Manila Visit

I had planned to visit Manila in the first quarter of 2016.  Accordingly, the visa was arranged in Dec 2015. It was a surprise for me to note that I was given only 3 months single entry visa valid for 14 days.  On the contrary, first time UK visa itself was valid for 6 months.  However, the visit could not be materialized in the first quarter as the fruitfulness was envisaged to be better in the second quarter of 2016.  I had to re-apply for the Philippines visa in April 2016 giving sufficient reasons as to why I had not utilized the previous visa.  Finally, my journey to Manila took off on 11^th May. 

The flight was Dragon Air upto Hongkong and Cathay Pacific to Manila.  The flight to Hongkong was scheduled at 1.30 AM, but with advance notice through SMS, it actually departed at 3.00 AM IST and landed in Hongkong around 11.00 am local time.  The connecting flight was at 2.30 pm.  It was a very pleasant surprise to note that in Hongkong it was only a 5 minute walk for catching the next flight (called as transfers).  As soon as I came out of the airplane, there was a board pointing ‘transfers take right’.  The moment I took the right turn, lo – I was in the departure terminal.  As usual, I was there 3.5 hours in advance and even the boarding gate of my flight to Manila was not announced.  The departure terminal is quite big and it was a lengthy walk to the lounge to have lunch and a comfortable seat.  I was near Gate 1 when my departure gate was announced as 67.  I was informed that I could go down and take the underground train to reach Gate 67.  This train has 2 stops.  For the sake of having an experience, I took the train ride and I must say it was a pleasant one. Cathay Pacific had individual cozy seats with good amount of space for stretching the legs completely and naturally was a better experience. The flight departed on time and I landed in Manila around 4.45 pm local time.  Hongkong and Manila time zones are ahead of India time zone by 2.5 hours.

The pre-arranged cab took me to the pre-booked hotel, Somerset Millennium Makati.  This is a serviced studio apartment in the 24^th floor with a small kitchen and a bath.  The kitchen had a heating plate, an oven, rice cooker and other small utensils.  Makati is the Central Business District of Manila with all tall buildings.  It gives the feel of a real foreign country.  The main roads of this area are quite broad. The roads are full of cars of all types, mostly sedans and SUVs.  There are very minimum compact cars.  What I liked the most of this place is the discipline in which the motorists drive.  There is absolutely no honking.  At many inter-junctions police personnel/traffic assistants ensure pedestrians are given the preference to cross the roads. 

On the first day of landing I was delighted to see a grocery shop next to my hotel.  I immediately dashed into it to buy my life-saver ‘plain yoghurt’ (curds).  To my disappointment, I was told only flavored yoghurts were available.  I bought one of the flavored one and cooked rice in the rice cooker.  My ‘sweet flavoured’ curd rice dinner was done for the day.  Back home, at times, I have been taunted for having a sweet (ladoo/mysore pak) with curd rice.  You never know when these habits help you sometimes!

On the second day, after returning from office, I again ventured out looking for plain yoghurt.  There are lots of shops by name 7/11 and Mini Shops and I was told that it should be available at these places.  To my dismay, I could not get it in 4 such shops.  I kept walking determined to get what I wanted.  I entered a big mall and I was told to go to the 2 level down basement to buy groceries.  It was a fairly big shop (similar to our Big Bazaar).  Even here, I could get only flavored yoghurts.  Perhaps, Lady Luck decided not to smile at me!  Now comes the story of me losing way.  As is normal, the mall had many entrances.  I was not sure in which way I entered.  I asked a couple of people in the mall as to which exit I should take in order to reach my hotel.  They were unable to explain me or rather I was unable to understand their Finglish (Filipino and English together).  A 5-10 minute rounding brought the jitters within myself as it was over 8 pm in the night.  As is customary, in silent prayers, I invited all possible Hindu Gods to show me the path and I approached a security guard who then showed me the right way out.  Left by myself, I was heading towards the opposite way!  After recognizing a couple of buildings that I had made them stand in my memory, I was relieved of the momentary tension.  After reaching the hotel, I thought of relieving the tension by having a sumptuous meal with ‘dhal’ and the ‘flavored curd’.  I unpacked my 3 litre cooker and kept some rice and dhall that I had brought it with me on the hot plate.  Believe me, it took almost an hour to have my meal cooked on the hot plate.  I have experience in cooking things on hot plates, but that was a positive one.  Perhaps, this one was purchased at the time of invention!

At office, I got an Indian acquaintance by name Krishna Kumar who was my son’s age.  A very sharp and matured boy currently doing his Masters in XLRI Jamshedpur and in Manila as an Intern.  He was scheduled to be in Manila for 6 weeks and had already completed 4 weeks of stay.    He took me and my team to a nearby restaurant where we had, I would say, reasonably tasty lunch.  From then on, this hotel became my lunch place.  Many of the locals at Office were also not aware about this nearby Indian restaurant.  This is the reason, I intentionally used the word ‘sharp’ to describe him because he know many roads and had also familiarized himself with many places and local mobile apps for guidance.  In the evening, he took to me to a grocery store where I could procure my ‘plain yoghurt’ and finally I got what I wanted.  I never had to struggle this much for a plain yoghurt even in the many European countries that I have visited before.  Moral: Back home, we try to take things for granted and try to find fault on food/taste/things, etc bestowed by Him on us through our family members.  Let’s not do this again.

