Yes. .it took half an hour to get through that.The part on the expressway was relatively fast.
I guess it depends on time and day as well.
Anyway I think Ermita was a good choice.Near enough to walk to museums, sights,plenty of restaurants, a big shopping centre nearby....
Filipinos - not 'flips' by the way, that is a horrible abusive term, are the last people to seek advice from generally. Anywhere in the central belt of cities in metro Manila around Pasay where the airport is and which includes Makati almost never takes more than about 45 minutes in a taxi.
No offense intended. My friends and I have used that term casually. I thought it was neutral slang.
The word "f_p" is a pejorative term used by Americans to describe Filipinos during the Spanish-American War(1898) when the U.S. occupied the Philippines and during the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, when the Filipinos fought back. The word is equivalent to Americans calling the Vietnamese "g_ks" during the Vietnam War, or hispanics "sp_cs", or Italian-Americans "d_go" back in those remote times when Italians were not considered white (enough). Since you are going to the Philippines I would suggest showing some respect for, to use the polite term, Filipinos.
I think your friend was a bit unlucky.... Makati to the airport most times of the day is around 30 mins, in the middle of the night 20 mins to T3 and in early morning / late afternoon 45mins - 1 hour max. I've travelled to the airport from all over Manila many dozens of times and I can't remember taking 2 hours - ever.
You must have been very lucky! The last couple of times we have been going to the airport it has taken us anywhere between 2.5-4 hours from hitting the northern outskirts of Manila. The only time we got through relatively quickly was at 3am but even then there was (surprisingly) a lot of traffic still for that time of day.
EDSA is the main offender in Manila, usually it's gridlocked with 7 lanes of traffic merging into 5 lanes of traffic when there's officially only meant to be 3 lanes! ;). Outside the airport can get gridlocked. It once took 1.5 hours from Dasmarinas to the airport as the traffic was just crawling along; frustrating doesn't even begin to describe it!
That term you originally used (I'm not repeating it) is HIGHLY offensive, please don't use it while you are in the Philippines.
#13 - yes I know what you mean loubbylou... everyone has those EDSA horror epics... Mrs norrie ... over 5 1/2 hours from coming off NLEX to Las Pinas via EDSA... that's only about 35km... But that's a bit different from Malate / Makati / Pasay to the airport, where you may only need to cross EDSA. I travel from Malate to the Airport 6 or 8 times a year at various times of the day... I always plan to check in 3 hours before the departure time of my flight, (more if it's long-haul and I always check-in online if the airline has the option - 'cos nobody seems to use online check-in in Philippines) and I always allow hour to get to the airport... rarely need it, and 30-45mins would be more typical and I've done it in 20... I'm not bothered if my journey time is doubled - I'm not sweating it at the airport.
Manila's broken. 10 years ago I thought it couldn't get any worse, but it did. I very much doubt all these new highway linkage projects will make a significant difference. More roads is just not the answer - they have to radically reduce the number of vehicles in MM which means investment in a proper mass transit system which is not going to happen without foreign investment which in turn is a pipe dream due to the reasons we all know about (NAIA-T3?). The mickey mouse train system they have right now is not adequate and the pollution levels from vehicles are off the scale... Imagine if you'd just forked out 8 million PHP for one of those new condo's opposite Terminal 3 and you now have a 6 lane highway 5m from your bedroom window... I wonder if the developers told them that?
Thanks for all the advice.
I have decided to stay in Pasay for the front leg of the trip, as these will be late night and early morning departures. At the end of the trip, I arrive at 5:30 pm and leave at 5:45 pm. Traffic will be a little better, and I'll have more time, so I'll stay in Makati. Malate/Ermita just looks too far away. I don't want my rides to the airport to exceed an 1.5 hours.
As far as the term, consider me educated.
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