This is a travel day story for anyone who wonders what traveling looks like on the World Race!
We began our day arriving at the airport in Danang, Vietnam, at 4:30am. We checked our luggage, went through security, and waited until our plane boarded around 7:00am. The first part of our trip went smoothly…. We landed in Ho Chi Min city, Vietnam, and had to collect our luggage, re-check it for our international flight, and go through security again. Most of the day was spent in the Ho Chi Min airport waiting; it turned out that our flight got delayed 2 hours because of a rain storm.
We finally boarded our plane to Manila, Philippines, for a two and a half hour flight. We flew through the rain without too much turbulence, and landed in Manila around 8:45pm. By the time we picked up our bags and went through customs, it was getting late.
This is where the story gets interesting… we split into our teams and headed to get taxis to take us to our hostel. Everyone was tired and we decided to trust our driver; we gave him the address but didn’t bother to load directions on Google maps.
So we crammed into the taxi, 5 of us girls with all our packs and luggage. After driving for about a half hour, it became obvious that our driver was lost…
(Mom, please don’t worry when you read this next paragraph!)
Here we were, the all girls team, lost in the huge city of Manila on our first night here. It was late, getting around midnight, and we had no phones that worked in this country, or any way to contact our squad mates. Our taxi driver must have stopped at least 10 times to ask directions, but we kept driving in circles.
So we did the only thing we knew to do: we prayed. We were all exhausted, and there was nothing we could do except pray for our driver to find his way. At one point I saw a taxi in front of us, and on the bumper it said ‘God will make a way’. How crazy is that! I knew then that God was leading us and He would get us safely there.
One of my teammates ended up turning on the data on her phone, connecting to Google maps, and giving the driver directions. After driving for almost 2 hours, we finally arrived at our hostel around 1am.
Being lost and not having any way to contact our friends was a new situation for me, one that forced me trust in God and believe that He would protect us and get us safely where we needed to go. It also taught all of us a lesson in patience and team work – being stuck in a cab with 5 people, everyone being exhausted and tired, is definitely a bonding experience.
I am thankful for safe travels and a God who protects and guides us when we are lost – literally! We also learned our lesson to always have a map before getting in a taxi!! And that’s my story about being lost in Manila 🙂