After coming to this country, I was given to understand that Philippines comprises of more than 7000 Islands. In 1565, Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years.  This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion.  After the end of Spanish-American war, Spain surrendered the Philippines and other territories to the United States in 1898 indicating the start of American rule.  This is perhaps the reason for left-hand driven vehicles in this country.  More importantly, the traffic is disciplined – no zig-zag driving. 

The Jeepneys are the most commonly used public road transport here.  These are long jeeps that can accommodate 20 people.  Construction of several sky-ways and sky-scrapers are in progress now.  The beauty lies in the fact that there are no constructions materials/ debris strewn around the construction place.  These are neatly barricaded with clear sign boards.  My heart yearns to have these best practices implemented in our home towns & cities. Perhaps we need another half a century to catch up.

Krishna chalked out a plan to spend our week-end.  We planned to visit “Intramuros – the walled city” in Manila.   We hired a taxi and reached this place.  There was an entrance ticket.  This was the original city of Manila and the seat of government when Philippines was part of Spanish Empire and was originally located along the shores of Manila Bay.  Fort Santiago lies here.  For further details on this place, please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intramuros. 

We then went to see Manila Cathedral.  This is a huge church worth the visit.  Thereafter, we were pestered by the 3 wheel cycle-rickshaw guys to take a ride in their vehicle.  They promised that they will take us to around 12 places in the vicinity in 30 minutes.  We kept asking how it would be possible to cover all the places in 30 minutes.  The guy promptly replied that we can go inside the tourist spot, visit and come outside, he would wait for us to continue our journey.  Not fully convinced, we bargained and brought the rate to 43% of the original ask.  The first place he took us was Reducto De San Pedro (0.1 km from where we boarded the tri-cycle).  This place was in ruins – perhaps an historical place, but we could not appreciate much due to lack of knowledge about the historical importance.  Then he took us to San Agustin Museum within 100 metres distance.  We were told that the museum is closed for lunch and had to wait for one hour if we had to get inside.   Thereafter, he took us to Casa Manila.  This was again a museum depicting colonial lifestyle during Spanish colonization.

 It was only 15 minutes that we had spent in this tri-cycle journey (including the roaming time).  Our new friend, the tri-cycle man (as we started to address him) started to say that he better be paid the contracted amount, else it will double up if we were late by a minute.  We then realized the trick played on us.  How could we let go ourselves to be fooled so easily.  We took turns to talk to him to convince that we have utilized only 15 minutes out of the contracted 30 minutes and finally paid him 66% of the contracted amount.  We said that we should pay only 50% as per logic, however, we were magnanimous in paying him extra.  It started drizzling and I had not taken the umbrella with me, even though I had brought it from Bangalore.  We then started looking for taxis to head back home.  At this moment, we realized that bargaining is important as the taxi drivers were demanding 100% - 300% extra. After enquiring 3 taxis, we finally got a taxi who agreed to charge only as per meter.

After reaching the hotel, we exchanged the ‘snaps’ that were taken.  Thereafter, I had a good afternoon siesta.  In the evening, I started to pen down my experience.  At the dawn of night, as an experiment, I tried to cook Tur Dhall in the rice cooker.  The rice cooker had two compartments.  After the stipulated time, the rice cooker went automatically to ‘warm’ mode.  After some time, I open it only to realize that the Tur Dhall stood there under water as ‘solid’ pieces and was staring at me still in its original form.

Talking about Indian restaurants, I must admit that the taste of the Indian breads and the gravys are good.  More importantly, the personnel manning these restaurants are ladies.  In one of the Indian restaurant, they were dressed in the traditional ‘half-saree and blouse’ and the ambience was set to reflect authentic Indian decors.  I wonder how many restaurants in India will have these kind of uniforms. 

We had initially planned to explore the city the next day also.  However, due to certain last minute requirements, we were stuck with office job-related activities.  Hence, I had to restrict the exploration to only one day of the week-end.  I believe the Boracay Beach with White Sands is the number one tourist spot.  This place is half an hour by flight.  Well, all I would say at this moment is – perhaps this place was not lucky enough to have my foot stepped on to it this time.  Better luck next time.  Wow! What a positive feeling I get by this statement.

My return flight was also via Hongkong.  It was a grueling wait of almost 8 hours before I could catch the Bangalore flight and I returned back home on 21^st May.  Whatever said and done, home is heaven.  I had missed the ‘small’ fights with my better half for almost 10 days and I am sure she would have been happy about it.  Anyways, all good things come to an end.  Ciao.