Manila Trip (Day 1, Feb 18 2011)

Day 1

My very first outstation trip of the year. Yes!! I was so looking forward to it. Firstly because my wonderful and awesome MA friends are there and secondly, there is Mr Tony Fernandes to thank for such cheap flight tickets (but I'm still dissatisfied that I had to pay my airport tax when I returned. Anyway, that's a separate story, I will take it offline with you Mr Fernandes).

Rina and I woke up as though we had to sahur (Malay language for eating like there's no tomorrow during the fasting month). Well, Rina had it worse cuz I think she woke up at 3am and only managed to get a 2 hours' worth of shut-eye prior to that. As for me, I have my house location to thank for. Only 20 minutes away from LCCT. Ah, the little things in life :)

Anyway, flight was at 7:25am via AK662. Reached there around 5:30am and went for check-in. Flight departure was delayed for 30min or so (damn you AA!), so obviously that would translate to us reaching Philippines (from hereon shall be known as PH). So when we reached around 11:30am or so, I texted Teddy (our multi-role-playing MA friend, as shall be demonstrated later).

We landed at this airport which is like 2 hours away from Manila city (kill me!) and which would also obviously mean that Teddy had to drive ALLLLL the way to the airport and brave through the 2 hours journey back to Manila as well. Now, this is the moment where I have to express my utmost gratitude for such wonderful hospitality shown by my friends. *sob sob*

Anyway, when we landed, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Was Lotte pulling my leg when she told me that the weather in Manila has been around 25 degrees or so?" Man!!! It was scorching hot and I could see poor Teddy running towards his parked car like 200 meters away (with no umbrella!).

So, yea, Teddy eventually came to pick up our luggage (and us) and we drove back to Manila city. Wow, if you thought jams in KL were bad, you are absolutely wrong. Come to Manila and experience the joys of driving in bad jams and bad drivers (with offensive/ defensive driving skills). But the horror of being stuck in a jam wasn't that bad cuz there were some pretty interesting sights to be marvelled at. Reference below.

Yan: Oh wow, banana plants

Teddy: Nope, those are just grass (said nonchalantly with a Tagalog accent)

Yan: Okayyy.... (silence for the next 5 minutes)

Rina and I in the car, while Teddy went to answer nature's call.

Ahh, coloured air. We have that in KL as well.

Billboards. Like really, lots of 'em.

They are HUGE.

....and distracting.

Now you see what I mean?

This is their version of LRT/KTM/monorail.

Cheap and widely available.

After taking like 20.5 light years to reach the Manila city, we headed straight to Eastwood Mall (which is like super near to the Citibank Consumer building). Went to one of the restaurants for Thai food.

I love Citibank.

Ooo la la.

Waiters and waitresses going the extra mile; performing to a song and dance. In fact, I was made to understand that the traffic policeman do that as well. Too bad I did not have a chance to witness it.

Pretty cool huh?

Prior to going to PH, friends have warned me to be careful due to the recent incidents that took place in Manila (bombing, kidnapping, etc). However, when I reached to the city, I got the exact opposite feeling. So for those that are having doubts about going to PH, here is when I do my sales pitch: GO! You would feel so much more at home than you are in Malaysia or anywhere else in Asia. People there are super friendly and they speak very sweet-sounding English. I could not have been more amazed by their hospitality. It is really indeed PH (Philippine Hospitality), unlike some stupid-ass country that claims to provide that kind of hospitality as well. You know what I'm talking about.

So yea, back to my story. In the midst of having our Thai food (can you believe it? came all the way for Thai food? the irony), Lotte showed up and after that, we proceeded to this mall for a little shopping :)

OH MAI GAWD. You would not believe how HUGE their malls are. This mall that I went to (and it's not even the biggest one yet) was seriously huge. Probably twice the size of Mid Valley. There was so many of everything, dresses, tops, shoes, bags, this that knick knack paddy whack. I bought 3 baby cardigans and a pair of slippers. Guess how much were the cardigans?

When I went to the cashier to pay, I was again WOW-ed by such amazing hospitality and customer service. There were 3 ladies at the cashier; 2 of the ladies were looking through my cardigan, I was like "Come on people, just get on with it already. I have more shopping to do!"

Then suddenly one of the ladies said to me, "Excuse me ma'am, there is a slight defect (some loose threads forming a 1mm hole on my pink cardigan) on this cardigan. Would you still like to proceed?". That moment, I felt like I was the Queen of the world, getting such VIP treatment. Then I asked her back, "Erm, is there another spare at the rack? Do you want me to go to the rack and get it?". She replied, "No ma'am, just wait here. We will get it for you."

As I recollect on my experience that day, I thought to myself, "Where on earth in KL can you see our cashiers doing that?" In fact, they would even try to hide the defect and quickly try to sell it off. Our Malaysian customer service staff can definitely learn something from this experience.

Anyway after all that, we headed to Greenbelt to have dinner and also to meet up with the rest of the MAs.

Yes, we came all the way to Manila to have Thai food. I bet that's the irony that Pol's considering as he flashes us with that smile of his. But food's great, no complaints :)

We The Kings performing at Greenbelt. The day could not have been any better :)

After chilling and catching up over dinner for more than 4 hours (I think!) at the Thai place, we decided to call it quits for the night.

Tomorrow's gonna be sight-seeing day! Yee-hah!