Manila trip - Part 1

It's just like my India.

Got back from my Manila trip last night. And even though the four days were crazily packed with training sessions, sometimes two a day, somehow I managed to squeeze in time to look around a bit too. And this is why trip, in spite of being a business trip, made it to Hopscotch, where I document my vacations.

As I'd mentioned in my earlier post, I was supposed to travel by myself. I was a bit nervous about stepping into an unknown country beyond the safe boundaries of Singapore, and expect strangers to pick me up and bundle me off to my hotel, but what the heck, I had no other choice.

My flight was around nine, so I had to get up at about 6:30 am. It felt like any other work day except that I was running half an hour late. I had checked in using the Internet, the night before. And I realised how much internet check-in rocks. I could change my seat by clicking on my preferred seat on a plan view of the plane. Very fascinating.

It had been such a long time since I took an SQ flight that I felt as delighted as a kid of four taking her first ever flight. The airhotesses were so wow. The food was so wow. Personal screens for every passenger with on-demand TV shows and movies. Wow. I watched some episodes of Scrubs and Will & Grace. Even watched a bit of Parineeta. The movie's review in the in-flight programme cracked me up. It had hindi sentences spelt out in English. I almost choked on my orange juice when I read "Shekhar aur Lolita ke pavitra prem par dhokhe aur durachaar ke kaale baadal mandrane lage!" Hahahahaha!


I clicked this pic from my aeroplane window. Just before landing, I could actually see shadows of the clouds on the water! Fascinating!


My first view of Manila City from the plane


Manila City - a closer view

I landed at Manila airport at about 1:30 pm or so. The long queue at Immigration brought back memories of trips to India. It took me about 30 minutes to go past Immigration. (New found respect for Singapore's Changi Airport again!)

The guy at Customs looked at me, smiled and said, "You Indian?"

"Yes" I said.

"Very beautiful." He remarked.

I wasn't convinced. I wonder why he had to confirm the nationality before complimenting the looks. Hmmm...

I walked out to platform ABC (?!) and waited for big guy Paulo to turn up. The platform was right next to the road, and vehicles often had to make many rounds to pick someone up because security did not allow parking or waiting near the platforms. I had to wait about fifteen minutes before Paulo made his appearance. And I saw a sign that solved the mystery behind platform ABC. Apparently, people whose last names started with the letters A, B or C, were requested to wait at platform ABC. So yes, they had platforms 'DEF' and so on.


ABC platform

I had not yet reached the point of freaking out when Paulo made his appearance. You know how when someone describes someone else to you but when you finally meet them, you're disappointed? Like when someone says "Girl X is damn pretty!" and you meet her and realise that she's ok ok chalega types only? Well, that's how I expected the Paulo thing to turn out. Big guy. Yeah yeah how big can he get?

But boy, was I in for a suprise. Paulo was a big guy (picture on Hopscotch). Massive. Huge. Collosal. Sporting the face of a cute Sumo wrestler, he must have easily weighed more than 150 kgs. Like he said once jovially, "I got into an elevator and the overload warning beep went off. I stepped out, and two guys got in, and it did not beep. So embarrassing for me."

So I was ushered into this van where I met the others -- agents and agents of agents. My Marketing Manager had told me, "Don't worry, they're a very friendly bunch. You'll have fun, because they're all our age!" Self-confessed age-ist that I am, I wasn't too happy with him using the words "our age" since he has two kids already, but when I met the others, I realised he was right, they were all my age. And one of them even turned out to be my classmate in my first year at NTU (of course I did not recognise him, as the Main Lecture Theatre at NTU houses a thousand students at a time.) But it was cool to see another engineer who was not an engineer! I instantly warm up to people like that.

After introductions, Paulo asked me if I was very tired 'cos he had big plans to show me around. I told him I wasn't. We drove around for a bit, and he pointed out a few things on the roads.


Manila City welcomes me!


Every cab has 'How's my driving?' printed on it with a telephone number to call.

Traffic in Manila is crazy. Reminded me of India many many times. Finally, after a long long journey, we reached the hotel.

"If you're not tired, Sayesha, I want to take you shopping! You know why?" said Paulo.

"Errr... why?"

"Because today is your free day! Tomorrow you have two presentations, and there is no time to shop!" He looked disturbed at the thought of it.

"Okay! I just need fifteen minutes to freshen up, and then we can go!"

We'd reached the hotel. It was bang opposite the US embassy, and right next to the bay. Nice location.


The hotel where I stayed. Notice the li'l Starbucks tucked in the corner?

I was really suprised to see how big my room was! One queen-sized bed and an extra single bed all to myself? Woohoo!


My room - huge and cosy

The room had four windows that offered four different views. Though I did not have a window that directly faced the bay, but if I contorted my body enough, I could catch a glimpse from my third window. Coming up later, beautiful pictures of the sunset I took from that window.


View of the city from one of my four windows


View from second window - errr... back of an old factory

I freshened up and chilled in the room for a while. I was supposed to meet the guys at 3 pm at Starbucks. I decided to sms some friends in Singapore, and to my horror, realised that my global roaming wasn't exactly working. I could receive calls and smses but I could not make any calls or send any messages. Darn!

I'd been told that we were going to this place called '168 Mall', which was supposed to be a haven of really cheap stuff, but it was not a very safe area. So I was asked not to wear any jewellery or expensive looking clothes, and not to carry any bag or wallet with me. So I put on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, tucked my money in one pocket and my one-way phone in the other, and we set off.

