The flight out of KUL on Tuesday was delayed and it finally took off at 1330 hours (scheduled departure was 12 noon) after an especially long taxiing down the runway. It started off as a bumpy journey but soon improved, thank God. Caught up with reading National Geographic magazine as my copy hadn’t arrived in the mail and other magazines, reasoning I could catch up with the in-flight movies on my way home, especially as the return flight was in the evening. Had venison for lunch, it was quite good and tasted a bit like beef [the accompanying mash potato tasted simply divine, I never knew it could taste sooo good].We landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 4.44 pm - some may consider this unlucky! - Manila time [Manila is in the same time zone as KL]. I was the second one of the plane and a good thing too as there were already long queues forming at the immigration counters with only four opened for visitors; the dozen or so other counters were for Balikbayan or those Filipinos working abroad returning home for holidays or for good. This was our first taster of a few other queues to come.
After clearing immigration, collecting luggage and clearing custom, we searched for a cab. I’d read that taking a metered cab to the city is better than taking a coupon cab – though of course those we approached said metered cabs are less safe as they are not ‘registered’ and should anything untoward happen to the passenger, the authority cannot trace the cab/cabbie down. We decided to take the risk and take a metered cab anyway.
The infamous Manila jam was already in full swing but I didn’t think it was any worse than KL to be honest. And anyway, we were too busy besieging our cabbie with questions that we hardly noticed the jam. We reached our hotel in Makati about half an hour later. By the way, there are seven cities that make up Metro Manila and Makati is the financial district and where the banks, insurance companies, stock exchange and hotels are. Check-in wasn’t too smooth and we finally set off at 7 pm to explore Glorietta, which is the nearest, err, shopping malls [for they were a few of them malls and all inter-connected] for dinner and possibly some light groceries.
The omnipresent guards were all around at the entrances to public places like hotels and shopping malls and well, in Manila, do as the locals do and just bear with the bag-poking. It only takes a few seconds actually and I didn’t find it annoying. Anyway, do the locals love ‘malling’! I guess it’s because malls are all air-conditioned, covered and connected that everyone just flocks there. And besides, one might as well hang out there after work instead of braving the traffic jam. We managed to find a stall selling sizzling fish at the food court; apart from that, Filipinos evidently and clearly love their pork.
Later that night, I was glued to the news of the floods in England. There was footage of people buying bottled water from supermarkets. Guess the latest Harry Potter novel was the last thing on their minds.
The conference was over a period of two days and the first day finished slightly late, no thanks to the moderator who wasn’t a stickler for time management. It was getting late and we went out again later that evening, yes to Glorietta to find some local souvenirs to bring home and dinner. The second day of the conference ended at 5.15 pm much to our joy as we already had a date... yes, with Glorietta again. More shopping and browsing and dinner was again sizzling fish [albeit a different kind] at the food court. It rained during the day on Wednesday and Thursday but the rain had stopped by the time the conference ended.
I suppose we could have tried venturing out of Makati but it was so safe in Makati and it was already late/getting dark by the time the conference ended and the roads still jammed that we just decided to just stick to Makati and
Glorietta. Being in Makati though had the effect of me feeling as if I was anywhere but in Manila with the modern amenities of a modern city and the modern and tall skycrapers - see, Manila was the second most destroyed city during the WW II after Warsaw. Well, apart from the traffic jam, the good-looking Filipinos with their Spanish names (how surreal to have an Asian look with a Spanish name!) and the Jeepneys ploughing the streets of course.Our flight out on Friday was in the afternoon so we had the morning to ourselves for, yes, more last-minute shopping [and the shopping delights of Makati didn’t fail us!]. The malls were all opened only from 10 am onwards and as we left at 9.30 am, we had to brave the already scorching morning sun and went to Balikbayan Handicrafts at Arnaiz Avenue before returning to the comforts and coolness of Glorietta more than an hour later. Lunch was had at a Vietnamese restaurant serving seafood noodle. We then returned to the hotel to finish up packing, perform prayers and check out.
We managed to get a cab back to the airport – it’s either you wait for a cab to deliver new guests or you have to avail the hotel’s limousine which would set you back by Php1700 (almost USD38!)! We reached the airport at 2, which was actually quite early as our flight was scheduled to depart at 4.50 pm... but of course there was the horrible queue to get your bags weighed the old-fashioned way before you can check in your bags. That itself took a painful half an hour if not more. Then after paying the Php750 departure tax or what they call terminal fee [which consists of Passenger Service Charge of Php550 and Security Development Charge (?!) of Php200], we joined yet more queues to get through immigration. This was easily another painful half an hour and we were just exhausted and knackered after all that queuing.
Then it rained ever so heavily... Manila is currently facing dry weather and drought so much so some dams have reported critical water levels. What little I read from the local dailies was that the authority was trying cloud-seeding over dams to spur some rain falls.
We finally boarded the plane slightly after 5 pm and it took off shortly after. The in-flight movie schedules had been changed to the August schedules despite it still being July so there went my plan of watching Premonition and Disturbia. Finally landed at KUL at 9 pm [and yes, after another long taxiing down the runway].
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