Month: April 2018

Our flight was at 2.30pm and the bus came to pick us up from the hotel at 11.30am. We got a call in our room from the front desk to let us know that the bus was waiting downstairs for us. After a quick shower and change, we were on the bus and on our way back to the airport.

Some day time shots on the way.

Even though the main roads were clear, the driver decided to take a ‘short cut’ to get the highway …

Ok, back on track.

And back in the departures level.

Damn, that’s a tall ceiling.

We already have our boarding passes for the CAN-YYZ leg but I wanted to see what the F/J check in counters looked like. This was one of the check-in areas.

On the other side of the departure hall, I found the VIP check-in for CZ for F/J customers.

Finding our gate.

Heading through the immigration and security checkpoints.

Sneaky pic once we were through security.

Back at the CZ lounge but this time, we turned left. 🙂

Don’t you dare tell me to go right …

The dining area right behind the front desk. To the left of this picture are stairs that would take you up to the lounge area.

I seem to have a bad habit to taking pictures backward i.e. from the destination going back to where I started from. This pictures are starting from within the lounge making my way back to the entrance.

A small self area in the back but it was a snack area plus regular soft drinks and water. The hot food was downstairs.

Looking out from the top of the stairs.

Wanted to get some food inside me before the flight and went down the check the buffet.

And back to the lounge area to kill time before boarding.

Never knew that Myanmar had an airline but it was cool snapping a pic of this little guy.

With bigger, badder Saudia pulling in shortly thereafter.

Got bored sitting around doing nothing, so decided to walk around and check out the buzz.

Our gate happened to be at the end of the concourse and the line up was in full effect with the business class line already boarding.

Quick check of the passport and scan of the boarding pass and I was through.

Passed through First class and quickly snapped up a couple pics.

And into the mini business class cabin which I could not get a seat in.

Back in 18A for the next 15 hours.

A quick look at the food options on this flight. The drinks menu was the same.

The FA came around my side of the aisle and introduced herself to everyone. She also took the choices for lunch and breakfast or dinner or whatever it was.

Pictures during pushback + taxi.

5th in line for take off and after 20 minutes-ish, we were off to the races. The pilot eased the bird into full throttle whereas the pilot on the YYZ-CAN leg really cranked the throttle.

The lunch service began 30 minutes into the flight.

Beef ball clear soup.

I barely touched this. Taste was awful.

Went with the stir fry prawn option and it was tasty.

The dessert cart was brought out and the only options left was the mousse or the stewed egg. Magic 8 Ball says to go with …

This shot never gets old.

As with the outbound flight, the 2nd meal was served 5 hours before landing. I kept things light and went with the mushroom soup and free range chicken main.

Between eating, watching movies and napping, the flight was uneventful and went by quickly. Soon, we were back on Canadian soil.

Home sweet home YYZ.

Thanks for reading this far. Hope you enjoyed it and looking forward to sharing more TR’s. 🙂

The work week was pretty uneventful – work, eat, no sleep, zombie mode, work, eat, no sleep, work, karaoke, no sleep, work, bar hop, no sleep, walking dead zombie … for 5 days. I did have a few opportunities to walk around the BGC area where the Shangri La was located.

I don’t know how I got pulled into here.

Ok, safe zone.

Filipinos love their karaoke.

On my last day, I need to do last minute shopping for items requested by family. Before doing that, I needed food.

Warm beer was served and therefore needed ice to assist.

Garlic rice with chicken fat drizzled over, Sisig, Chicken Inasal and pork skewers.

With the belly satisfied, it was off for walking and shopping.

The mall where the office is located. Yes, Timmies is open in Manila and let’s just say that the coffee is crap back home in Canada and is double craptastic in Manila.

After shopping was done, I walked back to the hotel along the trendy outdoor strip known as Bonfacio High Street.

Street art.

Fast forward to our noon flight out of Manila. The company van picked us up from the hotel and dropped us off at NAIA within 30 minutes.

For those who know NAIA, it’s a zoo inside and outside the building. The building itself is WAY past its prime and heaven only knows when a new terminal will replace it.

Going through the first level of security to get inside the building. No tanam bala for me. 🙂

The CZ check in counters were in the left corner of the hall. One family was being helped at the business class counter though they were in economy. When one of the economy counters opened up, we were helped next. Bags were checked all the way to YYZ and we were given boarding passes for both legs plus a lounge invitation. Due to some odd flight scheduling reason, we would misconnect our YYZ flight and were put up in a hotel for the night. Any layover greater than 8 hours qualified the passenger for a free hotel room regardless of whether you were economy, business or first class.

