I had been advised to get to Saigon airport early on 26th June, since they had no idea what time the plane would be able to fly from Manila, assuming that Mount Pinatubo would allow this at all. So I got up at the crack of dawn, checked out and went in search of some transport.

The first taxi driver I found outside the hotel was apparently somewhat drunk, and since I didn’t want a repeat of the Phnom Penh incident I immediately got another one. Many of the motorbike taxi and cyclo drivers in Saigon were late middle aged, and would speak good French, having learnt it as children under colonial rule. Even in Cambodia I had occasionally used French with older people.

I duly reached the airport without incident, except that the driver tried to overcharge me. At the check-in desk I was relieved to hear that the plane was on its way. The check-in and immigration was a case-study in job creation. There were an endless stream of bureaucratic processes and each process had a queue of passengers, and a few officials doing whatever needed to be done (or in all likelihood didn’t really need to be done). Fortunately none of these processes involved catching people who overstayed their visa…

The X-ray machine didn’t have the normal sign on top saying “Safe for Film” – instead it had a sign on top saying “Not Safe for Film”!! I took care to take my films out for hand inspection… Finally I was climbing the stairs to the PAL (Philippine Air Lines) plane which, being an A310 Airbus, seemed incredibly modern and luxurious compared with the Antonov’s in Laos and Cambodia. And no, it didn’t fill with clouds of steam as we took off…

As we started the descent into Manila, the huge ash cloud from Mount Pinatubo was visible as a dark smudge on the horizon, running from right to left…

Apparently the ash cloud is over 35 km high. We were well south – nearly 100 km from Pinatubo, but the ash cloud was clearly visible even at that distance. Apparently the eruption of Pinatubo is the largest volcanic eruption this century in terms of the volume of ash that has been sent into the atmosphere.

Manila was a hectic and buzzing city, which reiterated to what extent the backwards capitals of Indochina are totally stuck in a timewarp. I headed down to the Ermita area just south of Manila centre. I found a rather substandard hotel, which was noisy and had a karaoke bar underneath. I felt feverish again, so went to a nearby clinic. Here a sympathetic doctor called Dr Nerissa organised some tests for me.

I had an unpleasant night and in the morning (27th June) decided that I should stay somewhere a bit more comfortable until I’m recovered. So I moved hotels to one which was 3 times the price, but still affordable. The advantage of the new one is that there is room service in case I feel too lousy to go out to get food.

My insides were getting worse and in the afternoon I returned to Dr Nerissa’s clinic for more tests. I was told to carry on taking the Erythromycin that I’m already taking, so I went back to my hotel and bed.

The whole of the following day (28th June) was spent in bed, reading “Saigon” and generally feeling weak and horrible.