We had lunch at the Jollibee foodcourt, where I tucked in a neat Thai meal coupled with mango shake. The mangoes in Manila are simply fabulous. The agent told me that apparently the local Jollibee brand is so successful that MBA schools use it as a case study. We walked around the food court and saw many different kinds of weird stuff. 1-day-old roasted chicks. Chicken embryo fritters. A bit freaky, even for a non-vegetarian.

After lunch, we drove to the 168 Mall. On the way, we passed Chinatown, and Paulo told me that the little area controls half the economy of not just Manila, but the entire country!

The '168 Mall' was truly phenonmenal. There were so many floors and so many shops, that in spite of spending a couple of hours in there, we managed to cover only about 10% of the shops! And I had barely spent half a day in Manila but I ended up spending half of my total money in that mall!

The shopkeepers had such a funny way of bargaining. In India, they would give you a price and you haggle and then you pretend to walk away, and they will run after you with a counter-offer. In Manila, they'd say, "300 pesos for these shoes. Last price 270!" Whoa, girl, give me a chance to bring down the 300, will ya? Are you saying that my barganing skills are so hopeless that you have to help me bargain against yourself?? Sheesh!

The shops actually started closing down around 6:30 pm (good for my wallet!), which I found rather surprising. Hurried smses were exchanged with people in our group who had wandered off to their areas of interest, to assemble at one place. As Paulo and I waited for the other girls to finish their shopping, I asked him if there was an Internet Cafe I could go to.

"There is, but I would not advise it."

"Why not?"

"Kidnap." He said calmly.

"Kidnap? You mean I would get kidnapped?"

"Yes."

"But why??"

(At this point, I felt like Russel Peters when he said, "Who the hell hires an Indian slave? Do I look physically ready to do hard labour?")

Seriously, who the hell kidnaps an Indian, unless we're talking Lakshmi Mittal? Do I look capable of paying any kind of ransom??

"Well, to the kidnappers, we locals are worthless. They only go for the Chinese and the Indians. They're the minority and they're really rich!"

"Wow..." I was still trying to absorb that bit of information.

"So I'll advise you to be careful. You don't exactly blend in, you know!" He smiled. It was true, there were very few Indian faces around. In fact, every time I bought something, they'd ask me curiously, "Please don't mind my asking, but miss, what nationality are you?"

"Indian." I'd say.

"Ah! Indian!" The smile of recognition.

Finally, everyone was together, and we decided to head for dinner. It's amazing how hungry shopping can make you. Paulo took us to this amazing outdoor seafood place, which had a seafood market right next to it. You had to pick the seafood and buy it, and then take it to the restaurant of your choice which would cook it for you according to your specifications. We hogged on crabs and prawns under the beautiful night sky, with live bands playing nice romantic numbers. More mango juice followed. I could feel my loyalty switching from my beloved orange juice to Manila mangoes.

Paulo's girlfriend had joined us, and she wasn't as big-sized as I'd thought she'd be, in order to match him. She did not eat much and mentioned to me that she was dieting. Paulo quipped, "Yes, she should. She's getting very fat."

"She's getting fat, eh? Look at yourself, Paulo!" Someone teased as Paulo tucked in crab after crab after crab.

"But I am a growing boy!" He protested innocently. Growing boy, indeed! Hahahaha!

After dinner, one of the agents D took me around the fruit market. The fruit-sellers seemed very intrigued by my sudden appearance. They called out to me with "Miss, you from India? First time Manila?" When I nodded, they offered me free fruit to taste! After hogging on the free and tiny Senorita bananas (that too when I normally hate bananas!), baby mangoes and juicy pomelos, D bought me some of the stuff I liked, and we joined the group again.

We showed them the tiny fruits we'd bought and I made one of my classic 'sound-right-only-in-my-head' kind of statements, "These fruits are so cute you won't want to eat them!", getting me some weird stares from the group.

Take a look!


Senorita banana - as small as my little finger!


Baby mango

After dinner, it was time for drinks. The guys got beer, and one of the agents asked me if I wanted any alcohol. I was about to decline politely when Paulo furiously jumped in ahead of me with a decisive "No one offers my speaker alcohol! She has a presentation early morning tomorrow!" He said. Wo! Easy there, boy.

But on some levels, I realised how alike he and I were. Dead serious about work, and dead serious about having fun. And never ever mixing the two.

Anyway, I did order a drink. Sick of mango juice, I found new appreciation for Pepsi Lite (is it me or does it really taste better than Pepsi original?)

Paulo soon got rather high, and started singing along with the live band. It was a hilarious yet heart-warming sight to see a guy of that size looking at his girlfriend with such helpless love in his eyes, playing with her hair and singing old romantic numbers. I believe that there's nothing quite as romantic as a guy flirting with his own girlfriend/wife. It was funny how Paulo would complain that he did not get to sit with his girlfriend in the van, as due to his size he was always forced to sit in front with the driver, to make room for people at the back.
Finally, we were done for the day and made our way back to the hotel, as it was quite late and I had to get up early the next day. On our way, we passed the bay and noticed how it had undergone a total transformation. The night scene was fabulous, with a live band playing every two blocks. It was noisy, and yet, somehow very peaceful.

They dropped me off and I made my way back to my room, utterly exhausted and ready to collapse on my bed.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

Coming up in part two - a grand welcome for 'yong Sayesha' and how I almost lost my respiratory system. Preview pictures on Hopscotch.