Invitation to the contract lounge used by CZ.

Boarding passes.

Onto immigration and second level of security.

Once we were through security, we were funnelled into the duty area.

We were boarding through gate 1 but the lounge was at gate 6, so it was a short walk.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/813/40972988961_16b102f5df_c.jpg%5B/url

Ladies and gents, welcome to the 1970’s. The lounge overall was fairly basic with loungers spread throughout and a small food/drinks area.

Views outside on the tarmac.

After an hour, we walked back to gate 1 and downstairs into the herding area. our boarding passes were cross checked against a paper list and our carry-on bags opened and searched.

We would be the only two in biz today. 🙂

Usual PDB of apple juice.

Bye Philippines. Until next time.

The FA working J offered us a choice of chicken or fish and went with the former. Decent meal to keep us going till dinner.

The 2 hour flight was uneventful and landed in a smoggy Guangzhou without issue. We taxi-ed to a remote stand where the fun began. The FA shut the curtains and held the masses back (HODOR!) till we got off the plane. We were escorted into a bus for J passengers and we were off in no time.

It’s not a Mercedez ala Lufthansa F but it will do.

It was a short 2-3 minute drive on the tarmac to the transit area.

When we walked inside, there was a CZ agent waiting for us with our names on a board. He escorted us to the transit area where we were handed off to another agent. We were requested to fill out the form for the 24 hour VOA and was asked to wait while he took our forms and passports over to immigration. Ten minutes later, an immigration official came outside, handed our passports and directed us to walk to the front of the line. Quick stamps by another official and we went through where another CZ agent was waiting for us.

He walked us past security and to the elevators where he gave us instructions on how to get to the Transit Accommodations desk. He even provided a nice guide card.

And after a good 10 minutes of walking, we arrived. We handed our boarding passes where the agent scanned it on the computer to bring up our information. We pre-booked the hotel we wanted to stay at before leaving Canada and everything was in order.

We were given a sticker (just so that we remember which hotel we stayed at) and was asked to have a seat until someone gave by to collect us.

Our chariot.

After 15 minutes, we arrived at our hotel. For whatever reason, the place was smelling of oranges. We made it through the check-in process despite the severe language barrier between us and the hotel rep. It came to the point where he whipped out his phone, motioned to speak into the app and it translated into the local dialect. Technology FTW.

My humble abode for the next 24-ish hours.

After a quick refresher upper, we headed out to catch the train to Canton Tower.

Bought tickets at the automated kiosk and we were off in no time.

After an hour, we finally arrived at our stop.

Walked out of the station and turned around to see this.

Can’t believe we actually walked this far from Canton Tower but we had time to kill before night time and it was lit up.

With our legs starting to hurt, we hopped back on the train to the hotel. Up next – flight back home.

Got up yet again at 3.30am to catch our 4am pickup to take us to the airport to catch our 9.30am flight back to Manila.

Stopped off for breakfast around 7am.

Which turned out to be a bad decision as we got right into the morning Cebu rush hour.

Made it to the airport by 8am where check-in and security was quick and easy.

Wow, electronic gates at a domestic airport. I don’t know why that amazed me but it just did.

Post securit-ah.

In the waiting area zoo.

The Filipino equivalent of Starbucks that uses local coffee beans.

Gloom in Cebu.

Boarding and push back on time and we were off pretty quickly into the sky.

Yum.

Back on terra firma.

The office sent a van to pick me up from the airport and it took 20 minutes with regular traffic (which is a good thing) to get to the hotel.

They mess around when it comes to security. Mirror + canine check.

Once I pulled into the front, the staff welcomed me to the Shangri-La, took my bags and I was escorted to the front desk. The bags were taken away to be scanned (again airport style) before being allowed in the building. Check-in was a breeze and I was assigned a corner room on the 35th floor.

Lounge area straight ahead with the High Street Café off to the left for breakfast every morning.

My co-workers and I usually had breakfast at 6am after working the 9pm-5am shift every day. We had a choice of going with the buffet or a la carte option. The first day was buffet and then I went with a la carte for the rest. The buffet spread was amazing and is typical of the Shangri-la standard (well, except for Sydney which was ok) but you can never really do full justice to a buffet unless you have the appetite of a 19 year old.

