I'm in Manila

I JUST arrived in Manila on Monday, having just missed the massive damage of Typhoon Mileyno. I flew in on Etihad Airways, the new airline of the United Arab Emirates. The service was excellent and I flew in on a brand new Boeing 777-300ER. The airport in Abdu Dhabi is rather small and after six hours of layover, and two cappucinos and two bottles of perfume that I had bought at the duty free, I was bored and tired.

I think it's a conspiracy of airlines that run huge hubs where millions of transit passengers are forced to spend hours upon hours waiting for their connecting flights. When you are stuck in a confined environment like an airport there are only two things to do: Eat and shop. It's nearly impossible not to give in to one's shopping instincts while in such an environment.

Sweating in the humid heat while I waited yesterday for my friend's driver to pick me up from NAIA ("traffik, sir!" was the usual Manila excuse for being late) I called my host and friend Aris and said "I hope you have power!"

"Yes!" was his reassuring reply. And sure enough when I arrived at his one-room condo unit in Makati, the icy blast of his aircon greeted me.

****I'm blogging from an Internet cafe in Greenbelt after having walnut pancakes at Pancake House and buying my favorite Pinoy magazines at National bookstore and in Landmark.****I'm going to be here in Manila until the 17th. Anyone wanting to contact me can call me on 09166442288.****I'm going to attend a bloggers breakfast meeting on Saturday at Starbucks Shangri-La in Makati at 10 a.m. We are going to talk about ways to encourage OFWs to vote in next year's elections. Any blogger interested in joining us is more than welcome. See you there!