Busy First Week!

Shopping

This week was mostly spent at the office or sleeping or shopping. Every day I go to Landmark and get some food. I usually have vegetables. But have tried a variety of dishes. It's been fun trying things. And no, I don't have any favorites

And as for shopping, it's been mostly shoes. I have been looking for black shoes to replace these ones I have at home. I have been looking actually for a couple years. I should have KNOWN I would find them here. The department store has 10 times more shoes in it than any department store in the US. It has as more shoes than a store such as Payless! So I have bought some much needed replacements for when I get home and a couple different ones that will expand my selection. LOL.

Clothes here are "one size fits all". I'm not sure who the ALL is, but it isn't me! So I stick with shoes. And I am even limited there due to size. I wear a US 8. Here, that's equivalent to a 39 or 40. It is difficult finding 39s and almost impossible to find 40s. So it takes a long time to get just the right ones. But alas, I have managed!

The Pool

Today it was rainy so I didn't go to Ocean Park. It was fine because I did laundry and rested. After dinner, I was determined to stay up during the time I would be working so I thought I would go to the pool.

On the way to the pool, the hall butler was there and I told him I had some shoe boxes that needed to be in the trash. However, there wasn't a trash can big enough for 4 boxes, so they were stacked by the door and could he have housekeeping come and get them. He looked at me funny and said that would be the Bellman. I thought that was funny, but told him I would contact the bellman when I got back from the pool. And on my way to the pool I went.

The water was cold, so I asked if there was a jacuzzi. There is... in the "SPA". Yes this is a formal, quiet health spa. I go to the floor and they set me up with a locker and made me some tea.

I sat in the jacuzzi for about 45 minutes reading. I get out, get my towel to shower off. Well I to not lock the locker since I didn't have anything in it except my shoes and my dress I wear over my bathing suit. I get out of the shower, walk over to my locker and it has autolocked! Here I am in my towel, no attendant in sight and I can't get into the locker. I wander around the ladies spa, see no one. So I bit the bullet and walked out to the desk. Thank goodness it was 10:30 PM and there was no other residents in sight. So she came and unlocked it and cheerfully reminded me to always lock the locker. I was SO embarrassed! Lesson learned!

I get back to my room and the bellman had done his best to satisfy my trash request. You can see the pictures below of his solution. All I could do was chuckle. But it works!



The shoe boxes stacked by the door waiting for housekeeping to take.



The largest trash can in the room.

The Bellman's solution. He brings a large Kleenix box with a trash liner!



Room for more boxes!  LOL



First Days in Manila

My time is upside down! And I am so glad to have the weekend to get myself settled. When I arrived it was 11:00 PM here... But that is 11:00 AM Eastern time. I had slept a lot of the flight, so not really tired. I didn't know if I should try to sleep or not. I will be working from 9:00 PM - 6:00 AM Manila time because this group will be working US hours. I decided to go into the Writer's Lounge at the Hotel.

I am staying at Raffles. A boutique hotel that has "residences". So I basically have a one bedroom apartment. The reason why I am here is because there are some long stay trainers and coaches here. And I wanted to be with others. So it was from that lounge that I wrote my arrival post.

Saturday I slept most of the day. In the afternoon I went over to The Landmark. Which is the multilevel store and got some fresh vegetables, rice and other staples for my apartment. My total bill was 1677.00 pesos, which is about $38. About 1/2 what I would pay for the same groceries in the US.

After getting all the groceries and all my things unpacked, I went down to get dinner. The Raffles has an AMAZING buffet. And I was hungry. So I enjoyed the mixture of the cuisines. Then I went to get desert I asked if they had Halo Halo. She said she would make one for me! YUM! In southern California there are many Filipinos. And I have some really fabulous friends that are and introduced me to much of the food culture. Halo Halo is one of them.
I am going to attach some links for you to explore about the hotel and Halo Halo. :)

Halo Halo at Raffles Hotel

Raffles Hotel Link

Travel day - Pictures from Japan Airport



I wanted to share some pictures of the Narita airport. I wish I would have had time to see more but I was hurried.


