Its been almost a year since I last write. What really inspired to blog again is that a lot has been happening in my life this year alone, and initially I just didn't bother sharing them but after experiencing the Yolanda Typhoon chaos, I just thought I write my two cents.
Boracay is one of those places I have to visit before I die, and boy was I beyond excited when Zeb asked me earlier in January whether I want to tag along with him on his trip there with his friends. Errr, yes please!
Fast forward day 2 in Boracay
"there is a super typhoon coming on Friday"
We were scheduled to leave Boracay for Manila on Thursday, so no worry there, we will be safe because Manila is safe.
When we were leaving the island apparently all the locals were trying to leave the island aswell. When I say locals, a whole lot of locals. A whole lot of human, a combination of locals and foreigners.
The situation was so strange that I just had to ask one of the local is the amount of people at the jetty is the norm and they said "No maam, this is just everyone trying to leave the island before the typhoon comes"
It was so chaotic that I can hear foreigners one by one saying "I have a flight at 9am" "I have a flight at 11am" "I am going to miss my flight"
and yes, I myself was going to miss my flight to Manila as well.
The que was sooooo long, I can't even begin to describe it. Wait, there was no such thing as a que. It was people to people, body to body, side by side, against each other's body, pushing, shoving, trying to get pass the gate in order to catch the ferry to Caticlan.
The thing is, if you are stranded on the island, you are safe (there was no reported death on Boracay island), however, you will be stranded on the island for days, because the airport will be closed and ferry services will be stopped for sometime. So either you leave today, or stay for another 3-4 days. Imagine no form of electricity on the island and no food coming into the island during the period. Logistics wise, you are pretty much stuck.
That's what happened in Tacloban. Survivors were desperate for food and clean water because in the beginning there was no access to the places that the survivors were starting to go, well, literally, crazy.
So, after 6 hours being in the que, all of us got out of Boracay and safely to Caticlan, by then it was already 330 pm, and our flight from Kalibo-Manila was at 3pm. At the time I didnt care how much was the last flight out, I just wanted to get out of the Panay region, because the typhoon is going to hit it. Lucky for us that we decided to spend more on the late night flight which costed us double from the 6 am flight, because turns out, all flights the next day was cancelled. That's right, lucky.
Although we didn't experience the typhoon first hand, but we did had to go through the 'pre-typhoon arrival' stage, and was it scary and chaotic. I feel that we Malaysian are truly blessed to be free from any kind of natural disasters, really, not only that it is fatal, but the damages it causes leaves a mark that is eternal. You may have survived it, but you probably lost your loved ones. Your family may have survived it but you saw a mass of dead bodies along the road. How do you live with that?
My prayers goes out to those affected by the Yolanda Haiyan typhoon. May God bless all of you. Xo
No comments:
Post a Comment