Philippines Trip - Day 1&2

24^th November 2007 (Saturday)

Excitement was filled with everyone of us who are going to Philippines at 1am flight by Cebu Pacific Airline. Led by our head of delegation, Mr. Yau Chau Fong, who is also the chairman of Young Engineers Session of Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), the Malaysia’s delegation consisted of 15 young engineers and students embarked on a one week trip to attend Young Engineers of ASEAN Federation of Engineering (YEAFEO) in Cebu, Philippines.

At LCCTHappy pose at check in counter

25^th November 2007 (Sunday)

After nearly 4 hours of flight, our plane finally touched down at Ninoy Aquino International Airport at around 5am in the morning. Although it was still early in the morning, we could already feel the hospitality of our Filipinos counterpart as Robin, Rina, Nori and JP from Young Engineers Philippines (YEP) waited us at the airport to welcome us!! It’s so nice of them! The first impression of them had already shown that this trip would be a friendly one.

After putting our luggage and having our breakfast in one of a local restaurant, we started our exploration tour in Makati City, the most modern city in Metro Manila. Unlike the old city of Manila, the Makati city is really a well planned city where many reputable offices and hotels set their base here. Besides, Makati city is also a very secured city. Maybe because of the bombing incident happened in the last few years, the high security level is implemented everywhere. Even at outside of a hotel, you can see many security armed with M-16 guarding the building.

Staying in Manila you can see one similar situation with Malaysia is the traffic here. I think the traffic jam there is even worse than in Malaysia. What even surprised me was that their traffic jam there even could allow sale persons to sell their products like newspapers, peanuts, drinks and etc. in the middle of the highway! Thinking of the similar situation in Malaysia, I think Malaysian can tap on this unexplored business opportunities in Malaysia.

Dinner treated by our Filipino friends

One day stopover in Manila was really not enough for us to fully experience the culture of this capital city of Philippines, but we had satisfied for what we had seen and experienced here.