arrival in Manila

Photo of the city from my 16th floor room window. Way off in the distance, where the fog and smog come together you might be able to see water - that's Manila Bay. I didn't notice it at first. I can get better photos of the water from the other side of the hotel (the water's closer on the other side).


26 Sept 2007

Hello from Manila!

It is 9:19 AM here on the 26th and my last two meals have both been breakfast (one on the plane and one here at the hotel). Meanwhile, it is 6:19 PM on the 25th in Los Angeles. I think my body is thoroughly confused.

We were about 20 minutes late boarding the Boeing 747-400 and our plane was finally careening down the runway about an hour behind schedule. Surprisingly, we still arrived in Guam pretty much on time, just after 3AM (11AM PST). We sat on the plane for just over an hour while the plane was refueled and we were off again. Guam is a 2 hour time difference from Manila, so after a 3 hour plane ride, we arrived in Manila at 5:30AM. (Did you get all that "time travel" math? I think I got it right). Immigration and customs did not take long, but waiting for baggage did.

Emory had arranged a van for the 5 of us (Talina, Ralph, Peggy, Bill, and myself) from the airport to the hotel. We had a good driver amidst the chaos. There are more motorcycles than in LA, mostly small bikes, and many with two people on each. They drive on the same side of the street as we do and most of the cars here look as they do in the USA… but some of them really do not. I will try to get a photo because it is hard to explain. We passed by neighborhoods with houses crammed right next to each other, many of them two stories tall, each painted their own distinct bright color, and quite run down. I saw white lines painted on the streets, but they don't seem to mean anything to the drivers nor the pedestrians. Even now, I can hear the honking on the street from my 16th floor hotel room.

We arrived at the Shangri-la Trader's Hotel in Manila around 7:30AM - just in time to check-in, get the note that was waiting for us from Emory, and then realize from Emory's note that we had just a few minutes to go meet up with some of the other crew for breakfast.

Breakfast here at the hotel was a plentiful and eclectic buffet. Miso soup, oatmeal, green salad, pineapple, cantaloupe, sausage, toast, prunes, olives (for the salad maybe?), French toast, pancakes, bacon, glass noodles with shrimp, dried mango, chopped green onions, and a variety of chopped up things in small dishes that I couldn't identify nor identify upon or with what they were suppose to go.

The temperature here is not bad (26C or 78.8F), but the sun is not breaking through the clouds either. It is quite humid as expected, but for the moment, it is pleasant enough. I've got to turn up the temperature in my room… I'm getting chilly, though it is currently set at 23C.

We'll meet up at 5PM for dinner buffet in the hotel and hopefully, we'll find out the plan. For now the plan is that we might board the ship tomorrow. As of 24 Sept, though, the ROV was still waiting to go through customs. I may blog again tonight with the updated plan.