That’s one big sausage.

Checked out early and headed to catch out boat back to Maya port on the mainland. From there we hired a private car to take us back to the airport where we would catch up with more friends joining us for the next 3 days in Oslob and Moalboal.

Our wonderful limo for the journey down south.

Quick pit stop for breakfast.

Fast forward to picking our friends up from the airport and us arriving at a mall to have lunch at Zubuchon. Gluttony got the best of us and we went on an ordering spree.

Sisig.

Lechon (bone in)

Mixed veggies because we were feeling guilty ordering so much meat.

Chorizo.

With that out of the way, we got our Starbucks, piled into the van and headed down to Moalboal.

And eventually pulled into the Club Serena resort after a nail biting journey through back roads (paved and unpaved) which elicited thoughts of whether we would arrive alive or not.

The boys were shown to their room while the girls had their own. My first thoughts upon entering the room … the 1980’s called and they wanted their décor back.

Our tree trop casita from the outside.

Check-in area.

The resort beach.

I pre-booked a dive for the Sardine Run. The area is famous for having schools of sardines at the doorstep. On the night we arrived, my friends booked a trike driver to pick me up and take me to Panagsama beach where the dive centres were located.

Quick breakfast before heading out.

With an amazing view.

Heading to Panagsama beach.

The driver dropped me off at the top of the street and I had to hoof it down to the dive centre.

Suiting up and briefing was quick and we were walking to the shore for the dive.

Sardine Run. I made this a timelapse video otherwise you would be will be watching a good 20 minutes. Extremely happy to have done this dive because you could see the sardines the moment you went off the side of the wall. As you got deeper, you could see the bigger schools of sardines which the snorkelers could not see. 😀

Hi.

A famous resident coming over to say hi.

Me celebrating after crossing off another bucket list item. 🙂

And what better way to reward myself.

Good view with a drink.

With lunch at the restaurant next door – shrimp + thai green curry chicken. I developed an appetite after such the dive – don’t judge. 🙂

Our ride back to the resort.

We ended the day with a relaxing drink and snacks on the resort beach.

It was another super early morning start as we were heading down to Oslob to swim with the whale sharks + canyoneering. We were picked up at 4am and after a 2 hour drive, we reached the muster point.

Since we hired a tour guide and driver, we did not have to do any of the formalities such as signing forms, paying at the front desk etc. The guide did everything for us while we waited for our group number to be called. After the formalities of listening to the local conservation team giving us the rules about the activity – “The first rule is to never touch the sharks!”, we went to get our life vests and wait for our group number to be called for getting into the boat.

The other groups waiting patiently.

Got into our boat and a quick 5 minute ride over to the staging area. The boat guys had the process down pat – the boat coming in would tie off to the last boat in the chain of boats. The next boat coming in would tie off to our boat and so on. The boats would slowly move down the line and after 30 minutes, we would cast off and come back to shore. We were free to jump in but had to stay close to the boat at all times.

Here are the whales in all their glory.

After the activity was done, we washed up and went in search of breakfast.

Lots of people inside is a good thing, right?

Delicious Chicken Inasal.

After that, we piled back into the van and went off to our next destination – the Badian Canyoneering adventure at Kawasan Falls.

After gearing up, we hopped on motorbikes for a 10 minute ride to the start of the adventure.

The adventure started with a 30 minute hike deep into the forest.

Thirsty or hungry after 10 minutes of hiking? No problem! A stall set up with goods to satisfy your needs.

Made a friend along the way.

Getting to the start of the good stuff.

Descending into the forest.

It got a little more difficult (but fun nonetheless).

Looking back where we came from.

Enjoying a nice shower against the heat of the canyon.

We reach the midpoint of the hike where there were stalls set up with hot bbq and drinks. Don’t ask me how they did it but they actually got all the stuff down in the middle of the canyon and set up shop. Talk about hustlin’. 🙂

Glorious meat on a stick. If only it could be served on Singapore Airline Suites …

Our order.

After our meal was done, we moved on and what better way than to jump right in.

Where we came to the second highest jump of the day. I chickened out.

But I did go on the kiddie ride. Wheeeeeeee!

After 3.5 hours since we started, we finally made it to the final jump of the day. I man-ed up and took the plunge – literally. FYI – that’s a 45 foot drop.

Looking back up where I jumped from.

