I didn’t want to spend a lot of money when I left the Philippines to visit my Dad back in the States. NAIA Terminal 3 on the cheap. That was my plan. And I executed it fairly well, I thought. No hotel bill. I spent the night at Terminal 3. No taxis. I used the free shuttle service to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1, where my Korean Air flight would depart from. And I discovered a 7 Eleven store which had extremely reasonable prices for an airport venue.
My asawa was worried about me roaming around in Metro Manila and I don’t blame her. I’ve dealt with obnoxious thieving Manila cabbies before and had no desire to venture out. Besides, the newly renovated Terminal 3 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, NAIA, had plenty of retail outlets and fast food joints to keep me busy. The CR’s, Comfort Rooms, were clean and actually had soap in the dispensers. I was impressed.
I saw plenty of people taking a nap, as the pictures below will attest to, so if I needed to grab some shuteye, I wouldn’t have a problem find a spot.
The couple above were foreigners. I didn’t take nap, however, though there were plenty of security guards around. I didn’t feel comfortable in doing so but managed to stay awake the whole evening.
I kept myself occupied by occasionally striking conversations with foreigners and Filipinos alike such as the Victoria’s Secret employee shown in the lead photo and the next. The young lady aspired to be a model. Well, she has a better chance of attaining that goal than I do.
When I wasn’t talking to pretty pinays, I was chumming with guys from Saudi Arabia, who asked me to be in a photo with them. I graciously obliged. If you have to ask me who I enjo
Hi Dave,
Since terminal 3 just recently opened, I have not yet seen it, but guess I will in Feb. or March, on the next trip there. I will take either KAL, Emirates, or Qatar airlines, KAL has the shortest flight both ways, and has always been a nice airline. I just checked to see what airlines use the new terminal 3, but it only listed 4 airlines, and they are all local to the Philippines, and I dont know if any of the International flights will be using terminal 3 or not.
Have you heard there, what airlines will be using the new terminal. Since NAIA rates as the worst airport in the world by many travel websites, I would think they would be moving as many carriers as possible to the new terminal, just wandering if you had heard anything about it there.
Bill,
They also have ANA there too.For the longest time they were the only foreign airline in Terminal 3.
Thanks Dave, and Papaduck, I will look into Emirates, has to be an airline that leaves from Dulles airport. Have always gone on KAL in the past just because it has the shortest travel time of apx. 23 hours in each direction, plus they keep the middle seats unoccupied so it gives us a little more room to move around a little, which is nice when in the air for 14 hours at a time. Thought I might try a different airline like Emirates or Qatar just to see a different layover location than in Seoul. Price on all are close to the same. Usually we fly into Cebu, just to avoid NAIA, but have a little business to look into there so figured if I must go there, would like to use the new terminal if at all possible. Manila too me, gives a bad impression of what most of the rest of the Phil. is like, if I had only ever seen Manila, I would never in my life want to move to the Phil. but fortunately I saw, Cebu and many other parts of the Phil. long before I ever went to Manila for the first time.
welcome home 🙂
Dave,that would make an interesting article (why the Philippines is better for you and Melinda than the USA)
Dave,
Sounds like you kept yourself pretty busy. It’s rough though trying to stay awake. But the excitement of the trip helped. I know the Saudi guys like the women here much more than there own country lol
Welcome home Dave, hope you’re over your jetlag. There’s a place here in Jaro called Rainbow that does a pretzel burger as well. It also was an unpleasant experience. Liza and I shared one and couldn’t finish it.
Next you’re in Iloilo, please give a shout 🙂
This just came out yesterday:
“With the expanded operations of a third terminal and renovations of the old one, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is no longer the world’s worst airport, sliding to fourth spot after topping the list for the past three years.”
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/10/17/1381096/naia-no-longer-worst-airport-travelers-poll