"We're Here!" (Las Vegas to Angeles City, Philippines)

Royal likes playing "Where's Jordan?"

Royal knows cardboard Jordan very well

             I have to admit that I had approached our trip to the Philippines with great trepidation.  I fretted about being away from Kelli and Royal, Mom and Dad, being away from work, etc.  I packed a lot of work to take with me, and then discovered after we got to the airport that I had left it all at the house.  (All the papers would have really weighed me down, but I really thought I needed them.  I have plenty of other things to do with information I brought electronically, so no worries.  If there is one thing I can do, it is finding productive ways to spend my time.)  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  We have been richly rewarded in our previous experiences picking up Brad (Philippines) and David (Peru).  I am looking forward to making some new wonderful memories with Jordan. 


Our adventure begins in Las Vegas

            Maralea and I went to dinner with Kelli and Royal Friday night.  It was kind of sad for me.  I wanted to spend every last moment with Royal.  I felt I needed to memorize his face, his voice, his every quirky, funny little new thing he does that makes me laugh.  I sat in the backseat with Royal as Kelli drove us to the airport.  I laughed as Royal pushed our faces away after we would kiss him, then wiped his face where he had been kissed.  He’s a riot.  Kelli took a picture of us with our baggage at the airport, and we were on our way.

            I had planned to do a bunch of work on the plane.  But, when you board a plane at midnight, your body and mind are not really in the mood to do work.  Sleep becomes a priority.  I have such a hard time sleeping in an upright position.  Maralea bought these things that go around the neck and attach to a kind of sling where you can fold your arms and rest in a more comfortable position.  (She got them for our trip to Peru three years ago, and I don’t think we have used them since.)  I watched some Lone Ranger movie with Johnny Depp as Tonto (terrible movie - just flat awful).  I then watched 42, the story of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers (much better).


Charting our travels from Vegas to Seoul

            When we arrived at the airport in Seoul, Korea, we had a rather strange experience.  There were about 300 people on our flight.  Within five minutes of pulling up to the gate, it was empty (and we were being rushed out by the stewardesses).  Once we got into the terminal, there was no one there.  It was completely empty (really eerie).  (By the way, the restrooms there have special small toilets for little toddlers – pretty interesting.)  It is the cleanest airport I have ever seen.  There was no trash anywhere.  Everything around us was immaculate.  Anyway, a security officer who spoke no English saw us wandering around and did his best to direct us to the Transfer area, where we went through security and found our way to the right gate.  As we were wandering as strangers in a foreign land, I was weighed down by other concerns.  The BYU/Houston game had started and I wasn’t watching it!  We were unable to get the game live via video stream (it does not work outside the US, apparently), but got it loud and clear on KSL.com.  Once we found the game, I was good as gold.  We sat down in the terminal for our three hour layover and huddled around the Mark Wrubell play by play.  The game was in progress when we picked it up, with BYU leading 17-14 in the first quarter.  It was 31-31 at the end of the first half.  Taysom Hill’s two interceptions in the first half were unbelievably costly (one for pick six, the other in the end zone from the Houston five yard line). 

Sunrise in Seoul

The defense seemed weak and confused, and made so many boneheaded plays.  I was frustrated as we sat in the Seoul airport, surrounded by hundreds of people entirely oblivious to my Cougar angst.  At the time we began boarding our flight for Manila, BYU had just given up a sack and trailed 40-34.  I thought that perhaps my internet service would continue at least until we got on the plane so I could hear the play by play to the point of being ordered to shut off our electronic devices.  Not so.  The second we checked in, my internet service was gone.  Nada.  So, we boarded our plane with a sense of BYU football despair.  (Life as a BYU sports fanatic is sometimes very challenging.)  

            My plan was to arrive at our hotel in Angeles City, unpack, relax, and then see if I could find a replay of the game online.  It was a good plan, but failed in two respects: First, the game was not set yet for replay on BYUtv.org when we finally got back up online.  Second, when I finally found a link for some highlights, the title referenced an exciting BYU come from behind victory.  (Okay, fine, I’ll admit my disappointment was minor since they won the game.)  Our plan is to watch the replay of the game as soon as it is made available (hopefully today, but probably not until we get back - somehow some way, it will be viewed by the Royals).

