Mabuhay!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012



Mabuhay is a traditional Filipino greeting, along the lines of "welcome, we're glad you're here!"  Boy am I glad to be here!

Well, I arrived in Manila late last night and was immediately greeted by the humidity and the sounds of a busy city.  Upon arrival, I quickly went through immigration and had a new found appreciation for Greg and Roxy who helped me gather my luggage last year; its kind of difficult on your own!

After passing through customs, I found the hotel lounge for the Ascott hotels and waited less than ten minutes for a driver to take me to my hotel.  I mentioned before that I was not thrilled to be staying here, and upon check-in, I'm even more grateful that my time at this hotel will be short.  My rock hard bed is actually two twin beds pushed together.  No big deal, right?  Wouldn't be so bad if they had king size bedding on it, instead there are (dirty) overlapping twin comforters.  

I quickly checked in with my family and then went right to bed and got a few hours of sleep.  This morning I woke up early and took my time showering and getting ready to walk to the mall.  One benefit of the Somerset Millennium hotel is its close proximity to Greenbelt mall, where I enjoyed breakfast at a favorite restaurant, Italiani's.   I walked around Greenbelt 5 and 1 and purchased a few things I forgot to pack at Watson's pharmacy.

My flights were pretty uneventful.  When checking in at Des Moines International Airport, I purchased a 1 day pass to the Delta lounge for $39 bucks, saving $11 from purchasing at the door in Detroit.  I hung out in the lounge for several hours, enjoying free coffee and snacks in a comfy chair with free wifi.  Deal of the century.

In Detroit, I noticed a guy waiting at my gate who gave me the creeps.  Not sure what it was about him, but something was just off.  Of course, when I get on the flight, I see he is sitting right behind me.  Ugh.  The middle seat between my window seat (with extra legroom!) and the aisle seat was free, and the woman next to the creeper asked if she could move up next to me - he had creeped her out too!

Our plane was older, no in-seat movies on-demand, instead we had projectors every 15 rows or so.  I watched a few movies on my iPad and dozed off between meals.  Honestly, the flight from Detroit to Nagoya didn't seem that bad.  Perhaps it was my awesome neck pillow that my friend Saf helped me find!  It is inflatable, so I can make it as firm as I want, but it also covered in fleece, so it is comfortable. 

Nagoya was exactly how I remembered it, security was fairly easy and within an hour we were back on our flight.  The Filipino woman who moved up to the middle seat was able to snag the aisle as its previous occupant stayed in Japan.  Another movie and an episode of How I Met Your Mother later, we landed in Manila.

Today, I'm going to lounge around, maybe visit the pool and catch a few hours of sleep before heading into work at 4am. 

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