My Thriller in Manila
Woke up this morning, no bed bud bites, so I guess I must have have squeezed them tight. Shower was a dribble, water was cold, but I managed to wash. Requested a well cooked omelette, received a medium, with sloppy inner!
Our man at the airport was late, what a surprise, we arrived on time by covered tricycle, Albert was our driver; 15 minute ride for $1, to be honest I felt a little mean only giving him $1, the feeling lasted 20 seconds.
Quickly through customs and immigration we take off to the north, today all was generally efficient with a quick VFR clearance. The trip is beautiful, what with all the scattering of green lush islands 🌴. Each island seems to have its own beach, we are tempted to take a dip, maybe tomorrow. Most of the trip is at 900ft purely because we can, maybe we should have flown lower? The northern section or the island upon which Puerto Princessa sits on has the most fabulous looking beaches, I promise myself to return with Maria.
Our instructions on entering Manila are to be at 300ft by 5nm from the airport, this is low but we try to comply. I say try because at 5 DME we are over the city, and they are building in this city. The weather is mixed, smog, smoke, mist and rain. The city also has big buildings. ATC also instruct us to maintain 300ft to avoid arriving commercial traffic. We are flying below the easterly approach. 5 miles out we still cannot see the airport but know where it is due to the large birds flying over us towards it. ATC are vectoring us but we are too low for them to see us on radar! They constantly request our position, "blind leading the blind".
Do we have Okado in sight
What or where is okado, (30secs later) we have a big dome building in sight, and the city of dreams beyond.
Good report west helipad and landing
Where is the west helipad?
(No answer). We head to a clearing between two runways, making sure not to cross either. We spot a "h" on a taxiway and land.
Now where is our destination parking spot. It is after a little coaxing behind us, miraculously we had found the correct area to land and taxi.
Tonight's hotel is rather plush! They have a reception! And a roof top pool 🏊 which is probably one of my best rooftop pools to date.
McDonalds is next to the hotel so I have to visit, and dinner is at Wolfgang steakhouse. The steakhouse is in a mall situated next to a casino which is next to one of the largest Marriott hotels I have seen. At 3:30 the casino is packed.
Dinner done I return to the roof top pool bar to catch up with the blog 😍😘
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