Day 1: Tres Mujeres (part 1)

I've been looking forward to our bonding trip for almost two months, ever since I came back from my holiday back home. You see, its been years since I last saw Langga and really laughed and reminisced with him. We used to all live together in Pasay City during our first forays into the "working" world. He was the liveliest of us all. And should I say this in print? --- I used to sleep next to him! Hahaha...not what you think, eh? Completely platonic....

Even before we departed Male, our travel budget was already chopped off coz duty free shopping can really be tempting.... that's why I always like to go to the airport at the last minute coz if you have lots of time to spare, umm....the shelves of duty free items, from perfume to electronic gadgets can really lead you astray. :)We arrived early morning of Thursday, 4th December and immediately hooked up with Langga who was there a day earlier (why he was there earlier is a long story! lol) at the airport, and so the trip began....

We have reserved a room at the Colombo Hilton but since the check-in time is at 1pm (actually they were very nice and told us they can give the room around 8am!), we were offered FREE breakfast so we immediately went to the buffet. We were the first one to get in, the restaurant staffs were still having their morning briefing when we went in. As in gutom na talaga!

The food is yummy, especially the pork bacon! Hehehe....as in parang naging 1/2 kaagad ang nakuha namin from the bowl of bacon on display!

We want to immediately hit the shops after breakfast, but they open only at 10am so we still have to kill the time before that so we went to do my official chores first. I have an appointment with the Indonesian embassy in Colombo to have our Indonesian staffs' passports stamped with Viskal (tax free stamp for Indonesian OFWs). In fairness, we were amazed at their embassy there --- it was huge and looks really nice (accdg to Langga, it is even better than the Phil embassy in Abu Dhabi which is shabby!). What's more, the embassy officials were so hospitable! Thanks Mr. Agus!! It made me think.... the Phils govt must be more corrupt than them....oppsss!

First stop in our shopping itinerary is the House of Fashion, despite the posh name, nothing in it is posh and expensive, it is a multi-storey shopping complex full of bargain items. Parang Gaisano City (mas maganda pa ang Metro! Lol) na medyo pinalaki. As expected hahaha.... Langga immediately complained of the smell and the throngs of people inside. We just ignored him and continued on with our "ukay". Ganda gave him Vicks to ensure he doesn't faint. Lol!!!

Next stop is the syalan Odel shopping mall. The prices are becoming steep for me now. I remember the days when blouses there costs only about 350 - 450 rupees (U$1 = 109), now you cannot get anything below 800 rupees! But Langga of course is in his element! He loved the place and went crazy on all the signature brands on sale.

After all the hard shopping (hard coz we had to really search for the cheaper items on sale! hahaha), we decided to have lunch at the indoor Japanese resto, Nihonbashi. The food was great. You can't get this type of food in Male, well, unless you go to a 5 star resort!

We trekked back to our hotel with Langga telling us na ayaw na nyang lumabas pa and he wants to savor his time and money used to pay for his Hilton bed! hehehe.....

Of course, the day is not finished yet for me and Ganda, we still have some more planned in our itinerary...whether Langga likes it or not!