Last week, I attended Asia Clean Energy Forum 2017 or to be known as ACEF in Manila, Philippines.

This trip is kind of daunting/ mixed feelings as:

1) This is just my 1st month of working in this Organisation

2) I am still not familiar with the jargon/ terminologies of this industry

3) I never experienced travelling during the month of Ramadan

4)  Its...Manila (first time visiting this Pinoy-land)

And one last thing is my name, Arnis.

For your information, "Arnis" is actually is a martial art in Philippines so I'm kind of paranoid of the Pinoys making fun of my name actually..

This martial art uses stick to fight with each other

Anyway, my flight was on 4th of June 2017.

Saying goodbye to my cat, Momo was the hardest actually.

As I actually arrived at the airport called the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, took a grab car straight to the hotel which was the Holiday Inn Manila in ADB Avenue.

Passed by some ghetto area in Manila. This is like the scenario of Malaysia back in 70s

There's actually nothing much for me to say about this trip, as working trip has always been hectic.

Afterall, this is a conference and I feel saturated by end of the day. 

Some highlights :

1) It was hard for me to understand the Pinoy's accent

2) The security was a bit tight due to recent bombing attacks in the country

3) The cost of living in Philippines is quite high, I think higher than Malaysia

4) The currency can be very complicated and they do keep the money balance without asking us.

5) Most of the Pinoys are very very good looking :P

Here are some pics taken during ACEF 2017:

My photo looks relatively...scary

The Blue drink actually taste fantastic...tasted like the "Lohas drink" back in Japan

The usual route from my hotel to ADB headquarters 

The usual view every morning...

All the nerdish thingy..ummm so not me

Manila is actually kind of hectic city...traffic is quite bad at the ADB avenue

My pass for the 4 day conference

All solar-related thingy...

I swear to God, this is like one of the bestest drink that human ever invented!

Me..after non-stop listening to talks related to renewable energy

Loving the ladyboy's documentary..will not find this in Malaysia

Some of the ACEF's crowd from all over the world

Listening to the explanation related to blockchain

This plain rice costed me RM 16

Me and my boss representing the organisation

After all, it was a good, educational trip. Do I want to visit Manila again in the future? Heck no.

xoxo,Arnis