We came to the end which is the real Kawasan falls. At one point, you could pay to get on a bamboo raft and go underneath the falls but that stopped because the rates were jacked so high and it scared everyone away. The people have spoken.

Walked 15 minutes back to the exit and met up with our driver who took us to a place for a quick lunch. Nothing like a carb heavy lunch to recover from an intense day.

Got into a jeepney arranged by the tour guide since we were all still wet and didn’t want to get the van dirty. The driver switched on the mood lighting as it got darker.

Saw this pass us by. Another delicious victim of cock fighting.

Stopped at the mall to get some quick items. Passed this by as I was wandering the supermarket and I think this is my all time favourite oddity.

We spent the evening having our final meal as we would be checking out the next day and fly back to Manila.

A not so early morning start to our first day trip excursion to Kalanggaman Island. We booked the tour through a local guide where he walked us to the boat that would take us and a bunch of folks – in all there were 20 people. Waded a bit in the water in order to walk the plank on to the boat. Once everyone boarded, we were off for the 1.5 hour journey.

Another beautiful day on the island.

After an uneventful boat ride, we made it to the island. It really is a beautiful as all the vidoes, blog and trip reports make it out to be. The boat dropped us off on the calm side of the island where the palm trees were located. Lunch would be provided in a few hours but we were free to do whatever we liked in the free time we had on the island. On the area covered by trees, there were covered huts where people could use to relax, a camp site where people could camp over night, small table setup selling food and drinks and finally, toilets. There was a big covered communal area where tables and chairs were set up for people to sit down and have lunch. Kalanggaman Island is also a dive site that is a wall dive going down pretty deep.

Me wading in. I held right at the point where the floor drops and it took me by surprise.

A shot of the sandbar portion of the island.

What it looks like on the other side. As you can see, one side of the beach is calm while the other side was choppy but still decent enoughh to wade in.

Can I apply to be the FT Instagram model?

Lunch was served around 12.30pm. The boat crew cooked everything on site and it was served buffet style. No line up, just crowd around and attack.

And then relaxing in the shade for a bit before heading out in the water again.

We hopped on the boat at 2.30pm and were back at Malapascua by 4pm. The next day, we headed out to Bantayan Island – we hired a private boat and it took around 2.5 hours to get there.

Some pictures along the way.

When we got to the island, we got off at Kota beach and made our way in land. Kota beach has this interesting sandbar that constantly changes due to shifting winds and wave patterns. We hired a tricycle to take us to Paradise Beach.

Not as many boats as Malapascua. 😀

Off we go!

Our starting point in the distance.

Passing through town.

Safety is a must …

Definitely not in Kansas anymore.

We got off and had to walk down a path to get to the beach. The path was not easy to walk if you have flip flops on (like me) as there were lots of rocks/stones along the way.

After 10 minutes of slow walking, we made it to the entrance of the beach where some random guy collected 50 pesos as an entrance fee. This fee was used for “maintenance and upkeep” of the beach.

OMG YASS.

Swimming down the back led me to this area.

With a romantic spot for any couple wanting to have a private moment.

Another FT Instagram moment.

After 2 hours at the beach, we headed back to Kota beach to catch our boat back to Malapascua. Before that, we stopped off at a spot that the local kids come to.

#wheninrome #livelikealocal

Got back to the drop off point and had a refreshing drink.

Another pic of the sandbar.

We got off to a late start getting back to Malapascua. When the locals say to leave early, there is a reason behind it and we definitely did not listen. The ride home ended up being very choppy and wet but we made it safe and sound. We all freshened up and headed out for our last dinner at Malapascua. Ended up at the Mabuhay restaurant which was a little bumping that night. This was the strip that all the beach resorts were located on.

I went with the sizzling ghampas (shrimp) and it was delicious.

This was our last night in Malapascua and we had a 7am start the next day to travel down south to Oslob and Moalboal. Stay tuned!

We were dropped off at the one end of the beach strip and had to schlepp it to the resort with our bags in tow … on the sand. I ended shoulder carrying my suitcase so as to not ruin the wheels. Most of the “high end” resort are located on the beach. When I say “high end”, they are 3 stars at most and you really must mentally prepare yourself to not expect high end luxury … or any sort of luxury. As a matter of fact, we had hot water for our showers, so that’s as luxurious as it gets. Behind the beach front are backpacker style hotels/homes for those who are on a shoestring budget.

