Manila

My first biz trip and first personal trip to Manila! I was quite unprepared but I just know that there's a big mall beside my hotel with all the big brands.

I only had to work for 2 hours and listen to my colleague conduct training for another 2 hours but the preparation work before the trip took 2 weeks -_- now I just why people don't like to travel for work. So work on Friday and Manila exploring on Sat and Sun.

So we flew SQ on a thurday afternoon and guess what. My long lost friend Standley was working as crew on the flight! LOL it was the first time I saw him in a long while and first time my friend serving me on board. Everything about the flight was very average, they need to improve their standards.

But I got a lot of freebies from him and a love letter from the crew heh.

Luckily my company booked a car from the hotel and everything was great. The service level was amazing I felt like a VIP all the way.

I always wanted to use this brand of toiletries and finally this hotel provided free flow heh. Anyway Toshi and I had a great Spanish dinner with wine.

The next day was working day, we walked to the office and work... until 4pm end of my working time.

The typhoon came and it was raining so heavily and there was no grab to the hotel, so I waited till the rain slowed a little and walked back to the hotel to finish my work. Now I understand why people love to wear bathrobe in hotels. I was doing that while working on my laptop and it was so comfy urgh I didn't want to leave. 

It was raining so heavily so I had a nice local dinner nearby, I didn't know what I ordered but it was not bad, bought some beer back to the hotel to drink.

The breakfast in the hotel was like lunch or dinner buffet, they even had rice, main courses, sushi and noodle station etc. I was always so full after breakfast but I still went to the gym coz typhoon.

And then J came and we had lunch, he drove me to buy my souvenirs from Kultura and then I went back to the hotel to put down stuff, dinner, then done. It was halloween night but I guess some parties were cancelled because of the typhoon. 

I read that flights were cancelled because of the typhoon and I was so worried because I must get on my flight the next day, if not I would miss my flight to Japan, and luckily Sunday was super sunny and the weather was so good. I was thinking of what to do but I took a grab to BGC and did a 90min massage which was so good, then went back to pack, and the driver sent me off to the airport.

Manila airport sucks. You need to queue for security before you get into the airport, queue for check in counter, queue for another security check and queue for customers. My flight was delayed 3 hours and I only got home at 1am. The lady sitting beside me was coughing all the way and in the end I was also coughing by the time I reached sg. But I'm so grateful my flight wasn't cancelled.

The locals in Manila are really really nice and I was treated like a VIP all the way. Those working in sg gave them a bad name. 

I enjoyed the trip, if there wasn't typhoon it would have been better. Till next time! And off to my second home!