samedi 7 novembre 2009

Destination ----> The philippines


MANILA

MNL...3 letters that i couldnt wait to see on my montly roster! Manilla, capital of the philippines. Since i started flying some of my friends had 1 MNL each month....no fair i kept thinking! But finaly my turn...

Manama Manilla is a 10 hours flight! eek...No wonder why some girls always want to swap if its only a 24h rest there! But it was fine with me...My maximum flight was around 13h, i knew i could handle those 10hours.

Oh yes, did i forget to mention that Gulfair doesnt allow the cabin crew to have a rest time, even on a 10h flight?!
Filipinos are known to be very friendly and easy going! And its true during the boarding i noticed they were all very polite :)

After the service when all the passengers are sleeping, the light is turned off...and no passengers is using the call bell...so here i was on my jump seat starting to feel sleepy. Some pursers would allow their crew to take a tiny nap (on the jump seat of course as the aircraft is not equiped with a crew rest pfff). But if it wasnt nicely offerd, you couldnt ask of course.
And this purser was so moody that of course it didnt cross our mind to even ask lol.
The flight was going well and we landed to Manila. El hemdulilah....I was so excited to visit, see the city and discover new things :)

I reached the hotel, took a shower i changed into my abaya (many were staring)
And then direction Mall of Asia, one of the best mall ever!! If you love pumpering yourself, getting all kind of skin care products, get a manicure/pedicure...Anything you want is there!! And soooooooooooooooooooooooo cheap!
So of course i spent my whole day there :)
Oh yeah and i tasted PORK!!!! YUCK!!!!! i asked for shrimp dumpling and i got porc dumpling, i knew from the first bite that it wasnt shrimp :( ppfff

Back to the hotel, exhausted from the shopping! I went with the rest of the girls to the fish market!! Let me explain. You go to the fish market and choose all kind of seafood! A lot of people come around you just to listen or look what you're bying lol thats funny! And right in front you find the restaurant where they'll cook what you just bought. They have a thousand ways of cooking your shrimps, oyesters & fish....<3>

Coming out of the restaurant! my legs stepped into sooooo much water!! manila was flooded!! we didnt noticed a thing while we were eating and nobody seems to really care and thats because the local are used to it!!! i litteraly had my legs into the water!!! sooooooooooooo much water! i didnt want to walk in that water as i was scared for some reason that i rat would bite my legs! ahaha...it was funny though! everybody was walking (or swimming?) in that water!! i was just so surprised to see that so many water dropped while we were having dinner!!


I have found the locals extremly nice, you dont enter a shop without being so nicely greeted, you can see that the country is not very rich but yet the people are so so nice (yes im repeating myself lol), always willing to help, wherever you go you find filipinos singing...smiling!!! they sing everywhere...ahahah thats so nice! I have really loved that country!


National bus that you see everywhere in the streets


Only thing that surprised me so much is all the men with breast, make up astaghfirullah...it is uhm wierd! you see them everywhere! They plug their eyebrows, have contact lenses...lipstick! But you can clearly see ther are men they are not even trying to hide it...its like an (ugly) disguise...

voila...It is a country i would highly recommend to anyone who wants to go to Asia :)

6 Comments:

Ma Vie & Etc said...

awwwwwwwwww, that is so cool. The place is beautiful!!...But i'm a bit concerned about the flooding

Sansan said...

i loved the country!!
Flooding? yeah you better know how to swim :)

Ms. Mharya said...

hi! how are you? i read your post about manila.happy to read your nice expeienced while stayin here except the floods. hope you had enjoyed your stay in phil. hope to meet u the next time u visit mla.
xoxo

from mla:)

jan said...

Your blog about Manila was a good read. I enjoyed it a lot. It was fun, and so down to earth, i must say. You are a person with a good heart. I am a Filipino, and reading your thoughts about Manila, where I'm from, made me proud. Thanks for your time and have a great day! :)

Hijabixue said...

Wow, I love this article :) I'm a hijabi from Philippines.

Hijabixue said...

and oh, you might wanna check my blog at hijabcraze.blogspot.com