Our resort was in the middle of the strip and I was happy to have made it in one piece after hoisting a heavy suitcase – yes, I need to exercise a little more. Time for the $2 tour.

The path leading into the resort.

The path leads up to the left side of the bar you see in the background.

If you were standing next to the bar as you walk in, you will see this area to your right.

Standing at the middle of the bar, looking at the dining area.

The dive shop behind the dining area with rooms off to right side on 2 storeys.

Our room was located in the top floor of the blue building you see on the right.

Leading up to our room.

Shangri-La level luxury.

And the view from the balcony outside our front door.

Having not had anything since breakfast and after a long journey, I decided we deserved something as a reward.
This look as appropriate a reward as any.

With something to meaty goodness to add to the mix.

With our bellies satisfied, we went for a walk.

So this is where I give my two cents on the beach. After watching a whole of bunch of Youtube videos on Malapascua, I was expecting a powdery white sand similar to Boracay. In reality, ever since Typhoon Yolanda struck in 2013 across the Philippines, it damaged a lot of the islands and ecosystems. For Malapascua, the sand close to the hotels was soft to walk on but make more difficult to walk on the closer you walked to the water. This is because dead coral bits were swept up by the tide and no effort has been made for a cleanup. To be honest, one would not expect any sort of clean up as this was not a luxury paradise like Boracay or Palawan. On top of that, a lot of boats were spread all over the place so swimming in the area was not safe. Are these major problems? Maybe – depending on your point of view. Compared to Kalanggaman Island and Bantayan Island, there is a major difference and you will see this soon. I crashed early as I had to be at the dive shop at 4.30am for the thresher shark dive.
 
As it was pitch dark outside and not a good opportunity to take pictures, I will describe in detail the harrowing journey to get to the dive site – hope you have a vivid imagination. The main attraction for Malapascua Island is the thresher shark and is therefore a diver’s paradise – this means that there are at least a 100 divers per day. The thresher shark lives around the Monad Shoal which is a sunken island. The top of the island is 100 feet below the surface and is considered the cleaning station where the sharks come to every morning in order for the little feeder fish to (for lack of a better term) clean the crap off the shark scales. The sharks come up every morning between 6-8am and go back down into the deep afterwards. The window is very small due to the fact that the sharks are sensitive to light.

I was down at the requested time and met a fellow diver who would be joining me. We each had our own dive master and after the gear check, we headed off to the beach and got into a small boat. From there, we made our way to a bigger boat where we swapped into and all the equipment was loaded on. We waited a good 30 minutes for divers from the other resorts to join us. With everyone on board, the boat made its way to the Monad Shoal and it took a good 30 minutes to get there. As we approached, I saw 5 other boats already there with divers jumping off. Let’s do the math – 5 boats, 15-20 people per boat … that’s a lot of humans to see a damn shark. Fast forward past the bits where we dressed up, did our safety checks and demo and off we went into the wild blue deep. When we got to the bottom (or top depending on how you look at it), everyone knelt in a line and held onto a rope. We were instructed not to move beyond this point otherwise we risk scaring the shark off and losing the opportunity to see a once in a life time moment (I say “lifetime” because I know I am not coming back to Malapascua).

Behold.

If I had remembered to properly set up my gopro, it would have been on Video+Photo mode but instead I noobed it up big time and could not get any pictures. But fear not, the video below makes up for everything.

The best part of this entire dive – I only saw the shark for 30 seconds before it disappeared into the darkness. My DM and I moved to another section of the line but I could only see fleeting parts of the shark in the dark and was not as good as the video above. See example below.

At least, I got to see it and I was happy. 30 minutes into the dive, the DM instructed we had to move on as the tanks were running low. Took a tour of the reef as we made our way back up.
Here is an idea of the other dives jocking for position to see the shark.

I forgot to mention that this was a wall dive as well. So here is a video as we came up.

Lovely sea urchins.

Everyone started coming up shortly after that and we were headed back to Malapascua. It was around 8am and I was ready for breakfast.
The DM steadying himself as we pulled away from the bigger boat in the background.

A shot of the itty bitty boat that we used.

8am and the sun is beating down hard.

Met up with my friends and headed off to the local restaurant for breakfast. Took a back alley to get there as it was located behind the resort.

Hello friends.

LOL.

Traditional Filipino breakfast consisting of garlic rice, 2 eggs, tocino (fried cured pork) and 2 hot dogs. Add a coffee and the total came to $5 CAD – damn good deal.

