Manila, Philippines – 16-17 November 2024

We land into Manila (from Boracay) at 12.06pm on Saturday 16 November to no rain. Ye ha! This means Super Typhoon Pepito (local name) / Man-Yi (International name) hasn’t hit yet. Long may that continue.

50 minutes after landing I’m heading down (at the hotel) for some lunch. Prior to leaving the airport I found a Cathay Pacific worker who said the typhoon is due to hit tomorrow morning. So, let’s see what happens with my flight tomorrow night. That’s tomorrow’s problem.

Ooh wow, the heavens have well and truly opened! At this rate there won’t be pool time this afternoon. I’m very lucky to get to the hotel while it was dry (I walked from the Manila runway, aka sky bridge).

 

Well, gone are the beautiful blue skies in Boracay.

I have a very chilled afternoon, for some reason I’m feeling quite tired. The 6am wake up time obviously doesn’t help.

I’m the end I decide to eat dinner at the steakhouse in the hotel. Can’t quite deal with going to the mall / casino area and having to decide where to eat.

Dirty martini ordered then I focus on the food menu.

I decide on Lamb chop, asparagus and black truffle risotto. It’s delicious!

 

After dinner I go to the roof deck to check out the fitness center and pool. Have a sneaky suspicion that I’ll be walking on the treadmill tomorrow morning and not outside. But let’s see.

The view is amazing! My photos won’t do it justice.

I wake just before 8am on Sunday 17 November. A huge sleep in for me! Was so nice not being woken up by roosters. Opening the curtains it’s clear it has been raining but isn’t currently right now.

I’m on complete go-slow mode! Finally leaving the room before 9.30am for a walk outside.

I decide there is no point going to the airport to check my flight - they aren’t going to know this early what the typhoon is doing. For now, I’ll stick with my original flight.

I pick up a croissant and fruit platter in the mall / casino area on my way back to the hotel.

After a hot shower (needed!), I pack up.

Lunch (at the restaurant) is an epic fall! I had ordered a pizza, was told it would take 20-30 minutes. Ok no problem. 30 minutes comes and goes and no pizza. I ask someone who tells me they will go and check. Great. He doesn’t return. Ooh my! I ask someone else, who does go and check and brings back something that looks kind of like a pizza. Seriously! I ordered a margarita pizza, nice and basic. But for some reason this hotel can’t even manage that. So, no pizza for me. I’ll eat in the lounge at the airport.

Because it’s raining, I order the hotel shuttle to take me to Manila Runway, the sky bridge to the airport. Very lazy but means I don’t arrive at the airport soaked.

Checking in is super easy. Then I’m the only person in the APEC lane, woo hoo. It’s security first, then immigration. The opposite to what the other airports are.

Within minutes I’m in the lounge and ordering dim sum for lunch.

I have a couple of hours in here relaxing before going to board (which was delayed due to the plane being late landing).

We pull back from the gate 17 minutes late, not bad at all considering how bad the weather has been and so many other flights have either been cancelled or very delayed.

While my time in Manila wasn’t like anything I thought it would be it’s still been a nice 30 hours. I will be back!