NINOY AQUINO AIRPORT TO MAKATI CITY.............

BEING COLORFUL IS THE ESSENCE OF THE ORIENTS

I was too excited when I reached the Ninoy Aquino international airport with my wife. As told you earlier, this tour was planned all by myself. No feedback from any friend, as none of them had ever been to Philippines. I got help from several blogs and of course my best friend TRIPADVISOR.COM . I  had booked my hotel way in advance in Makati city, through hotels.com. My research for manila had suggested that most of the monuments and tourist attractions were around one or other metro station. Makati city, a part of metro manila is the most luxurious and happening place in manila. So the idea was to get a good standard hotel near any metro station in makati.

welcome to philippines

My first breath in the city airport, was followed by the  question .... now what.... Again my mind flipped over to peoples' suggestions (from Internet) "getting out from the airport". I was determined to reach my hotel, safe, and in minimum expense.... I had 4 options :

•  Getting a yellow taxi from the airport..... that was the easiest way, lots of these taxis were luring us at the arrival. cost ranging between 300 peso to 1500 peso. They were metered taxis, but they can encircle the city to get a high meter reading.
• Getting a pre paid coupon for taxi...... That sounded a good and safe idea. But the taxi drivers them-self would guide you to those counters and then make you to sit in their taxis..... as a tourist you smell something fishy in it. In my case the counter receptionist was unable to understand my destination and asked me to get a coupon of 800 (when prompted by the driver). Normally its not cheap, and is between 700 to 800 peso.
• The third option was to get the ubiquitous white Corolla regular taxis. You can get these taxis either walking around one Km towards the main road, or getting towards the departure of airport. these are cheap and you can get to makati in 150 to 300 peso. But one should be skeptical about their safety.

• The 4th option was to get ninoy Aquino international airport shuttle bus service. Unfortunately I did not see any bus of such type at the arrivals, so cant comment on this. Further  bus was not on my cards. Few people(Internet) suggest that you get a bus from T1, T2, and T3 terminal. The bus fare from T3 to Pasay is P20. 15 minutes interval for bus departure is rubber time. Again, the buses are plain white with nothing printed on the side except HMXX (where XX are 2 digits).

I saw this notice board at the airport when I returned from Cebu, This would be a help to calculate your prepaid expenditure of taxi from airport


taxi fare to different places in manila from airport

As soon as we exited from the T3 we were surrounded by the yellow taxis operators. They asked for fare between 700 to 1200 peso, the paid taxi counter staff  himself was not sure, about the fare of our destination (obviously he was under influence of the taxi driver who took us there). I decided to go to the main road and get a white taxi. We had hardly moved 3 hundred meters when we saw a yellow taxi coming towards us, I thought of giving a try. I asked him about the fare and in return he asked what we would like to pay. I said 300 peso and he agreed.

Array of yellow cabs in the back ground

When I told my friends about my plans to travel Philippines, they were a bit surprised. As in India either we go to Europe , Mauritius. Australia/ new Zealand, south Africa, or to Bali, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, china, Hongkong. Therefore I was not surprised not to get a single Indian Tourist in my entire tour of Philippines (except for a few in flight and airport).
 Ninoy Aquino airport is not a big airport (specially when you compare it with our Indira Gandhi airport), but the staff is helpful. Good eating options are there at the airport like the JOLIBEE and the Mc Donald's.

We entered Makati city, and you can say its the Manhattan of Philippines. A array of big malls and business center, and nearly all the premium hotels chains. Words came out in my mind.... "my dear friends back in India, Philippines is not a poor country as you had told me when i disclosed my plans to travel"

It was great 9 days in Philippines, we traveled 8 islands, a metro city with great diversity, an active volcanic lake, and a hill station. Was it enough? the slogan of Philippines tourism say "its more fun in the Philippines" and its absolutely true.......

OUR CAB DRIVER WHO TOOK US FROM AIRPORT TO THE HOTEL IN MAKATI..... A NICE CHAP...

JOLIBEE.... ONE OF THE CHAIN OF RESTAURANTS AT THE AIRPORT ENTRY.....

SKYLINE IN FRONT OF OUR HOTEL IN MAKATI

WE GOT A WHITE CAB FROM OUR HOTEL TO AIRPORT.... IT COST US 300 PESO.....

 This was just a glimpse of our fun in The Philippines, more interesting stories in my upcoming posts.............