Walked back to the resort to get ready for my second dive for 9.30am. Passed by a bar and saw this sign – guess something went down in order for the sign to go up.

Back at the boat with the same DM and we headed out to the dive site known as the Coral Garden. This was more of a macro dive since the corals were pretty much dead or dying. The dive was good as I captured some good videos of little sea life plus there was only one other group of divers.

All that diving made me famished yet again. So found my friends and we trudged along the beach to find a place to satisfy our cravings.

First order of business.

Followed by the second order of business.

With this little guy giving me the winky wink for some reason. Just couldn’t figure out what that reason was …

This brings us to the end of the first fun filled day at Malapascua. The next two days would be full day trips to Kalanggaman Island and Bantayan Island. To be continued!

Woke up at 3.30am to get to the airport for 5.30am to catch a 7am flight to Cebu. The madness.

No line ups and all the check in formalities plus double security checks were done in a jiffy.

The terminal was fairly small and dedicated to PAL.

Boarding was called around 6:30am with the sunshine in full effect. Boarding was called by zones and the gate agents were surprisingly enforcing everything.

Down the tube and snapped this bird that pulled in not too long ago from YYZ.

Our bird was an A330 which was surprising to me since there were flights every hour. I assume it would be one of the smaller planes but I guess there is a great demand for travel to Cebu.

Very comfy.

Boarding done on time and we were pushed back on time as well. Took a shot over at Terminal 3 showing the international birds.

Views over Manila.

Ooooh, a sammich.

The hour went by quickly and we touched down in Cebu without issues.

Final shot of the bird as we got out the tube.

After collecting our bags, we decided to get a Grab taxi to the North Bus terminal. The bus would us to Maya port where we could catch a boat to Malapascua Island, home of the world famous Thresher Shark. What – you never heard of the thresher shark?! Go google it, I’ll wait …

Right? Isn’t it amazing? Ok, I digress – moving on.

Before the taxi though, important business must be taken care of … Breakfast. 😀

With the stomach satisfied and bladder emptied, we piled into the car and made our way to the terminal.

When we got to the bus terminal, it was a choice of a big bus or a small mini bus. Neither is a good option because the big bus makes multiple stops along the way to the port while the smaller bus waits at the terminal till 16 people are packed like sardines inside and then it moves on. It also makes stops along the way to pick up people if the bus is not full at the terminal and in our case, it was not …

After 3.5 agonizing hours, we finally made it to the port. Paid the 100 peso per person for the crossing to Malaspascua Island. Then we find out that we had to wait for other people to show up to a max of 10 people in order for the boat to leave. If the boat was not filled, then the boat would wait till the next timeslot to leave …
But wait there’s more … the lady suggested we could pay 1000 pesos in total to rent the boat outright and take us to the island … le sigh. Two more people showed up and we bit the bullet, paid 200 pesos per person and headed out.

Almost thurr.

Finally!

Up next – the resort, diving and day trips.

I leave you with this picture as a teaser.

Co-workers picked us up from the airport and we headed off to the Marriott for the night before flying out the beach. Since we landed around 11am, the plan was to stay awake the entire day, go hard and crash early evening since the flight out was at 7am the next day. Got to the hotel in one piece, where bags and self had to go through security check ala airport style (no TSA probing though). Was first one line for check-in and was helped in 5 minutes.

Then the upgrade gods showered me with blessings. Informed by the wonderful check-in lady that we were upgraded to a premier room with a view of the golf course and it came with the other gold elite benefits as listed below.

But as bad luck would have it – we would not get a chance to take advantage of the benefits due to us being out all day. Oh well.

Our room was on the west tower and it entailed a long walk to the other side.

Pics of the room were taken in the evening when we packed for our trip out. I really liked the hotel and the room overall and would definitely stay here the next time I am in Manila. The only caveat is that it is closer to the airport thus making the drive to the downtown core a headache if you get stuck in the infamous Manila traffic.

View of the golf course from the concourse but had the same view from the room at a higher level.

We quickly showered, changed and left for the day to tour Manila. Our first stop would be at Intramuros that is Spanish for the Walled City and was the seat of government when the Philippines was part of the Spanish empire. Anything towns or villages outside the walls was considered as Extramuros. We hired a guide to tour us through the area where we were given an awesome history lesson on the origins of the site and its development and destruction through the years.

