Philippines Trip : 1st Day (25 Nov 2011)

Departing BKI-CRK (KKIA T2) on 25 Nov 2011 with flight AK6264 at 1:40pm (ada delay skijap lah) and arriving Clark, Pampanga at 3:35pm.

 

Mabuhay Philippines!!

Thank god the weather are friendly from departing to arriving, but one inconvenient thing was, we are not provided with 'declaration form' early during in-flight so we have to get and fill in the form at the airport upon arrival bikin buang masa saja!! Anyway, done with all  the declaration thing at 4:30pm.

 

Just Landed!! with Happy Face!!

Out to the arriving hall our pick-up guide ada sudah di luar angkat2 sepanduk bearing with si Flo punya nama. Oppssss!!! Hehehehe....yeah me and bff Flo together in this trip. Our 1st time traveling together out of the country. How nice!!

Yours truly & Va Va Voom

Actually 8 of us in a group, besides me & Flo the rest are both our family members.  Here they are.

Yours truly with beloved mum

(While waiting for the Van)

Ma family ~ mum & cousin (w/ white shirt)

Flo's family ~ Purple blouse (mum) and the rest are her aunts 

To reach Manila from Clark is about 2 1/2 hours drive and this time we traveled by Van. 1st thing caught my attention while passing through some areas are this mess

 

Punya lah main sandi wire electric diorang kan?! Nah...kamu sendiri tingu kamu sendiri komen lah hehehe...

Next, you will see these a lot while on the road. Their public transport or service transport. 

 

They called this Padjak

Since our journey to Manila consuming hours of drive, our driver spared us a short rest-stop for 20mins at a Mega Station somewhere in Clark for a quick self free time sight-seeing, restroom or getting necessary supplies from the store before continuing our journey  to Manila.


As for us (me, mum & cousin) our 1st peso earned to mineral water at one of the Mega Station mini store. Haus bah, tu lihir karing sudah!!!  and of course not forgetting capturing some nice photos around it. Really boost-up your x'mas mood seeing their x'mas decorations all around.

After Mega Station there's nothing much too see really as it is a coastal highway along the way to Manila, the road a bit dark and no street lights, while moving vehicles left and right are drove too fast. Scary huh! but i think the drivers there used to it.

By 7:30pm we started to enter the mouth of Manila. Not yet there but almost. The jammed was so hectic and crowded with cars. I noticed most of the drivers there are not following road regulations main hantam kromok saja!! all you can hear is the honking cars!! Selfish drivers from my observation and it reminds me similar things while am traveled to Indonesia last April.

We reached at Casa Bocobo Hotel around 8:30pm. Upon arrival at the hotel we were welcome by our tour coordinator who is patiently waiting for us. Our 1st time meeting him in person actually, all the while Flo is  the one dealing with him through FB pertaining all of our arrangements while our stay in Manila.  We are so lucky everything has been taking care of upon our arrival and just get ourselves checked-in 1st before proceed to the next agenda. Tired and hungry at the same time after long hours stuck in the Van but still excited to explore nighty Manila.

 Casa Bocobo Christmas Tree Decor

After checked-in our belongings in the hotel room we are then dropped at the Robinson Mall for a short shopping for the night and managed our own dinner. Our pick-up time is at 10pm. For your info our package is not included lunch or dinner so we have to managed that by our own except for breakfast as Hotel we are staying have complimentary breakfast for their hotel guests.

After done some survey, finally we choose "Mr. Choi Kitchen" for our 1st night diner at the Robinson. For info, you can find many of Robinson Mall around Manila. So these are our dinner for that night. Flo's and family dine in at the same place just next to our table with their own choices of menu.

 

For Non-Muslim you will find Philippines a 'food heaven' but not for our Muslim friend. So hard to find halal one. Muslim friend who wish to visit Philippines i suggest you surf some info 1st on where the best place you can enjoy food without worrying of its halalness or perhaps get recommendation from a Muslim friends, family or relatives that have been traveled to Philippines for dine in / food options.

After dinner we walked and looked around Robinson while waiting for our pick-up time. Some ada juga yang tershopping 2 or 3 items lah including me & Flo hehehehe....So, now lets picture do the talking lah...

I just can't help myself not to snap a x'mas memory here

In fact me and Flo have bought something from here but not buying the fancy undies and bra tu ar!! tapi yang di dalam tu, yang baju-baju tu haha...i have bought one sleeveless there for me  to wear jadi burung hantu that night hehehehe...and for you to know i only packed a few baju to wear from KK as i planned to do ma shopping and X'mas shopping in Philippines : )

Since our pick-up time is at 10pm we didn't managed to round all the shops in Robinson, only managed to round a few shops. Lain lah kalo dari pagi kena drop-off di sana hehe...furthermore all the elderly is tired already, paham2 lah they need to recharge energy for the next day tour and again shopping!!

Ah ha!! this guy is our tour coordinator Mr. Gore Santiago. He famously known among travelers from Sabah. He is a freelance tour coordinator and have his own team. "Tiptop" services he and his team provide. If you plan for a budget trip to Philippines among friends & family or love one just buzz and add him in FB (Gore Santiago) for a best deal, arrangement and "Tiptop" services with your own flexible time / itinerary to choose from.

Back to the hotel but not for me and Flo. Helooooo we are not elderly like the others hehe.  Well, we sending the rest to the hotel 1st while me and Flo silently sneaked-out for a night out and asked Gore to accompany us without our mum's knowledge budak jajal tapi baik hehehehe...Hey, we want to experience nite life there lah furthermore we can only have a night out for one night only as Gore will be away for outstation to handle another coming group while our group will be handled by one of his new member in his team Mr. Javier, so pa lagi we full blast lah on our 1st night out.

Gore brought us to Malate area hotspot for a live band. The place called Cowboy Grill. There are 3 bands performing turn by turn. The Philippines band are so really good in performing and entertaining.  Crowd don't say lah, even we witnessed 2 an elderly man with a hip-hop style, dancing like no one business in the dance floor. We asked Gore if those 2 an elderly man are locals surprisingly they are not in fact they are Japanese. I didn't managed to candid them but i think Flo did hehehe. Besides the Japanese elderly man, they are these few young guys dancing in front of us  trying hard to impress me and Flo with their gays dance move hahaha....there are many people characters to observed that really make us entertained while enjoying our San Miguel drinks and the live band!!

 

We stayed up at Cowboy Grill until almost 1am!! Did we tired NO!! too excited kan!! Well, this time we asked Gore  to bring us to an extra-ordinary place for a new experience and for an 'eyes catching' entertainment only. He then suggested us a place called "White Bird" we agreed and the new adventure "for eyes only" begin. 

Am not gonna share our "White Bird" story here, as it's totally required people that are really matured and really open-minded to hear it haha!! So lets me & Flo kept it for ourselves for now hehe!!

We backed to the hotel at 4am and only have our sleeps for 2 hours...Phew...what a night!!

To be continue...