Hanoi -> Malaysia -> Manila
Hanoi 9:00am to Kuala Lumpur 1:15pm
Kuala Lumpur 8:20pm to Manila 12:10am
I wisely used advanced check-in and learned AirAsia was planning a system upgrade the day we flew.
Their online system was a bit wonky even the day before the upgrade. The check in counter was a gong show but eventually we got through. Once on the plane a nice AirAsia rep hunted us down and took our next flight boarding passes. He claimed we need new ones once in Malaysia. Weird. The flight was cool as was the Transfer desk in Malaysia. New boarding passes were printed and we were warned about the system upgrade starting soon.
As we had 7 hours, we decided to get to our gate and chill. There were plenty of food choices and sitting areas for us to use. The system upgrade warnings continued on the overhead for hours. Every once in a while travelers would sprint by where we were sitting. It was a long walk from the airport entrance to this part of the airport. Hopefully they made it. Once on the plane the staff did like 6 head counts. Multiple people were up front checking numbers as well. Perhaps the downed system required a manual workflows. We were flying soon enough and landing into Manila. As it was a night landing, the size of the city was not that obvious. The airport is close to the water and the waters seemed to be dotted with many a boat. Security and Immigration was smooth. Bags were acquired easily. We generally skip Uber/Grab from airports as we learned from experience they often cannot come into the Airport grounds. At the taxi stop, we were approached by a non taxi driver I think. He pulled out an official taxi rate guide for the short distance we were travelling. He seemed honest enough and soon his friend pulled in with a nice Sprinter style van. These guys were certainly not official Taxi drivers but they were kind and friendly offering us all kinds of advice about the area. Traffic is wickedly good at 2 AM. This will change with the daylight.
We were soon dropped of at the "Fort Budget Hostel" We wisely booked for 2 days since we arrived early on the first day ha ha. Our first impression was this place is scary. Perhaps it was because it was dark, maybe because the door bolt did not work. Maybe it was the lack of a bathroom sink. It just felt super budget cheap in a armpit part of town. We had no choice for now and crashed after a long day. I actually started looking for alternatives immediately. AirBnB had plenty of options for a little more than we were paying. After sleeping in I immediately worked on getting a few AirBnB's lined up and sorting out the payment method. PayPal requires a password change on each new country it seems. Michelle was ok with my AirBnB choice and it was booked. We had one more night in Fort Budget so we ventured out a little. The Hotel had a nice common area upstairs for sitting/eating and meeting new friends. I hung out there for a while.
We did not feel comfortable heading out in this part of town yet so we lazily got Grab eats for lunch and dinner. We soon learned we are actually in the safest part of Manila just perhaps on the over urbanized side. Either way our AirBnB was booked. Both Michelle and KT felt like crap so we decided to stay for 6 nights to do nothing but chill in a San Lorenzo Place Condominium AirBnB. The host of this place was very good with communication. ID's were required to be sent to her prior to arrival. The condo security were ready with the printed ID's to validate us and soon we were led to Tower 2 Suite 21Q. A friendly house cleaner person was waiting for us inside and we were given they key. It was a nice small place. 2 sleeping rooms, bathroom, small kitchen and living area. The smell however was outrageous. I knew the smell. Moth balls. Somebody thought Moth balls are ok being spread everywhere. I snooped around the place and found 2-3 shrunken moth balls in a majority of the cupboards. I sealed at least 50 of them in an airtight container and opened the windows for several days. The chemical permeates into everything and the smell really never left. We left the AC on, fan's running and windows open all the time. Crazy. I later told the owner that she is poisoning her clients as this is not how to use Moth Balls. The Condo grounds are home to all kinds of amenities. Shopping, groceries, Doctors Office. It was perfect. We even had a Tim Horton's, WTF.
For whatever reason it was soon after our first 2 nights that all 3 of us were feeling lousy. Luckily we had the time to rest, relax and seek help. Michelle found excellent medical care in the local facility. Kaitlyn found excellent eye ware support for contacts she needed. After 3 days, I got the courage to walk to a health food store to get some vitamins we were seriously missing. I can't deny walking in this "safe" part of town was not interesting. There were very few tourists walking. Most traveled in these stretched jeep vehicles called Jeepneys. http://sus.stanford.edu/blog/2018/3/19/the-rise-and-fall-of-jeepneys-in-metro-manila-philippines. I chose to walk 2.5 KM's each way. It felt great to get out. Most of the walk was typical inner city congestion. I was greeted with both looks of curiosity and smiles. Sweet. There were 2 sections of the sidewalk covered in 20 or 30 garbage bags full of ... garbage, WTF. This city has problems. I found the store easy enough. Health Options http://www.healthyoptions.com.ph/ The store was stocked with a huge selection of American brands. It was crazy. And pricey. I felt it was time for some digestion support. They had it all, especially the indispensable Bone Broth. It took only 3 days and I felt like a million bucks. Yay. It was soon time to wrap up our stuff and prepare for the next part of our journey. This one was organized by Kaitlyn actually. She spent hours researching a safe place to dive in the Philippines. Trust me, there are some seriously not safe places here. We completely trusted her research, paid the bills and were soon packing for Legazpi, Donsol and Ticao Island. Let's get out of Manila. I need to see some nature.
Sorry, not may pics of this part of our journey
Night landing, lotsa lights on the water
No sink, really
The Condo had cats
KT is happy
The view from our Condo stairwell
Congested traffic a majority of the time
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