Relaxing in the Seoul airport, during halftime of the BYU/Houston game

            Our flight to Manila from Seoul was only three hours, but we still got served a meal.  In fact, in our 20 hours of travel, we were served three meals on Korean Air and all of them were very good.  They kept the plane dark through the night, so we had plenty of opportunity to sleep.  Still, I don’t think I slept much.  (I kept thinking about “Lost” and all those episodes with the plane crashing in the ocean, or plane crash scene in “Castaway,” which is pretty intense.)  I tried my hardest to get some work done on the flight.  (Somehow, it eases my angst of being away from the office.)  But, I found it to be incredibly challenging.  My mind just would not focus.  It has been racing with all kinds of things surrounding the surreal moment in which we seem to find ourselves.  We are returning to the Philippines to pick up our second son serving here.  Jordan’s mission is over.  He is returning home, and we will see him soon.  It just doesn’t seem real.  Anyway, I watched another movie during the trip from Seoul to Manila, The Internship, which was rather silly.  (Let’s be honest.  Every movie with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson is exactly the same.)  (Hey, maybe that’s why I had so much trouble getting work done on our trip, I watched three movies.)


Maralea, anxiously awaiting landing in Manila in anticipation of the Mother/Son reunion

           I wasn’t sure how things would work out at the Manila airport.  We had arranged for Jordan’s second mission companion, Kimmy Talento, to meet us and drive us to our hotel (a two hour drive).  We went through customs, got our luggage, exchanged some US dollars for pesos, got a SIM card for Jordan’s old phone (so we could use a phone here), and then walked to the greeting area with some trepidation.  I had a back up plan.  If Kimmy and I got our wires crossed, I figured I would just grab a taxi.  There are

Manila from the plane - a beautiful sight

enough people around here who speak English that I figured we would find a way.  (It’s not like our trip to see David in 2010 when Maralea and I landed in Chiclayo, Peru at 5:00 am where NO ONE spoke any English whatsoever and we were hoping that the Spanish speaking only drivers who David had arranged to pick us up and drive us 10 hours to Chachapoyas would recognize us.)  Anyway, we kind of wandered around for a few minutes and, through the crowd, I saw Kimmy walking towards us with a sign: “Mike Royal.”  (Yep, that’s me!)  Kimmy went to shake my hand but I just gave him a big hug.  It was a great relief to connect.  He walked us to a vehicle driven by his cousin, Mark, who served as our driver.  We threw our things in the back of the car and began our adventure through Manila.  I suppose it goes without saying, but I would never, ever want to attempt to drive a car through Manila.  It is all just too crazy.  I tried not to freak out at all the close calls with busses, bikers, other vehicles, and just let Mark focus on the road.  (He did not seem too concerned about any of it.  I wonder what kind of personal injury practice there is for Manila lawyers?  Ha.)  We had a great time visiting with Mark and Kimmy during our trip.  It was exciting to be in Manila.

            We kind of wandered around for a few minutes and, through the crowd, I saw Kimmy walking towards us with a sign: “Mike Royal.”  (Yep, that’s me!)  Kimmy went to shake my hand but I just gave him a big hug.  It was a great relief to connect.  He walked us to a vehicle driven by his cousin, Mark, who served as our driver.  We threw our things in the back of the car and began our adventure through Manila.  I suppose it goes without saying, but I would never, ever want to attempt to drive a car through Manila.  It is all just too crazy.  I tried not to freak out at all the close calls with busses, bikers, other vehicles, and just let Mark focus on the road.  (He did not seem too concerned about any of it.)  We had a great time visiting with Mark and Kimmy during our trip.  It was exciting to be in Manila.

Oh yeah, did I mention we got a flat tire?

           The drive to Angeles was a bit longer than I remembered.  As we got closer, we began to see more evidence of the recent typhoon and so affected this area just a week earlier, with large trees uprooted here and there.  When we arrived in Angeles, Mark and Kimmy began driving in circles and finally acknowledged they did not know where our hotel was located.  So, we stopped by the chapel in Angeles City, which I recognized as the same one we attended for Edsel's baptism in September 2005.  I saw the area in the front parking lot where we posed together for a group picture at that time.  That was pretty cool.  We finally found our hotel, checked in, and then began working feverishly to locate and watch all the BYU game highlights we could find.  By the way, we are staying at the same hotel where we stayed in 2005, so we already have some good memories here.  Maralea and I walked around later in the evening, talking about our lives together.  So much good has happened over the past three decades.  We have been very blessed.  We enjoyed a quiet dinner and went to bed pretty early.  (I think I was out by 8:00 pm.  Our goal was to stay up until bed time, without napping, so we could be on the right schedule.  Mission accomplished.)  We woke up early Monday morning and tried to get our bearings.  It is strange because I am constantly trying to do two things almost by the hour: 1) calculate the time difference between Manila and Las Vegas; and 2) calculate US dollars to pesos (42.70 pesos to a dollar).  So, today is a day of recovery as we prepare for our reunion with Jordan tomorrow.  So, we are here and Operation Recover Jordan is underway.

While we were busy traveling, Jordan was busy doing paperwork in the mission office.
(Can you find him in this sea of elders?)

The Royal soda reunion was sweet, too!

Taken during our September 2005 trip to Angeles, for Edsel's baptism.
It was pretty cool to visit the chapel again and see this important landmark of our lives.