The Journey from the UK, and Manila
Considering it was February, the weather was very kind when I departed Birmingham for my forthcoming jaunt to the Phils early doors on Friday the 15th. There was no rain or wind and the temperature was well above average.
I left my house at 3am via taxi to catch the 3.45 coach to Heathrow from Digbeth. The journey took about two and a half hours which gave me ample time to check in for my 10.30am flight to Kuwait City.
I met Bob in the queue at the baggage counter in Heathrow. He was a year off retirement and disillusioned with life in the UK and the only thing that kept him here was his elderly mother whom he cared for and now he was off to Thailand for six weeks to see his wife and young child, a trip he does twice a year.
Bob was outspoken and made his feelings clear about the influx of foreigners coming to the UK despite us being in close proximity to different nationals as we puffed away in the smoking zone outside Terminal 4.
Was this Dedworth I was speaking to? I soon concluded that it wasn't. There was no direct mention of trough feeders, pikeys, sickbags or that Tony Blair was a slippery moron throughout our conversations and anyway he had Thai connections not Filipino.
Having heard the not so brilliant stories about Kuwait Airways I was a tad apprehensive about flying with them. The entertainment system was pretty pathetic and came with a remote control that was welded to the side of the seat so you couldn’t see the correct buttons to press. We must have been halfway across Europe before I figured out which buttons did what. I shouldn’t have bothered as there were only three movies available and they were in Arabic.
The seats on the plane were adorned in a green patterned fabric and every shade imaginable but they were comfortable, more so than Cathay Pacific in my opinion. The legroom was ample and the food was palatable so everything was not all bad.
The airport in Kuwait City is quite nice, better than Riyadh, but it does have misleading flight information. On my way back to the UK, my flight was KU101 to London departing at 0950 but all I could see on the screen was KU101 to New York departing at 0920. I went to the gate and was told it was my flight and it was going to New York via London. Quite confusing!
The wait in Kuwait was around 4-5 hours but it passed by quickly as I was speaking with Bob throughout. He was now busy berating the Swiss over in Thailand for being miserable and humourless but he did talk about other stuff like football too, not just about other nationalities.
As we boarded the flight to Manila I bid farewell to Bob and he gave me his number and I took my seat at the back of the plane. Next to me was a middle aged Pinay that lived in London and used to reside in the same city as Maria does now, San Fernando in Pampanga. Small world!
As the plane hovered close to Manila around 4pm waiting to land I had the opportunity to take a wonderful aerial photo of Mariveles and the Camaya Coast in Bataan. Unfortunately my camera was playing up and by the time I reached for my phone to take a picture the opportunity was missed.
I arrived at NAIA just as another flight did so the queues at immigration were quite lengthy. Once through I noticed my bags on the carousel straight away and I was first down the ramp to the crowds squashed behind barriers in the waiting area. There were no over zealous bag snatching taxi drivers this time, just Maria, her mum and her younger sister to greet me.
We hailed a white taxi outside the airport to take us to our hotel, The Shogun Suites, also in Pasay, which cost under 200 peso’s. It might not be the best hotel I’ve stayed at in the Philippines, but it’s well run and professional and the rooms are of decent standard despite having no windows.
The best thing about Shogun though is the rooftop, which provides panoramic views of Manila and Makati City, and has a swimming pool too up top. The hotel is located right next to EDSA train station meaning easy access to Manila and Caloocan. The Mall of Asia is not far away as well.
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I continued the trend from previous visits of not succumbing to jet lag but maybe that’s because I don’t sleep at a set time when I’m at home. I tend to go to bed when I’m tired, just like I eat when I’m hungry. So instead of crashing out, it was off to the rooftop bar to get a much needed SML and to enjoy our first evening in the Phils together since June.
We spent Sunday morning at Ocean Park just off Roxas Boulevard which included a sea lion show as well as live exhibits of different sea creatures such as sharks and jellyfish. In the afternoon we headed out to Valenzuela from our hotel in Pasay to see some of the family. We took the train from EDSA to Momento in Caloocan which took about 30 minutes and cost only 15 peso’s each, then caught a jeepney to Valenzuela.
We returned early evening for our last night at Shogun. Tomorrow we would catch a 5.30am flight to Bacolod for a week in Negros.
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Originally Posted by grahamw48
