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STRANDED. Estonain Roman Trofimov boards a flight departing the Philippines after being trapped in NAIA for 110 days due to grounded flights and lockdown restrictions. Photo from Trofimov's Facebook

MANILA, Philippines – Only a flight an hour and a half long separated Estonian Roman Trofimov from the end of his vacation, a trip he had spent nearly a year saving up for.

Wanting to take a break from his daily routine, Trofimov had considered traveling to Thailand or the Philippines for a chance to distance himself from Estonia, whose bustling city life had left him feeling tired and stressed out.

He settled on Cebu after weeks of doing research, and purchased a ticket for a flight from Russia to Thailand, and later Manila.

“This was my dream,” he said.

But Trofimov would never get past the immigration gates of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3, after arriving in the Philippines on March 20.

The Philippine government had closed the country’s borders to foreigners in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which by then had escalated into a pandemic. And what he had hoped would just be a few days’ wait stretched into 110 days in limbo.

Trofimov finally boarded a plane back to Estonia on Wednesday, July 4.

Speaking to Rappler from the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, where he waited for a connecting flight to his country, Trofimov recounted his ordeal waiting weeks to know when he could return home.

“For the first weeks, (there) was terrible lack of information. I didn’t know why I was there. I arrived as a tourist and I was thrown on the floor and (told) I can go nowhere. I can’t return (to Estonia) and I cannot fly out to other countries. I didn’t understand what was going on. I’ve been treated very harshly,” Trofimov said.

In several Facebook posts, Trofimov documented his ordeal, going as far back as his first night in Manila when he went through Immigration and passport control.