To Live, To Love Manila

I made a much needed trip out of town last weekend to the Philippines (Manila) with 2 of my good friends, Adam & Charles. It was a spontaneous trip and I booked my tickets a week before the trip for SGD557 on Philippines Airlines – it was almost 3 times the usual price but it was worth every dollar.

On the night we arrived, like true ‘ballers’, we hyped ourselves up after a 4-hour plane ride to watch Armin van Buuren spin at the World Trade Center.

It was an epic night. Armin showed why he was named the No.1 DJ in the World (for the 3 consecutive years) and that set was probably the best House/Trance music display I’ve seen this year.

The man’s got talent and living his dream. Amazing.

A little hangover didn’t stop us from doing a little retail therapy at the biggest mall in Asia the next day – MALL OF ASIA.

Girls, if you like shopping, GO THERE. Personally, I think it beats Bangkok. Good price and good quality. It reminded me of the malls in California! Make sure you bring lots of recycled bags, you’re gonna need it for all the shopping. I bought 3 killer heels in an hour, for about 1300 pesos each. You can never get a deal like that in Singapore.

I even got a manicure/pedicure for 300 pesos – That’s about $10! I know, I know.

Yup, Mall of Asia is SO big, it even has an ice-skating rink!

We hopped on over to Greenbelt Mall for dinner at Fely J’s restaurant. It was about 15 minutes away but we got there 45 minutes late because of heavy traffic. Traffic is HELL. Luckily, we called the restaurant to let them know we were running late so they kept our table for us. I recommend making a reservation before heading down there because they are usually fully booked, especially during dinner time. Also, definitely try the Crispy Tilapia Fish & Sticky Mango Rice with Vanilla ice-cream… It. Is. Yummy. In. My. Tummy.

That’s Charles’ sweet mom on the left. She taught me a bit of Tagalog (it is related to Austronesian languages such as Indonesian, Malay, Javanese & Spanish). Unlike Thai, it was so much easier for me to pick it considering I speak a little of those few languages. I want to learn how to speak Tagalog fluently already!

After dinner, we made our way to Rockwell to check out a friend’s bikini stall at a bazaar they had right outside the mall. Rockwell is a very nice downtown area, it reminded me of  Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills a little. I’d totally move there. Can you tell that I’ve already fallen in love with Manila?!

We were going to out partying again that night (we only had 4 days in Manila afterall!) but finally decided to rest up for our day trip the next morning to Tagaytay. We hired a driver for about 3000 pesos (SGD90 to take us around). $90 for a driver to you around anywhere you wanted for the day? Can’t get that in here. We had a pretty pimp ride too.

Don’t forget to eat your breakfast! I still live by my health rules everywhere I go. We ate at Pancake House (may not be the healthiest but hey, I eat oatmeal almost every other day!) and it was heaaaaaaaaven. Probably even better than IHOP?! I had the blueberry pancake with kiwi juice. It was so good. SO. Good. I’m telling you. And it wasn’t too filling either. Portion was just right and it wasn’t too sweet nor too rich. Simply parfait.

Time to walk it out! On our way up the mountain to see the beautiful view from Tagaytay. Adam & Charles were poking fun at my backpack – said I looked like I was ready to go to school. Meanies! Wait, do I, really?

We got lucky because it had been drizzling/raining a bit but the weather that day was PERFECT.

After an hour of excessive cam-whoring, we were off to look for the pier to find a boat that would take us to Taal Volcano for a little hike. Sure you’ll see a few cows, horses and goats for sale on your drive up/down the mountain but we even spotted a Starbucks! And a pretty nice looking one too (again, it reminded me of the States. Am I homesick?).

The castle and tree top houses looked UNREAL. At first I thought I was hallucinating. Would definitely like to check it out sometimes. I’ll see you next time, FANTASY WORLD.

Our driver took us to this pretty shady looking pier that had only one boat and a guy asking for 1700 pesos for the boat ride to Taal Volcano. That only included a return trip and no guide or whatsoever. We had a feeling he was trying to rip us off so we left the place and after nearly 3 hours later, we realized our driver was lost again. He didn’t know the area very well and had stopped more than 30 times to ask for directions but it didn’t get us anywhere. We could only blame ourselves for not having a map. It was already almost 3pm and we had made dinner plans at 8pm so we decided to skip the whole volcano adventure altogether and hit the beach to catch the sunset.

Cutest puppy I’ve seen in a while!

We found ourselves on a beach near Batangas (South of Manila), don’t remember what it was called but the people there were really nice, friendly and not too pushy at all. We rented a bamboo house float where we enjoyed some fine brew (San Miguel, baby!) and watched the sunset…

That’s the bikini I got from a friend’s bikini store. Check it out here!

It was so beautiful…

Checked out a club called Encore that night (heard it used to be called Embassy). It reminded me of Butterfactory, but better. They had a house/trance room and a hiphop room. Both were PUMPIN’. People were  nice, friendly and weren’t “too cool for school”. Unfortunately, my camera’s battery died, so I didn’t get a chance to take a lot of pictures…

The next day was Charles’ grandma’s 85th birthday (the main reason why he went there to visit, Adam & I just tagged along because neither of us have been to the Philippines). A few of their close friends and relatives came to the house to celebrate. It was nice to be at a traditional Filipino family gathering. It really made me appreciate the culture, tradition and…

FOOD!

(Left) Halo-halo dessert! It’s kind of like ‘ice-kachang’ but BETTER! (Right) Indulging the food buffet!

We left the same evening, I was a little sad because I wasn’t ready to leave!  Nanai is wearing the necklace I got as her birthday gift – it was a smoky quartz stone from Brazil. Its believed to help detoxify the body, relieve fears, lift depressions and bring calmness and positive thought. ♥

Wished I could have stayed longer, I’ve fallen in love with the Philippines. Words can’t describe. The nature, the people, the culture, shopping… There’s just so much to explore out there.

I can’t wait to go back.

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Party, Snapshots, Travel by Fay Hokulani