THE UPS & DOWNS OF MANILA

Two extra days in Manila and I fell in love with the city. I have the great friends here to thank for this. Before this, I equate Manila to work and stress but my extended two day stay opened my eyes to another side of the city - the real city, its people and its history.

Here is how I feel about...

Chinatown

I was walking down the streets of Chinatown and all the time thinking about how blessed I am. I see the level of poverty in the streets and how hard life must be for these people who are living there. I am not rich but I am so grateful that I have all the basic necessities and witnessing their life in the marketplace reminded me once again that I shouldn't be complaining at all. The business district of Manila doesn't represent the poor. People sleeping by the street with their children is a common sight and there are children asking us for money as we were walking. It is sad and it still disturbed me why I did not extend out my hand and gave them some money.

But I love Chinatown because I saw so many things and experienced how hard life can be. Although the food are similar to those available in Malaysia, it is very interesting learning about the different names given to the food. For example, their Gulaman is known as our Cincau. We also passed by the most popular church there and I saw how people prayed for family by burning different coloured candles.

Ashreena

I am so glad to have this chick, Ashreena accompany me on my trip to Manila. I found out that we have so many things in common and she enjoys the same things as me. I think she could be my perfect travel companion in future because she is adventurous and loves to try new things - like me. I enjoy most of my trips with friends previously but with her, I do more stuff as she is so open to everything and things that I too enjoy. I know her through work as she is one of the sports journalists selected to join our trip to cover the MMA event. I don't think she knows how much I appreciate having her by my side the entire time, through one of my most stressful period this round. We exchanged our stressful moments in our jobs, our love for cute guys (which is awesome because working with a bunch of guys mean I don't really get to talk about guys haha) and our love for adventures!

Did I mention, she is also afraid of the cold like me? So our room was as warm as a cozy little oven, just good enough for fuzziness.

Thank you Ashreena from the bottom of my heart for making this trip such an awesome one!

Randy and Mark

I met this two Filipino journalists working as a PR and they reminded me why I love my job. I get to meet awesome people like them. I am so so grateful to have them bring us around town and showing us the different cultures in Manila. Words cannot express how thankful I am for them to have taken out their precious weekend to bring us around. 

Mark brought us to Intramuros and it is one of the most beautiful places I've been to. It reminds me of York when I was studying in Liverpool. Brings back so many memories. I also learned about the sacrifices of Jose Rizal, who inspired the revolution against the Spanish in the Philippines.

Randy took us food hunting in Chinatown and I had a blast experiencing the streets of Chinatown. It is so surreal there how difficult life is and all I want to do throughout my walk there was thank God for his grace over me. And I also want to pray for the people on the streets - I do hope they are happy or they will find happiness in their own ways.

With Mark, credits to his wife for taking such an awesome photo of us

At Intramuros

Subba, the Malaysian fighter

Everyone knows one of my favourite fighters is Gianni Subba and that I have a soft spot for this fighter for many reasons. I'm lucky enough to be able to be part of his interviews and to find out more about him as a person; I might be wrong but I feel like he is slightly different from other fighters. He is still as dedicated and focused as every other successful fighters, but I especially respect him for his humility, his responsible nature and his kindness. He is young and he has a great future ahead - he knows it and he works hard to achieve it.

His shyness also reminds me of how I used to be last time when I was young and I believe that he will continue to build charisma and grow into one of the most successful fighters. Gianni lost via decision to Toquero in Manila and I can say on behalf of many Malaysians that we are all still so proud to have him as our represent. It pains us to know that he is still sad and disappointed about this fight but I guess it is part of parcel of life. I am confident that he will use this experience as a learning curve and he will now be able to use this lesson to better himself in the next fight. I only pray for the best for this dude and that he will continue to stay focus and achieve greatness. We are all very proud of this young fighter and I hope he knows that.

I love his grey Tune Talk T-shirt and I think Tune Talk is amazing for sponsoring all the local fighters.

Singing

I love the Filipino's singing culture. I almost forgot about this, but they all can sing and you know I love music. And the best is that they play a lot of great oldies on radio and bring back so many great memories of my childhood because my dad is such an oldies fan. Me and Ash were at this Brits Pub near our hotel (which I really fell in love with and will definitely go back) and we were serenaded to a selection of great hits while watching UFC. It was like the perfect dinner, which draws an end to our trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jeepneys

The coolest ride ever and if you are in Manila, you have got to try riding on one! Our first ride was named Baby and after that, we couldn't keep track haha. But it was an awesome experience.

Jeepney ride!

I had a rough few days at work but I am once again grateful for the people around me who turned sad memories into beautiful ones that I will forever treasure. I really love the passionate Filipinos who treated me with so much love and generosity - please know that your kindness and hospitality will forever be in my heart.

Thank you to all you beautiful people out there. I love all of you for being awesome.