Welcome to Narita-line to stay in Japan

 This first picture is the line in the terminal for those arriving who were staying. 

Narita Line to connect to International Flight... my line.

This is the picture of those waiting to connect. We had to go back through Security.  Lost my unoped bottle of water and a smoothie I was hoping to have.  I didn't take my iPad out so had to get all rechecked again.

Long line to get to the shuttles to take us to boarding the plane. It wrapped all the way around the room. And they had already been boarding for 20 minutes by the time I got there.

Standing room only on the Shuttle to boarding the aircraft. 

When I went to take this selfie, I noticed the Filipina getting in.  So I included this beautiful smile! 

A view out the shuttle window of things seen along the route to boarding the plane

I didn't get any pictures of the boarding. But it was all going up the stairs to the plane like we do on some of the smaller planes in Palm Spring. Good thing I packed light so I could carry it all up the stairs. This was a BIG plane! Tokyo was sure an experience!

Some Pictures from Day 1 Travels

Slowly getting the hang of Blogger. I suggest coming back and reviewing the posts as I get a chance to add pics and comments. The first pic is a selfie on the way from Culver, IN to the South Bend airport. Ready to take off for Manila 8:00 AM Eastern Time!

At ORD (Chicago Ohara)they have this huge dinosaur!

Another picture of Ohara at the Dino's legs.

The route the plane took was up through Canada. I didn't get pic since it was too far down. But I really enjoyed seeing the THOUSANDS of lakes as we went. Many of them still frozen over from the winter. On the plan I love to watch the route. If you know me, one of my goals is to visit every state in the USA. I haven't been to Alaska. But I can now say I flew over it!

Okay, Okay I couldn't help myself! I grabbed a picture of flying over Alaska. See... can't see a thing in the pic! Arrival time at Tokyo Narita Airport 4:20 PM there. It was a 10 hour flight.

Arrived safe and sound!!

This post doesn't include pictures because I don't have my iPad set correctly. Will work on that tomorrow.  But enjoy the notes of today's journey!

Left Culver at 8:00 am eastern time Thursday and arrived Manila Friday 10:00 am eastern time, which is 10:00 pm here.  My trip was a drive from Culver to South Bend.  Then a flight to Chicago Ohara.  I had a bit of a layover there so I was able to attend a couple calls and get some work done.  Then hopped on a plane from there to Tokyo. It was about 30 minutes late leaving and even in the air 10 hours we weren't able to make up too much time. 

In Tokyo I had to change planes and terminals. It was interesting that here were no retail places. And I didn't realize I had to go through security again.  There went my unopened bottle of water. :(

Also in Tokyo they required the ipad to be taken out of the bag. I didn't know which caused additional search and rescanning of said bag and ipad. 

Finally through they herded us to the "gate" 27D.  It was a line to hop on a shuttle bus which took us up to the airplane.  Good thing I packed light because I had to carry it up the steps into the plane. Interesting.....

Flight to Manila was uneventful. And when we arrived I got ALL my luggage... YAY....  They had carts there.. Free... Because at this point I didn't have any Pesos.  And breezed through immigrations. There were only two people in front of me.  I was glad to have the cart. After that much travel, I was tired.  When I got to customs there was zero lines. And I must say they were the NICEST customs people I have ever experienced. And I breezed through.

Next stop to get pesos. But at the line where the people were waiting, I saw my sign.  So I connected with the hotel escort and he got the car and the luggage in it while I banked.  In regards to banking, I wish I would have asked for smaller bills. I just didn't think about needing tip for the driver and the bellman.  

The hotel is amazing.  It is a boutique hotel and they don't even have a checking desk. They take you to your room and you "check in" in the comfort of your own table.  But more about the hotel tomorrow.  I am in what they call the "writers lounge" enjoying a cup of decaf with brown sugar and cream!  Yummy!!!

Packing day

Even though I have a day full of calls, I still need to get my packing done.  I am going to try for jus one suitcase.  Think I can do it????