Our tour guide.

The footsteps of Jose Rizal who is a national hero and considered to have inspired the Philippines Revolution. These foot steps are a depiction of the path he took on the day of his execution by the Spanish.

Finally, into the air conditioned museum about Rizal.

A bad pic but this shows a mock up of what the court looked like when Rizal was judged by the Spanish.

A portrait showing the execution of Rizal where one of the bullets went through his spine and severed it.

The actual spine on display. #morbid

Once outside, we were taken to see the jails used to imprison the locals. The bottles are an artist’s representation of the conditions the prisoners went through.

Pano shot of the Pasig River.

Walking along the top of the fort walls.

After a hot, sweaty walk, this was a welcome treat to the end of the tour. The locals call is Dirty Ice cream which means Street Ice Cream and not unsanitary in any way. I went with Cheese flavour which was ridiculously good.

Leaving Intramuros with a quick shot of the Manila Cathedral as we passed by.

I was jonesing for Jollibee and need to satisfy my cavemen urges.

No trip to Jollibee is complete without the requisite picture with the Bee himself. #bucketlist

After getting off the plane, I spied a CZ representative holding a sign with names of people and the gates for their connecting flights. I saw my name on there with the gate number but there was a 3.5 hour layover, so no need to rush. After walking the long mile (or two) deep into the bowels of the airport, got into the line for international transit passengers while most of the passengers coming off the YYZ flight went towards either domestic transit or immigration. The international transit line was further divided into economy and business class passengers, so I was quickly through after the agent scanned/stamped my boarding pass and waved me through. After this, it was upstairs into a security check zone and then got dumped out at a Y split for the A gates.

This is where the confusion happened into where the lounge was. Our gate was A123 and I saw the sign and followed it thinking that the lounge would be there somewhere. Also, I still can’t figure out what “The Exit of Flight Cancellations” sign means but I’m definitely chalking it up as a Lost in Translation moment. 🙂

If I had only turned around, I would have seen this:

Instead, I just followed the sign and kept walking for a good 10 minutes towards our gate.

Pretty colours.

We came to A123 and the lounge was nowhere in sight. At this point, I fired up the interweb on my phone and googled where the bloody lounge was. Luckily, OMAAT had a report detailing where it was … back where I started … Le sigh. Another 10 minute hot, sweaty walk back to the starting point and I was allowed inside. There was another front desk inside the lounge where you could go either left or right depending on your ticket. The left turn would take you to the CZ First/Business class lounge whereas turning right would take you to the Gold/Silver elite lounge. Guess where I was punted into? I suspect this was due to the fact that it was way too early in the morning for the CZ lounge to be open.

This is a reverse shot of where I walked in from:

Food/beverage station off to the left as you walked in. There was no food hot being served as it was 5.30am and it would be another hour or so before it was served.

As you walked deeper in, there was a larger seating area.

Looking down towards the shower/washroom area.

Plopped my bag down and asked one of the attendants to set up with a shower room. I was called in around 10 minutes later.

After a hot and refreshing shower to clean off the airplane germs, it was back to the seating to relax till it was time to leave for boarding.

45 minutes to departure, I left the lounge for the lonnnnggg walk back to A123. I snapped up quick pics of the CZ lounge as it was open now. Would be trying this on the way back home. Spoiler – nothing great.

Since there was time to kill, I walked around to snap pics of some birdies.

The livery of the CZ 787 is very flamboyant.

Finally at the gate.

With another snaking conga line.

And our bird on the left.

The first row was J class with a wall behind it separating us from economy. All 4 seats in J were taken.

Wonderful leg room for this 2 hour flight to Manila.

PDB of juices or water was offered and I went with apple juice again.

There was one FA working J for the flight. After delivering the PDB, she verbally listed the breakfast menu mains which was a choice between dim sum or seafood noodles. I went with the dim sum.

Boarding was done on time and we were being pushed back.

Even at 8am, there was a bit of a queue for take off – 5 planes ahead of us waiting with other planes landing on the same runway.

15 minutes after take off, the FA sprung into action and started to deliver the goods.

Nothing fancy and was not that great either but it satisfied the stomach.

The thin veil protecting me from the rest of the plane.

Stupid camera – focus on the scenery, not the window.

Smooth descent into Manila and a quick taxi to the gate.

Final mug shot of the bird.

Up next – one day in Manila + flight to Cebu.