MNL-DXB-LOS

From MNL..

September 12, 2008. Arrived at NAIA a little after 9pm. Lesley and I checked in together, and then headed towards immigration. And as expected, we were held for questioning about why we were going to Nigeria. There was about five to ten minutes of planning what to do in case we weren’t allowed to go. And a lot of things ran past my mind: what about my leaves? I’ve already used up quite a lot and if we weren’t allowed to go to Nigeria, I wouldn’t have anything left to use until December.. what about my plans? I’ve already set my mind that I would be undergoing a more comprehensive training doing local support for one of our business units, and that I would be doing it with extra pay and extra leaves.. what about my business class flight? Yeah I know this sounds cheap and insignificant, but I really did worry about not experiencing a business class trip.

Anyway, after a few minutes of waiting, we were allowed to go to Nigeria. I didn’t know if Lesley and I were relieved or not. But a sigh was let out nonetheless.

One of the perks of having a Business Class ticket was getting an invitation to the Business Class lounge. It was like a coffee house, but with everything in it for free. I ate some and just relaxed until it was time to board the plane. And when I saw the seats where we were assigned, I literally said “oh my god”. Because oh my god, the leg space/room was amazing. I could easily stretch my feet and legs without having to stand. And then I let out another gasp of unbelief when I saw that I had my very own tv. How cool is that? I was like a kid inside a candy store. But in this case I was just Chux inside the Business Class area of an airplane. Giddy, excited, relaxed and comfortable. Ahhh..

The food wasn’t bad at all. Because the only airplane food I can compare it with was the one from Philippine Airlines when we went to Vancouver. And it really didn’t put up much of a fight with Emirates’ food. Maybe because it was also Economy vs. Business class, but still. I thought the food was really good coming from an airplane. And, to top it all off, it was open bar. Yehey! I was tempted to drink as much as I can, but I got shy of Lesley. She wasn’t a drinker at all, and I didn’t want her to think that I was a drunk. I just.. I just love to have a couple of drinks.. or more. Especially when it’s free.

The personal TV was amazing. I could watch whatever I want, whenever I want. It was divided into three main menus: Information, Communication and Entertainment (ICE). With information, you could view all the stuff about the flight. You could even see a view of the outside similar to what the pilots are looking at or a view of below, as if you were peering directly downwards. In Communication, you could choose to text or call someone from the phone/remote on the side of the seat. And Entertainment, well it was the best part. It was broken down to Movies, TV shows, Music and Radio. Each of them were further broken down to different genres, different artists, different albums etc.

After the light snack I started to watch Prince Caspian, but fell sleepy 30 minutes into the film. I finished off my glass of red wine and then dozed off for four hours. I woke up to breakfast and then decided to watch TV shows. There were episodes from Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy and other new ones. But there was still one TV show that I really needed to watch. FRIENDS. The list had six random episodes from different seasons. I watched all of them, of course, just in time to land and stow away the TV.

to DXB..

September 13, 2008. It was around 4:30am local time when we arrived. And boy, was it beautiful. For quite some time I actually wished that the flight to Nigeria would be cancelled so we’d get stuck here. The Dubai International Airport was more like a mall than an airport. We had fun going around, Lesley looking for things to buy and me taking pictures. At first I was apprehensive about taking photos, but when I saw other tourists doing it, I quickly joined the bandwagon. Dubai Duty Free was the catchphrase, and it seemed like it just slides off of your mouth. DUBAI DUTY FREE. But apparently, the price of PSP there is almost the same as that with SM North Edsa Cyberzone. So I probably wouldn’t buy any electronics here inside the airport. I was told that gadgets were cheaper outside the airport, within Dubai itself. After going around, we decided to spend the rest of the time inside the Emirates Business Class Lounge. Since we were in UAE (Emirates’ hub) the lounge was probably the biggest than with any other airport. It had two floors and buffet snacks as well. I was too full from the food in the first flight so I just surfed the net. I was able to chat with jag and rj, and the interwebs kept me company until we boarded the next flight. The flight that would take us to our real destination.

to LOS..

How I wish LOS meant Los Angeles. But no, it meant Lagos. This flight will take about 7 hours, so I decided to manage my time well. I finally got to finish Prince Caspian and then managed to slip in an hour of intermittent sleep. I managed to wake myself up with just two hours before landing. So I chose to watch Horton Hears a Who that lasted only 88 minutes. With time to spare, I just decided to sit back, put my feet up, pop in some music and enjoy the last few minutes of enjoyable time. Because, truly, at the back of my mind, I was thinking “I’m going to Nigeria”. And the emoticon for that is K.

In the music playlist there was a grouping called “Essential Albums” which listed popular and bestselling albums of all time. I listened to a few of them (just songs, not the entire album). I went from the Beatles, to Metallica, to Nirvana, to Pearl Jam, to Norah Jones, to Mariah Carey, to U2, to Michael Jackson, to Eric Clapton, to Bob Marley, to Ray Charles, and to a lot more. But the final song, oh man, I specifically wanted my final song to be a hell of a song. At the end of the list was The Who. And I only know of one song from The Who, one song that really blew my mind when I first heard it. And apparently, I heard it from House. Baba O’reily by The Who. I just think that its musicality is very very good. Download it, listen to it and know what I’m talking about.

So the captain announced that we were starting our descent, and were about to land in a few minutes. As we decreased altitude, I got to view what Lagos looked like from atop. It was exactly what I expected it to be. So this is Africa.

Red Earth

Even before landing, the first thing I noticed was how the soil seemed so red. Not even close to our shit-brown soil in the Philippines. The soil here was a darker shade of red and brown. And it hit me. From what I read about Africa, from what I watch from movies, from what I see online, it is true. African soil is red because of all the years of bloodshed and fighting over it. I realized that Africa wasn’t a place to be scared of, but a place to take pity on. Now I get why Bono loves this place.

MMIA

No, the MM does not stand for Metro Manila. Haha. We finally landed at the Murtala Muhammed International airport here in Lagos, Nigeria. It was a decent enough airport, and the people who work here are basically the same with those who work at NAIA, especially the immigrations officer: straight-faced and rude. But nonetheless, after immigration we were met by Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) partners whose primary work is to meet and greet Chevron travelers to Nigeria. It sounds corny, but meeting them and having them escort us made me feel safer, better. As we went out the airport, we walked to where the coaster/shuttle and the armed escort was parked. While walking, I noticed how everyone was looking at us as we passed. I felt so white.

We left the airport with just me and Lesley inside the shuttle. For the first thirty minutes, we just coasted and traffic was nowhere in sight. That was until we were diverted to another road because some road was being fixed. And from there, I got to view how traffic in Nigeria was like. It’s like 8:00AM southbound lane EDSA times 10. It took us more than two and a half hours to reach the hotel, which was supposed to take 45 minutes only.

Hotel Bellisimo

Not much to say here. It is an OKAY hotel, not a WOW hotel. I guess I’m liking the part where I’m by myself and I can do whatever I want, which is not much given the situation. We can’t go out of the hotel for security reasons, we can’t eat too much because a meal here costs USD20 to USD40. We can’t swim in the pool, well, because we don’t want to. Watching TV with 6 channels will not last you long, and sleeping can be tiresome if done too much. What I’m enjoying is smoking at the bar, with two free drinks every day for guests. Nice. I’m going to try their local beer Star after I post this blog.

This will be it for now, I’ll update you guys again one of these days.