Relationship With A Filipina During The Pandemic
I have been lucky and done a lot of traveling in my life, up to today, about 39 countries.
The first two countries I went to were Russia and Japan before ending up in Australia, where I stayed for five years.
It was during this time that I was also fortunate to do some traveling to Southeast Asia.
I had friends in Singapore, and after traveling across the plane in a bus to Perth, I then caught a British Airways flight to Singapore.
Meeting My Filipina Partner By Chance On PinaLove
Now, to be honest, I have nothing but praise for BA.
Having flown with them a few times, I do not understand the negativity towards them which I have heard recently.
They have always looked after me and made my flight enjoyable.
I have been to many countries in Southeast Asia, notably Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma as it was known then), but one country I’ve never been to, and never had any desire to go to, was the Philippines.
But this changed about three years ago when I met my partner, as she is now, on a dating site called Pina love.
Long Distance During The Pandemic
After a lot of false starts and feeling my way around, I saw the woman I was now involved with.
We’ll call her Rose.
We talked for about six months, saw each other on video a lot before I made the conscious effort to go and see her.
It would be a long flight, and to be honest, I had already vowed never to do a long flight again, being content with a maximum of four hours in a metal tube at 39,000 feet or so.
It was at this time that the dreaded pandemic hit the UK, and of course, I wasn’t going anywhere.
What a dilemma, but nothing we could do about it.
We continued to contact each other, and much later, travel restrictions were eased, so I took the plunge to go to the Philippines.
What a disaster.
There was so much conflicting information around about travel and the restrictions to different countries that I got it all completely wrong.
More about that soon.
So, in my naivety, I got all my travel documents, or so I thought, and took the train to London.
Here was where the plan started to unravel.
I should have then taken the Heathrow Express or even the tube to Terminal 5, but no, idiot here decided, for some unfathomable reason, to take a taxi.
Stupid.
Too Many Requirements To Travel To The Philippines At That Time
Now, Rose was getting very excited with the thought of our meeting, but it wasn’t to be.
At Heathrow, I showed all my travel documents and COVID test forms, thinking that all would be well.
Next problem: no Health passport to Philippines.
So, I ran around like a lunatic trying to find Wi-Fi so I could fill in the required documents online.
After much sweating, etc., I managed to do this and went back to check-in.
Things were about to get worse.
It was a BA flight to Hong Kong first of all, and I had got a seat right next to the exit with more legroom, 39a.
I was dreading the flight, to be honest, but the crew were brilliant and even got me some special food from first class.
Talk about being looked after.
The flight, in actual fact, was brilliant, and time flew past, no pun intended.
We landed eventually at Hong Kong, one place I never went to but always wanted to.
But this time, I only saw the airport.
Finding Out I Needed A Visa To Enter The Philippines
After disembarking, I went to transit for the flight to Manila, strolled up to the check-in desk, and was promptly told that I needed a Visa.
I thought honestly that I could have a 30-day on arrival in Manila, but this was now different rules due to COVID.
I was shocked.
No way were we going to meet now. I knew that Rose would be heartbroken.
It was at this time that I sat down in the transit lounge and cried my eyes out.
So, after a few hours, personnel came to me from BA and told me that I could not stop here.
I could also not go into Hong Kong, so I was trapped.
Anyway, a very nice woman came up to me later and told me that I had to go back to the UK.
Oh my God, not what I was expecting.
They arranged for me to fly back the next day on another BA flight, but they picked up the tab of the flight cost.
So what could I do? Nothing but wait to go home.
Having To Return Home Due To The Restrictions
In the meantime, I contacted Rose and told her the bad news.
She was crying on the phone, and we both felt like our worlds had disintegrated.
Now, this was where I make a case for the professionalism of BA.
I was shown onto the aircraft to the exact same seat I had flown in on, same type of aircraft.
One of the crew came up to me and profusely told me how sorry he was for what had happened to me.
He and the crew knew all about my disaster and made my return to the UK one I will always remember.
They were brilliant.
In fact, when I got home, I wrote a letter to BA, telling them all about my adventure and thanking certain members of the crew for their brilliant service towards me.
As for Rose, well, we cried into our suit, lol, and knew we both had to wait for the travel restrictions to be eased into the Philippines, which they were later.
But that is another story.
