadians finally managed to speak to their airline to bring their flight forward in time. They were all set while me and Olly were holding out for our flight to Clark. This was in the hopes we could travel to Manila and fly out internationally.

We also got hold of our airline and paid £500 to bring our flights forward, to connect to our Clark flight.

A new day means new adventures, right? Wrong!

The next day we woke up to find out our flight had been canceled. It was incredibly annoying as we had to work out a whole new plan and head back to the airport. This meant we had to say goodbye to our Canadian friends, as they were going south to enjoy the beaches of Moalboal for a few days before their flight.

At this moment in time, we were still pretty chilled. We weren’t panicking, we were just annoyed with the lack of aircon in the airport. After another day at the airport, we learned that Air Asia was also shutting down due to the lockdown.

This meant we had to rush to Cebu Pacific, to get a ticket. This was our only other way out. By now, Manila was completely locked down. 82nd in the queue for a new ticket and we had some time to kill.

3 hours later and we had managed to somehow get 4 tickets on the next plane out of Cebu to Clark. This was in two days. Bonding with others in the queue, we wanted to make sure everyone got on the plane together, as we were all stranded at this point. Finally, we could relax again and get some well-needed rest.

You don’t realize how tiring traveling can be when you are constantly checking government websites, entry restrictions, and flight paths. So, we both decided we needed to find a nice hotel, that wasn’t too far from the airport.

It was expensive having to get taxis in and out. We found a luxury hotel, the Waterfront airport hotel, within meters of the airport. We decided to stay for a few nights. The rooms were huge, and the pool was exactly what we needed to relax. Spending our last day around the pool, topping up the tan.

Until I got a text the next day saying that our flight had been canceled. Clark was now in Lockdown too. Towel on and a mad dash back to the airport, back to the mayhem that was trying to get home. The news is not regulated like it is back home, so we did not know if we could trust the information online.

Reports suggested that Manila, Clark, Cebu, Bohol, El Nido, Puerto Princesa were all in lockdown. Each having hundreds of tourists stuck on islands, unable to get home. There were now roughly 300 of us at Cebu airport all trying to get home.

The issue we faced was that we were being told NOTHING. One day a headline would read ‘ NO INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS’ and we would all panic. Then the next day we read online that the ban has been lifted. It was an extremely frustrating time, with no information and no certainty of when or even if we could get home.

Stranded In Cebu Philippines – Emergency Sweeper Planes 

All you need during a Corona Virus Pandemic is a man with a megaphone. On our 4th day at the airport, a man announced there would be sweeper planes to take us all to Manila.

ONLY if you had onward travel booked within 24 hours. I ran back to the hotel to book new flights home and Olly fought his way through the crowds to get a ticket, to buy a ticket for this plane.

There had been talk for a few days of military planes, emergency planes, and even some governments, not the British, don’t be silly, but the German and Russians, coming to the rescue. Whispers and rumors traveled through us all, quicker than the actual Corona Virus, giving us all a glimpse of hope.

Seeing as we are British, we custom to a good queue. We had been in the queue for about an hour before they announced the ‘rescue plane’ didn’t have permission to land and now canceled.

Thank god we all spent hundreds of pounds all booking onward travel I hear you say?! As this was our 5th day of hearing empty promises, we booked our onward travel a day later, because this wasn’t our first rodeo.

One more day at Cebu airport and we eventually managed to get tickets for an actual plane to  Manila. The tickets usually cost £16, these tickets were priced at £130. Hours of waiting with 0 social distancing, we could check-in. Our only issue was that we were not allowed to leave Manila airport when we got there. Plus we were not allowed to be there for more than 24 hours.

Our flight was in 25 hours. The lady looked at us and could see we were desperate, and I might have mentioned that there is no way I am not getting on the god damn plane. They let us through. Wahoooooooooooooo!!

Cebu To Manila Airport

Nobody could believe we had made it to Manila. As this airport had been placed on Lock Down, all of the shops were shut, which wasn’t great. Arriving at 5 pm on the 19th, Olly and I had to wait till 5 pm on the 20th until we could leave.

\A small group of us that had been stranded together took refuge in an abandoned McDonald’s. We banded together, found some cardboard, and made our beds for the evening. One even found a dark cave to sleep in.

Imagine the Tom Hanks film Terminal but with no shops open, oh wait is that too soon?

Our friends managed to get an earlier flight and we waved goodbye to our fellow airport veterans. Olly and I were left to stroll the airport like zombies after the worst night sleep on the floor. 3 pm rolled around slower than it ever has, and we checked in to see if there were more shops open on the other side.

We had been locked in the airport with hardly any edible food. Luckily, there was a coffee shop open and we embarked on our 7-hour journey to Dubai.

Stranded In Cebu Philippines – Flight Home

In the Philippines, they are taking this virus extremely seriously. Every building you walk into, you are heat scanned and your hands are sanitized, otherwise, you are denied entry. This was the same everywhere you went, Mcdonalds, the Mall, Hotels, Airport entrances, and even on the plane.

They even walked down the aisle, spraying sanitizer. You must wear masks and are advised to stay 2 meters apart.

When we arrived in Dubai, it was the complete opposite. It was as if we had walked into a different world, one where the virus didn’t exist. There were hundreds of people, every shop still open, and no precautions to stopping the spread.

We felt dirtier here than we did on the floor of Manila airport. When we got on the plane in Dubai, I naturally wiped down everything. My whole seat, screen and tray and people were looking at me like I had lost my mind.

Things that were the norm in the Philippines, to flattening the curve, seemed to vanish.

Homeward Bound

Arriving at Gatwick angered me beyond belief. Not one question, where have you been. Nobody checking temperatures, nobody standing meters apart and not one mask insight. We are aware the masks don’t help, but if I have picked it up during my 48-hour journey home, I do not want to spread it by breathing on Carole in front of me at the baggage claim.

Why do the Philippines care more about their people I thought? Neither nations have the healthcare that can cope with this virus, so why don’t Brits care?

Being Home – Arriving in London

Olly and I have been home a week now. We have completed our first week in Quarantine and still haven’t killed one another yet. We understand that we are incredibly lucky to be home. Some people we know did not make it out of Cebu and are currently still stranded in Cebu Philippines.

They are at the point that they are not allowed into supermarkets because they are foreign. The Philippines are doing more day to day checks, but it isn’t a safe place to be during a pandemic. We do not know how bad this can get and being away from home scared me more than anything.

As my family is high risk, we cannot see them for a while. This means we are spending our Quarantine with Olly’s Dad and Step Mum in Hertfordshire. In a beautiful house surrounded by fields.

We know we are lucky, we know what it is like to be away from family and wish nothing but to be with them, but if anything, this experience has taught us that we need to take this seriously. This virus will wipe out a lot of people you love, if we don’t all stand together, by standing apart.

👏🏻 WASH YOUR GOD DAMN HANDS 👏🏻

 

If you enjoyed our stranded in Cebu Philippines journey, then you can read more of our diaries from traveling.

 

What Camera Gear Do We Use

• Main Camera: Panasonic G80
• Go To Lens: Panasonic 12-60mm
• Tripod: Manfrotto Adventure Tripod
• Camera Bag: Manfrotto Backpack
• Underwater Camera: GoPro Hero 8
• Drone: DJI Mavic Pro 2
• Power Bank: Anker Power Bank
• Hardrive: WD 1TB hard drive

Other Travel Guides And Itineraries

• Kuala Lumpur Itinerary
• Vietnam
• Philippines