Earlier this year, a group of us from work (and an ex-colleague) decided to go to Boracay in the Philippines – what is known to be a magical island towards the centre of the country, north of Palay Island.
We were all looking forward to it, as the months and weeks counted down. A couple of weeks per, we heard of a depression that was forming towards the east seas of the Philippines, when it turned into a Typhoon. As it formed and approached the Philippines and it’s many islands on the east side, it gained in strength, we knew it would be close to the Philippines when we were scheduled to leave for holiday, and then we noted on the reports that it was actually going to go across a wide span of the centre belt, and looking at the planned route, it looked like it was going to hit just south of Boracay island. Then our holiday came within a couple of days, and then we looked at the timing of when the Typhoon was about to hit, and you guessed it, on the actual day we were scheduled to leave, it was scheduled to hit Palay Island and Boracay. In fact, our flight was arriving on Friday, 8th November at 3pm local time, at the exact hour when it was meant to be at its fiercest.
What annoyed me most is that Tiger Airlines made no attempt to contact it’s many passengers who were affected but this human nature disaster, we only heard word of move and it was only when someone referenced us to the Tiger Airlines Philippines Facebook page, did we get the full score. Their Communicates and Operations Director basically stated that all flights on Friday 8th had been cancelled to the central Philippines, including ours to Kalibo airport. Luckily, we didn’t just risk going to Singapore airport to find it out there, rather we slept on it, and decided to go back to work – I know get the small violin out, but I think it was the right cause of action to cancel the flight and holiday, noting how fierce this Typhoon ended up being. The last thing we want is to be in the middle of a massive natural disaster.
My hearts and thoughts remain to the Philippines and the Filipinos impacted by this event, as looking at the news, it really was very bad indeed!
Life is more important, and there is always the possibility to re-schedule a holiday, that can’t be said for replacing a life.
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