Eugene Ooi

I recently went for a Business trip to Manila. Although it was a one day meeting, I had to spend three days in Manila due to the flight schedule. There is only one flight a day between Kuala Lumpur and Manila.

I stayed at the Intercontinental Makati. The hotel is not as nice as Shangri-la Makati. I highly recommend Shangri-la as the rooms and facilities are much better. Filipinos has been know for their hospitality. Both the staff at Intercontinental and Shangri-la are top class. Everywhere you go, they will greet you.

When I go into the room, I requested for a iron and board. It came within minutes and the “instant service” operator even called to check if I got the iron and board. That’s really good service.

The Intercontinental is located next to shopping malls. Glorietta 5 and SM Department Store are located on the left and right of the hotel. Glorietta 4 opposite the hotel. All the malls linked to to each other via a bridge so you can go from one to the other very easily.

Despite the many shopping malls, I didn’t buy much. A few packets of dried mangoes, DVDs of local pinoy movies and from Bench, a local Filipino clothing brand, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a pair of shorts and underwear.

Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has three terminals. Terminal 1 is used by International airlines, Terminal 2 by Philippine Airlines and Terminal 3 by Cebu Pacific. Terminal 3 is suppose to be new airport terminal but due to problems it has never been used until recently.

As I was taking Malaysia Airlines, the flight is from Terminal 1. The infrastructure is old but security is tight. Checks are all over the place and the queues are long. Shops at the airport is also very limited.