Flying to Manila

An early start this morning, my alarm going off at 5.00. We got ready quickly, finished packing those items we'd had out of our cases and checked out soon after 5.30. The taxi we'd ordered through reception the previous evening was already waiting, and we were soon on our way to the airport. Our Pakistani driver was quite chatty and the fare very reasonable.

The new airport terminal is very attractive and was easy to navigate, with very short queues at bag drop, passport control and security. We had plenty of time before our flight so I was able to pick up a bit of Clinique make-up in the duty-free shop before we went for coffee and rather stale croissants at Arabica %

The gate area was impressive too, with lots of comfortable seating. We boarded and took off on time in a plane operated for Etihad by Wamos Air. It was smaller and older than the one we'd flown in from London but we had the bonus of sitting in a row of just two seats with no neighbour.

Lunch was served soon after take-off, switching us immediately into Philippines time – no bad thing. There was a decent potato salad, a rather uninspiring pasta dish and very good chocolate mousse. Later I watched a film, ‘The Intern' with Robert de Niro, which was suitably light viewing for a plane. I read a bit, wrote up my notes and got up a few times to stretch my legs. With a little under two hours to go a snack was served – an even less inspiring puff pastry with a very mean stuffing of mozzarella and tomato paste!

Meanwhile we had flown into darkness somewhere over China. We landed 25 minutes ahead of schedule, but had to wait a few minutes for a gate. Passport control was possibly the quickest I’ve known, however the bags seemed to take an age to appear! But eventually we were through customs and being met by a friendly guy from the local tour company that had arranged our transfer.

The roads were busy and a bit chaotic but not too bad at this time of night [around 10.00 PM local time). We arrived out our hotel, the City Garden Grand (so-called to distinguish it from the City Garden across the road!), and checked in. Our 10th floor room was a reasonable size and comfortable, but there was a lot of noise from the street below, even with windows firmly closed. Good job I brought earplugs!