The second flight left on time but was very long. It was about 16 hours later that I arrived in Hong Kong. Even though I had an upgrade to Business Class, this was anything but pleasure as my back decided to act up. I got little or no sleep. However, once in Hong Kong, I had another 2 hour wait for the final leg of the flight into Manila. This flight left on time and touched down on time but then had to wait 35 minutes to get a gate to park. So I finally got out of the plane about 12:40 AM Manila time on Friday. Of course I still had to wait a little off my luggage. To top off my trip, when I got my bag, it was obvious that the airline had managed to break the one handle on my suitcase. So I had to wait around to file a report on that. I finally left the airport about 1:30 AM in a taxi. I arrived at the hotel, Best Western Oxford Suites in Makati City about 20 minutes later.
There my airbnb.com, Art, host met me in the lobby as promised. Art owns one of the rooms (suites) at the hotel that he rents out. I found it quite nice - just as the airbnb description stated. I got to bed about 2:30Am and thought I seemed dead tired, I had a hard time falling asleep. Even when I did, I woke up about 6:30 AM and decided to get up.
Today, I walked about Makati City and checked out the local restaurants, banks etc. Art, my airbnb host, showed me about and we had lunch together. Art is a call center director here. Andy, another call center director and an American expat, also joined us for lunch. We ate at a local bar that offers a curry lunch complete with all the bottles of beer, soda, water you would like. It wa quite good and very spicy. This same place offers a Sunday Roast Buffet which I might sample on Sunday. After lunch, I walked around a god deal more as I want to get some exercise after the previous day and a half of sitting in planes and airports. Hopefully I can some some serious sleep tonight.
BTW, the airline, Cathay Pacific, arranged for my suitcase to be picked up today. I assume I will get it back by Monday as I am planning to leave town on Tuesday. Art has promised to go over the places here in the Philippines I want to see so I can get an itinerary and the necessary airline tickets. There isn't too much I want to see in the Manila area but I need to rest up, etc.
