February '08

Off to Hong Kong!

We packed up the night before, so we were in no hurry to get up in the morning. Decided to give the hotel breakfast a miss (again) and headed to Starbucks for the last time. By the time we showed up to work, morning tea was mostly gone ... We took a few happy snaps, then headed off for lunch at C2 in Shangri-la Plaza.

We were running late and traffic looked bad, but managed to hop onto a taxi with our lugguage. We had a good and impatient driver, who was honking constantly. The driver even stopped for a leak by the road. Miraculously, we found managed to make it to the airport just on time and we were rushed thru security ...

Once we landed at HK we made our way to the hotel shuttle bus, where we were the sole passengers. Half an hour later we arrived at Harbour Plaza Resort City, which was luxurious compared to where we were staying for the past 2 weeks in Ortigas. First of all, non-smoking was truly non-smoking. The room was very clean, and we had a mini-kitchen, a living area as well as a bedroom. The fluffy bathrobe was a nice touch too. The service was quick and efficient ... we requested a travel adapter and minutes later it was delivered to our door.

We were buggered so told Jason we'd meet him tomorrow instead. We found a 7-11 and bought some cup noodles.

Movie with work people

We handed over more than 5kg of dirty laundry to be washed, after our laundry stockpiled over the long weekend.

Later that day we watched Vantage Point with people from work, then dinner with Cami and Vernz at Sumo Sam.

Working on a public holiday

A public holiday was declared less than a week before the actual day, so we didn't get round to arranging anything. And there was too much work anyway ... so Muffin and I showed up to work to an empty office ...

Muffin had the runs from something he ate yesterday, so I didn't get to eat much -- not even the free brekky in the hotel :(

But we managed to have dinner with Erik at the Korean BBQ place near work anyway, and it was still as reliable / good as it were 1.5 years ago.

Had our pants washed at the hotel since our usual laundry place was shut and we were running out of clean clothes (Muffin was already wearing the same underwear for two days in a row ...)

Eating and more eating ...

As usual, we headed to the breakfast buffet in the hotel for breakfast (and two rolls of bread, a soup, and 3 slices of banana bread). Then we headed to work to use the internet for a bit. The internet stopped working so we headed to Starbucks and purchased some credits for their internet.

Cami dropped into Starbucks and we headed to Shangi-la Plaza for lunch at Cravings (I had a relatively gross tuna patty sandwich with soggy chips, Muffin had caesar salad and Cami had spags.

We tried to do some shopping but couldn't find Muffin any underwear.

We headed back to the hotel to swim to work up an appetite for dinner ...

... which was at Kaiseki in Fort Bonificio. Dinner was good, but the Okonomiyaki made us too full.

Nevertheless, we managed to squeeze in some chocolatey desserts in Xocolat.

Another day at the Malls

We had booked ourselves in for a couple's Aromatherapy Massage and facial at the Spa at Podium.

The massage was just what we needed to unwind and undo our stiff shoulders ... but the facial was painful.I was glad for the cotton placed on my eyes because I was crying from pain!

Well oiled, we headed to Robinson's for a movie -- Untraceable -- which was entertaining because it's about the internet.

Nice views

We came back to the hotel for our daily swim and saw this nice sunset from our room ...

 

Later that night we had drinks with some folks from work ... Muffin's tuna sisig came with some squirming maggots ...

During the week we watched Spiderwick Chronicals at Shangri-la Plaza.

Shopping ...

Like all resident Manila dwellers, we flocked to the malls on the weekend. Today we bought some underwear and watched Jumper.

Time to look respectable ...

Time passes really quickly when you're busy -- we were still jetlagged and going to bed pretty early, and waking up at ridiculously early times. In this week alone we've eaten at UCC cafe like 4 times for breakfast, and had Maccas for brekky once ...

We decided to have a haircut today, after 1.5 years of avoiding hairdressers. On Jhoanna's recommendation, we headed to FIX at the Podium.

 

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

 

Later that night we went to Seaside with Erik, Jericho and Cami for dinner ...

 

And we ate all the seafood a Londoner deprived of prawns would eat ...

The night's entertainment was provided by a talented She-Male who was equally capable in singing male and female voices!

Smogcity

Next morning, we woke up to this view of Manila ...

 

We were up waaay too early and was really hungry. We set out to look for food ... but all the malls were still closed. Luckily UCC was open so my first meal in Manila was a breakfast omelette (while Muffin had a ridiculously sweet chicken sausage with garlic rice).

After that we hit Mega Mall -- watched Aliens vs. Predator with an unappreciative crowd (they wouldn't stop talking throughout the movie, even when a loudmouthed American shouted at them to shut the f@#^ up). Then we bought some clothes that would allow us to blend in at work ...

We bought some groceries and headed back ... had instant cup noodles for dinner ...

Score!

Looks like extra-late check-in has some benefit ... we scored business class seats for the HKG-MNL leg of the journey, to be seperated from the rest of a peasants by a curtain! I was worried initially because I thought we were gonna be split up for the flight. There's no going back now -- the seats were adjustable in various directions and we had proper cutlery, refreshments on boarding (I had some scrumptious kiwifruit mocktail), and salt and pepper shakers!

Alas it was only a short trip -- 1.5 hours later we'd landed in Manila. The benefits of not being in peasant-class is you get let off the plane first! :) Didn't make any difference tho ... it took ages for the bags to be unloaded ...

We cabbed to the office, then were shown to the boss' apartment (where we would be staying for a week).

Off to Manila (again)

It was time for another work-sponsored trip to the Phils. Seasoned travellers that we are now, I think I've got my packing skills down pat. Except Muffin undid my "travelling light" efforts and brought TWO pairs of shoes with him, several books that I know he WON'T be reading (again. They're almost the same books he packs every time that he doesn't read), and a grapefruit (so now we had to go to the lane for people with stuff to declare).

Anyway, flight was at 6pm. For the first time in my life I didn't attempt to check in at the airport early. As a result we were the LAST passengers to check in (they were closing the counter when we got there!). So, we rushrushrushed all the way thru customs, security and the gate. Oh, they tried to offer us £100 each and free accommodation to take a later flight because they overbooked.

Cathay Pacific didn't offer non-lactose meal (huh! I thought the majority of Asians were lactose intolerant?) so I was pretty uncomfortable after eating the plane food ... and the changes in cabin pressure didn't help one bit ...

We had great seats (for economy standards, anyway) ... row 55 on a 747 has EXTRA legroom because it's the first row. The onboard entertainment sucked tho ... the movies weren't on demand :(

There was a very demanding Honkie chick sitting next to us on the aisle. She rang for the flight assistant several times and they brought her instant noodles (!) etc etc.

Happy Chinese New Year!

While most Chinese families would be having an extensive Chinese feast over the new year, we had KEBABS. At least we were with family (cousin).

Curry

Since we weren't going to be around for Keith's farewell, we had an early dinner gathering downstairs of work.

The internet is for ...

We watched Avenue Q with Adrian and his brother -- pretty funny! Tho initially I couldn't decide whether to focus my attention on the puppets or the puppeteers (who are sometimes actors).