it’s my third day in the city today, and to catch up with the pictures, let me begin with some shots taken from the very loooong plane ride to minneapolis from manila. i settled with an itinerary like this: manila → somewhere-in-the-air-for-a-while → manila → tokyo → seattle → minneapolis-st. paul. the total travel time is a gruesome 18 hours, 16 hours of which is in flight.
japan airline is the best economy class seat i’ve ever had (so much better than cathay). i sat on the 2nd level of a 747, food was a tasty bowl of japanese oyakudon, complete with dessert and a cup of ice cream! it’s heavenly spacious with my own private cabinet on my left side (so it’s easier to get things compared to getting it from the overhead cabin) which also works as a table put your things on top of it during the flight (like books, pillow, mp3). the stewardess are japanese (cute) hehe and they even wore oversized japanese apron when serving food! really courteous! the safety video instruction, unusually, is in computer animation, and announcement are done in nihonggo, english, and tagalog.
northwest airline. nothing but… bummer!!
south-east asia → philippines → metro manila
delayed and cancelled flights are not too bad afterall. northwest paid for a night each in dusit thani, and manila hotel, inclusive of buffet breakfast, lunch, and dinner! a good way to start earning pounds! hehe
dusit thani, in makati, has this thai-inspired architecture. rooms are nice, but for some reasons, i got a smoking room! the smell’s a bit pungent even though i don’t smoke because they were all around the carpets. food was great! and since it’s in makati, there’s something to do around while i waited for my flight bookings. i stayed here for a saturday night, and expecting i would get a flight on sunday morning, i headed to the airport dawn of sunday only to find out that i still have to stay for one more night in manila! this time it’s manila hotel along roxas boulevard.
manila hotel is old, yet grandeur. it’s the oldest hotel in the philippines built in 1909 to rival Malacanang Palace. the chandeliers in the lobby are enormous, and the live chamber music is pleasing. in the middle of manila, facing manila bay where i lost my camera before, i avoided going out at all and spent time sleeping in my room, eating lunch and breakfast, shower, and took some pictures of manila bay coastline. it has a 13th floor (in fact, i stayed on this floor), which added to the scary atmosphere of being alone and the historically aged building.
more pics
