PHILLIPINES AIRLINES - BEYOND THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Returning to my roots as a tight arse backpacker to get to the US and A from Bangkok I ended up on a Phillipines airline flight which went via Manila, then Vancouver, by bus to Seattle and then on to Denver. Now I have done some long haul flights in my time, but perhaps I was a little out of practice, or a little anxious about getting out of the Phillipines, but the PA fight from Manila to Vancouver was the worst flight of my life - for a number of reasons.
It all began on the flight from Bangers to Manila, having for once remembered to order a vegetarian meal, I was quite pleased with myself until the meal was delivered, and I removed the foil lid from the main serving. Having started my international globetrotting in the 1990's - I was spared the culinary nightmares airlines delivered in the early days, of which I often heard the old hands talk about. Clearly PA did not participate in this revolution, and I was served some rice, bean and other unidentifiable by sight or taste gunk. (Really I should have been forewarned as on an overnight bus ride in Thailand I had the bad luck to sit net to an Irishwoman just back from the Phillipines who went on for hour after hour about how bad the food in the Phillipines was. At the time I thought she was another winging backpacker but as it turns out I could have avoided a dose of giardia if I had of taken her a little more seriously)
Anyway being unable to resist free food - strictly the fare is only for carrying you from point A to point B so the food is free - I somehow forced it alll down - mistake number 1. Thankfully good old iron guts got me through that night and the next day - but when I got back on the plane for the leg to Vancouver and meal time came around - guess what I was served up - yep the same muck as before. And guess what I did again - yep, unable to resist the free food, I forced it down again - mistake number 2. I spent the next 12 hours stuck in an airplane with some of the most painful stomach cramps I have ever had, my stomach bloated up and despite numerous visits to the toilet I just wasn't able to get any relief. The aches were so painful that I struggled to make the distance to the toilet and was unable to get a wink of shut eye - instead was forced to endure the best Hollywood could dish up - a crappy movie about a high school gym teacher and a crappy movie about a magic emporium - both made me want to go to the toilet - but all to no avail. A day later when I arrived in the US the mysterious yet offensive smell that seemed to be following me everywhere I went, no matter what I ate, clearly indicated I had a bad case of giardia.
So not only did PA give me complimentary food but they also gave me, for free, a stomach borne disease. Stand warned, Phillipine Airlines is likely to give you the shits