Tuesday, April 08, 2008

My second trip to Manila [it was only for a ONE and a HALF DAY MEETING]

This is crazy! I was on my way to KLIA by KLIA Express and I was thinking "This is crazy". Why? "Because I have just arrived from Bangkok last night, and now I'm on my way to KLIA again for the trip to Manila. And even crazier because I will be there only for one and half day!"

I have to fly to Manila because I need to discuss my draft of strategic planning with my convener. There's no way that I can do it over the teleconference. So, I was proposing for her to come 2 or 3 days earlier before the Strat Plan Meeting, but she can't. So, I have to make all the efforts to fly. I never like Manila. It's so polluted. And it happened again... Everyone was talking to me in Tagalog. Regardless my apology about not able to speak Tagalog. One lady at the taxi counter was even scolding me for not speaking in Tagalog, "Why are you not speaking Tagalog? You are a Filipina, no?". So, again, they were thinking that I was the obnoxious Filipina who live abroad for quite some time and doesn't want to speak Tagalog anymore. Oh man...

So, since I was so stressed and exhausted, I decided to pamper myself before I went back to KL. Luckily, there was a salon next to my hotel. So, after I checked out, I went there and had pedicure and a nice creambath. The price was mush cheaper than KL. For the whole treatment I only paid around US$10. My goodness! You will never get that in KL. Never!

So, I finished at around 11.30 AM and hailed a taxi to get me to NAIA [Ninoy Aquino International Airport]. It was Sunday. No traffic. I felt so good.... until I saw the line in front of the Malaysia Airlines check in counter.

The line was soooo long. It took me 1,5 hour to get myself checked in. After that I had to queue for the airport tax payment. And after that another long queue for the immigration. So, I was starting to queue in front of MAS counter at 12 PM and finally managed to get myself into the boarding area at 2.45 PM. Can you imagine that? Bloody two and a half hour!!!! That airport does not have a good system at all!

No comments: