The lobby.
The reception desk. Customer service in the Philippines is the best I've ever experienced!
The living room.
The bedroom.
There was a large window between the shower and the bedroom - not sure if this is to take in the view of the city while you shower, or to take in the view of your partner showering from the bedroom!
Our room is on the 32nd floor and provides pretty nice views of Manila:
Night time view from the bedroom. Manila Metro is made up of 16 smaller cities, Manila City being only one of that 16... But Manila City is the most densely populated place on earth!
Makati City - the business/restaurant/nightlife district. The smog makes everything look grey. Metro Manila is the 5th most populous city in the world, with over 20 million people!
Pasig River from the living room. This is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Some rivers in Manila are considered biologically dead because of the pollution.
View from the bedroom during the day. It looks like they are growing some type of crop in the river there, but I don't know what it is.
On our first weekend, we went to Subic Bay, a former Navy base and forest. In order to get there we had to take a bus to Olongopo town and then a taxi to Subic Bay, which took about 4 hours total, and we saw some interesting things along the way:
We made a friend on the bus.
There were lots of "informal settlers" as the Filipinos call homeless people. We even saw a whole neighborhood built under a raised highway.
Burger Machine, a chain fast food restaurant.
Tricycles - a motorcycle with a sidecar - are a popular mode of transport. These drivers are very aggressive in finding customers, especially to westerners. I've been followed for blocks by these guys trying to get me to hop in!
We saw many beautiful views from the bus.
As soon as we got off the bus in Olongopo, people were swarming us trying to get money. It was very intimidating, and I was a bit nervous to whip out my camera! Here are a couple of the pictures I took after the crowd of folks dispersed:
A fruit stand. I thought this woman was waving hello, but she was waving me over to buy something!
A Jeepny, the Filipino version of a public bus. More detail on this fascinating system to come!
It took us a long time to find a taxi. Seemingly, there is only one taxi in Olongopo. Once we found him, he took us to Magellan's, a restaurant in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone (SBFZ, the former Navy base) with a gorgeous view of the bay.
There is a large expat population near SBFZ. The table next to us was full of about 10 Americans and Australians, and an Australian Rottweiler that did not appear to be enjoying the heat!
The bay was formerly used by the Navy; now there are many private yachts and boats using it as well as industrial shippers.
The restaurant is owned by an American, and had many familiar items on the menu. Sev got the club sandwich and local beer, San Miguel. As you can see it's a very light beer.
Part of our fare was to buy the taxi driver lunch at Magellan's.
Wreck diving is popular in Subic Bay, as there are many shipwrecks in the bay. This is a dive shop next to the restaurant.
After lunch, we went to the Pamulaklakin Forest Trail to go for a hike. Apparently during the time of the Navy base, logging wasn't allowed in the area so the forests around the SBFZ are in pristine condition.
Being the end of dry season in the Philippines, the forest was far less dense than we expected.
There were a few large trees, though.
Mostly, there was dead bamboo blocking the path everywhere we went!
This tree had a bunch of holes in it - I wonder if a bug or bird made them?
It looks like it hasn't rained in a long time!
There was a small shelter at the beginning of the trail. We thought it was for visitors to rest, but when I sat down inside it I noticed there were some pots and pans and personal items, which made me wonder if someone lived there.
Then we saw these women, who were selling crafts at the entrance when we arrived, taking their stuff to the shelter. Perhaps they live there? The people in the Philippines appear to be very entrepreneurial - everywhere I go, people have something to sell.
On the bus ride home, we saw a gorgeous sunset and full moon rising. It was hard to get pictures, though!
Since our first day in the Philippines was so action packed and Sev had to go to work the next day, we decided to take it easy on Sunday:
We had the most expensive coffee in the Philippines in the morning ($3 each). By the way, coffee in Manila is delicious.
And learned a new way to make coffee!
Then we went to the Mall of Asia, which is the biggest mall in Asia! This globe is outside the mall entrance.
The taxi driver explained to me that this charm is a Chinese good luck charm, and there is a dragon on it because we are in the year of the dragon.
There are very few traffic lights in Manila. Instead, there are police officers everywhere conducting traffic!
There was a beer station at the mall!
This is the Olympic size ice skating rink - we thought the huge alpine scene behind it was funny! There were hundreds of people crowded around the rink watching.
There is a carnival area outside the mall on the bay walk.
The mall is on the Manila Bay, and there were many ships and barges in the bay.
I learned the next day from one of Sev's co-workers that a tank top or strapless top is not appropriate for me to wear in the Philippines. People still seem to stare at me even with a t-shirt on though...
After the mall, we had a "couple's retreat" at the hotel spa. This was one of the highlights of the trip! We had a private room with a jacuzzi and ginger tea, which was sweet and kind of spicy as well. We started with 30 minutes in the jacuzzi, then had full body massages, a coconut oil scalp treatment and massage, and finally a facial. Talk about feeling spoiled! The best part was the low price!
For the oil treatment, they pour warm coconut oil on the forehead and let it drip down the scalp then massage the scalp for 30 minutes. At first, it felt like warm little bugs running in my scalp, but once I relaxed it felt very good!
After the mall, we had a "couple's retreat" at the hotel spa. This was one of the highlights of the trip! We had a private room with a jacuzzi and ginger tea, which was sweet and kind of spicy as well. We started with 30 minutes in the jacuzzi, then had full body massages, a coconut oil scalp treatment and massage, and finally a facial. Talk about feeling spoiled! The best part was the low price!
Monday came and Sev had to go to work, and I ventured out into Manila by myself, which was terrifying and fascinating. My first stop was Intramuros, the old Spanish colonial city and tourist center of Manila. I was the only tourist I saw in Intramuros, a testament to how little tourism there is in Manila and perhaps an explanation for why people stare at me so much! There were several "tour guides" and tricycle operators following me around all day trying to get me to hire them, children following me begging for money, and everyone else just stared!
Entrance to the old Spanish city through the city wall.
This is the entrance to Fort Santiago, which was the Spanish military base here during colonial times of the 16th century and was turned into a prison for political prisoners during the war of independence in the 19th century.
This is the building where the national hero, Jose Rizal, was imprisoned before his execution for starting the revolution against Spanish colonization in 1896. Almost all of Intramuros (and much of Manila in general) was destroyed during the Battle of Manila in World War II between Japan and the U.S. Some of it was rebuilt, but this building obviously wasn't.
A plaza in honor of Jose Rizal at Fort Santiago.
View of the Pasig River from Fort Santiago. The location on the river made for easy transportation of people and goods as well as a strong defense against attackers.
Manila Cathedral was also destroyed in World War II but rebuilt to look like the previous version. Actually the cathedral has been rebuilt 8 different times, some were destroyed by earthquake, others by fire, and others by war! 96% of people in The Philippines are Catholic.
A memorial to all of the innocent people killed in the Battle of Manila. 150,000 civilians died during this battle.
Intramuros means "inside the walls" in Spanish. It was a Spanish city with a wall surrounding it. The wall remains standing today.
Intramuros is the location of many colleges and universities. All of the students wear uniforms as you can see here, and they eat at food carts - just like students in Portland!
Cock fighting is a popular pastime here and I've seen many roosters tied up on the side of buildings like this poor guy.
Casa Manila, a reproduction of a Spanish colonial house. It was closed the day I was here so all I saw was the gorgeous courtyard!
Silahis - an art and antique store in Intramuros. These are traditional Filipino style baskets.
Silahis also had many antiques from the Philippines and China - this is one of them.
These are sesame covered plantains, the only edible part of the lunch that I ate in Intramuros! They were delicious; the rest of the lunch wasn't!
That night, we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner.
They gave us these little fish and cabbages for appetizers.
Both of us had a reaction like this to the fish. I tried feeding mine to a street kitty but he wouldn't come near me enough to eat them.
I got chicken udon soup and Sev got the same thing with some sushi.
On my second day solo, I went to street markets in Quiapo city, Chinatown, and the Chinese cemetery. There is a large population of Chinese in Manila who were forced to live in certain neighborhoods during Spanish colonial rule, but embraced their cultural identity once independence was won.
The Golden Mosque in Quiapo city. This was built in the 1970's in anticipation of a visit from Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi that never happened. They wouldn't let me enter the mosque because I was wearing shorts and didn't have my head covered. Oops!
When the taxi driver let me out here, it was crowded, loud, and looked like a bad neighborhood. Everyone was staring or yelling at me and a few people were following me. It felt unsafe and I almost hopped back in the cab but my curiosity won and I kept walking around the market! After about 20 minutes, I realized that's just how Manila is. People stare because I look very different from anything they've seen, and yell and follow me hoping to make some money.
Dried fish is a popular snack here.
Spices for sale.
These head covers were for sale near the mosque. I didn't want to enter the mosque badly enough to buy one! Plus I still would have had to buy some pants also!
A food cart getting set up for the day.
The woman selling this said something that sounded like jap fruit when I asked her what it was. It smells delicious, but I know to stay away from street food if I want to enjoy the rest of my trip! This fruit was for sale all over Quiapo.
Guanabana, a fruit I discovered and loved while living in Costa Rica.
More dried fish - they have a very strong smell!
More dried fish - there were stores like this everywhere in Quiapo. Some were so thin they looked like potato chips! Sev's coworker told him Filipinos eat these for breakfast with eggs.
These looked like wrinkly mandarin oranges, but they were some type of fried food.
Santa Cruz church. It's hard to see it through the power lines! This is nothing compared to other power lines we've seen here.
A money changer in Quiapo.
Somehow I not only made it out of the Quiapo markets in one piece, but I managed to find China town through the web of streets and alleys!
The Goodwill Arch, entrance to China town.
Every other store in China town was a jewelry store. I don't know how they all stay in business!
There were also many bakeries with steamed buns like this one. I don't know why these are purple though!
Another bakery. People in China town were extremely friendly to me, and everyone wanted me to take their picture. These guys asked me to take their picture when they saw me photographing the food in their bakery.
The food in that bakery.
Salazar is a well know bakery in China town.
They had hundreds of different cakes and buns, and all of them are freshly made at the bakery. I bought a package of fortune cakes, which are a dense steamed and slightly sweet bun. They were delicious!
There were a bunch of Chinese souvenir shops like this one.
They had charms, statues, and copies of antique pottery (which they wouldn't let me photograph!)
Herbal pharmacies abound in China town. Some had packaged medicines like this one.
And others had raw herbs and spices like this one.
There were many signs for doctors and herbal medicine as well.
There was food for sale everywhere in China town! Here are some huge grapefruits.
Corn on the cob seems to be a popular snack in Manila.
Roasted hazelnuts were for sale on many street corners.
This guy wanted to pose for a picture after I took a picture of his friend roasting the hazelnuts!
A butcher shop, no A/C or door.
Whole roasted pigs. The taxi driver told me these are popular in the Philippines, and one costs about $85. I've seen these on restaurant menus since spotting them in the street.
I opted not for the whole pig, but ate lunch at Ling Nam Noodle Factory, which is on this street. Somehow I was able to find it among all of the other shops and signs!
The Ling Nam kitchen. They only serve noodles here. Everyone was very nice and seemed excited to have me taking pictures of everything. They wanted to show me around the whole restaurant.
I forget what these were called, but they're like wantons except these are steamed and wantons are boiled.
Noodles for sale at Ling Nam.
My lunch. I couldn't understand the menu at all so I asked for something with chicken and they brought me this chicken wanton noodle soup, which was delicious, and hot tea. It was about 90 degrees that day so the hot tea was less than refreshing. There were more servers than customers in this restaurant and they all stood around and stared at me while I ate lunch. Then, halfway through my meal, one of them brought me a fork. Apparently I need to improve my chopstick skills! I thought I was doing pretty well...
On the way to the Chinese cemetery, we passed through the flower district, where there were blocks of stores like this full of flowers!
The best way to describe the Chinese cemetery is similar to an American suburb. There are clean streets on a grid with rows of big mausoleums. Each of these buildings houses a family.
The taxi driver warned me that it's not safe to walk around alone because there are homeless people living in the mausoleums. A homeless man warned me that it's not safe to walk around because there are wild dogs. I didn't heed these warnings enough to avoid the cemetery, but I was definitely a bit scared since I was the only visitor there, and indeed there were both homeless people and wild dogs!
Sev hit the nail on the head when he said it sounds like a zombie movie - quiet and seemingly empty, until you hear someone scurrying around inside one of the mausoleums!
Many of the mausoleums had dragons on them.
Others appeared more western and/or Christian.
This one had gorgeous, colorful tiles on all sides and the roof.
I read that many of the mausoleums have air conditioning and running water, and even toilets that flush, but I didn't verify for myself since all of them were locked.
This isn't a mausoleum, it's some type of temple.
Many of them had little dog-like dragons in front. I liked the dragon jumping on the ball on the top of this one!
This is the most ornate mausoleum I saw. I decided not to venture any further than this, although the cemetery is huge - as big as a suburban neighborhood - since I was already pressing my luck roaming around there alone!
View from the cemetery. The immediate neighborhood is not so nice, but there is a nice view of the city beyond it.
That evening, we went to the restaurant Zamboanga, which is named after a province in the Southern part of the Philippines. The restaurant features traditional Filipino food as well as an hour long cultural performance each night. This is the stage background.
These guys danced around with their swords.
Traditional Filipino dance with umbrellas.
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The men on the floor made percussion with the bamboo sticks while the dancers danced around the sticks. It was very fun to watch!
These guys made music by hitting the coconut shells in their hands with the ones on their bodies and danced along to the music.
They brought Severn up on stage to do another dance with bamboo sticks!
I had Crab Sate with noodles. The server brought the crab to me alive after I ordered it to ask me if it was ok and all I could do was tell her I don't want to look at it alive!
Little did I know the crab would be smothered in noodles, making it difficult to devour! Despite the live encounter and slippery crab, it was absolutely heavenly!
Sev had beef tapa, which is a traditional Filipino dish that we've seen at many restaurants. He said it wasn't as good as my crab!
On Wednesday, I was exhausted from my adventures the previous two days and decided to stay in. I had a pedicure and foot massage at the hotel and met Sev for lunch. That evening, we went to a wonderful restaurant for dinner.
The restaurant was called Graffiti, and it served Asian street-style food. Unfortunately, most restaurants in Manila give no explanation on their menu, so our poor server took at least 10 minutes to explain each dish on the menu for us! I chose the tamarind shrimp with garlic rice, and both were amazing! It seems like you can't go wrong with seafood in Manila!
Sev had General G.'s chicken with eggplant and garlic rice. He also discovered his love for mango shakes here!
The next stop on Tour de Manila was Makati, the business district, which is also the nightlife district and has an upscale shopping center.
Makati has many tall buildings - banks, business centers, hotels etc. and feels like the traditional "downtown" of a city.
The Philippine Stock Exchange is in this building.
Ayala Triangle park is in the center of Makati. It's named after the developer who made Makati into the business center that it currently is, and it's a triangle!
Makati used to be the Manila airport and this street, Makati Street, was one of the runways! Makati was developed into the business center after World War II.
Filipinos seem to love their malls! There is a large mall in almost every part of town. This is the entrance to Greenbelt, which is not one - but 5 malls in one! Each one has a number.
I ate lunch at Greenbelt 2, which seems to be exclusively restaurants.
This is the back of the building, which is a row of nice restaurants with a row of huge, gorgeous patios.
I ate lunch at Masas, which describes it's food as a modern take on traditional Filipino. According to Lonely Planet, Makati is one of Asia's legitimate culinary hot spots. I have to agree!
I had noodles made out of coconut meat served in a coconut and a watermelon smoothie. That little green thing on top of the noodles is the tiniest lime I've ever seen!
The food was delicious - there were carrots, cabbage, green beans, shrimp, and pork in the noodles.
After lunch, I went shopping at Balikbayan Handicrafts store - which is an incredible place! I read that shopping was great in Manila - turns out it's true!
There were many large wooden carvings, this one being one of the most entertaining!
A special handicraft from the Phlippines is glazed coconut bowls.
These are coconut shells carved with tiny wholes and made into lights! They were so beautiful!
There is a ton of construction in Manila, all of it done by hand. Many huge buildings are half built and then abandoned and left to sit. Sev took these pictures of one of the construction sites right outside his office window.
There isn't much in the way of scaffolding and safety at the construction sites, the guys who work on these buildings have to be brave!
The construction seems to go on around the clock, since doing it by hand is slower than with large machinery!
Sev went out to lunch with his co-workers each day. This is a "working man's" lunch in the Philippines.
The Manila Esco crew - Gali, Etzel, and Brian.
For dinner that night, we chose Crisostimo, a turn of the century Filipino restaurant near our hotel. It was wonderful!
I loved my fresh coconut water - they call coconuts buko here.
Sev had fresh juice of another type of fruit that was very bright green! We have no idea what the fruit was, but it tasted a little like melon. We had an appetizer of smoked fish wrapped in pastry and fried, with vinegar sauce. It was wonderful!
Sev had tuna belly. We realized that Filipinos order family style at restaurants, so when you order tuna belly you get a huge piece of it with no sides or anything!
I had the Filipino take on Paella. It was pretty good, but it can't compare to the Spanish version!
One a side note, in case you aren't sick of all of the pictures of food yet, we get a huge breakfast buffet in our hotel every morning and I have fallen in love with a Filipino pastry called ensaymada. It's rolled up like a cinnamon roll but only has sweet cream cheese inside it and shavings of salty cheese on top.
The next day was Friday, Sev's last day in the office for the week. So, he took the crew to the hotel buffet for lunch and it was amazing!
The Manila boys at lunch! Sev, Brian, Gali, Nestor, and Etzel.
The ice cream station at the lunch buffet. I had the traditional Filipino dessert, halo halo and it was to die for!
The toppings for halo halo include sweet garbanzo and black beans, cubed young coconut, yam puree, and many more surprisingly delicious and odd things! They put all of these toppings on the dessert.
Along with the toppings are added sweetened condensed milk, ice shavings, and violet flavored ice cream.
He also took some pictures of his Manila office:
The office space.
Panoramic view from the office window.
View of our hotel from the office.
That evening, we decided to fight rush hour traffic and go to Manila Bay (which took almost 90 minutes) for one of Manila's air-pollution-induced legendary sunsets, and this is what we saw:
The waterfront park was apparently under construction and blocked off by an 8 foot metal wall.
There were some people and even a puppy living in the park!
We did manage to catch a glimpse of the sun before it set into the clouds.
We were also able to find a break in the wall and get a snapshot of us. Great date night, beautiful sunset, warm evening, and rubble at our feet - typical Manila!
Roxas Blvd. is the waterfront street along Manila Bay. I loved the column of rainbow lights as street lights!
We had dinner at Harbor View restaurant, which is a pier in Manila Bay surrounded by water on all sides. The ambiance was nice, the food - not so nice! We even saw the fireworks show at the Mall of Asia during dinner.
We played with all kinds of settings on our cameras to get a snapshot of us with the city view in the background - this is the best one we came up with!
When you order fish and chips in Manila, you get potato chips. The fish was wonderful, with a sweet flavor to the breading!
On Saturday, we headed to Tagaytay for our last Philippine adventure, which is a small town about 2 hours southeast of Manila with a famous volcano and crater lake, and hiking trails.
Manila has a complicated and indecipherable bus system, so we told the taxi driver to take us to the bus station going to Tagaytay and he dropped us off on a busy street and said to wait there for the bus. Of course, we both had to go to the bathroom before a long bus ride and found this. As Sev put it, it's literally a brick shit house. As directed, we waited on the side of the road and not 5 minutes later our bus came!
Tagaytay is only 31 miles south of Manila, but it took us 2 hours to get there because of traffic, which is normal. Once we arrived in Tagaytay, we decided to take a tricycle (since we couldn't find a taxi) to a restaurant for lunch.
We were quite nervous, since the tricycles appear homemade, sit about 8 inches off the ground and are driving among buses, jeepneys, and semi trucks! Oh did I mention that our driver looked not a day over 16?
View of a fellow tricycle on the way to lunch.
We barely fit in the tricycle! Thank goodness, we made it to our lunch destination in one piece - though a little bit shaken I have to say!
When we arrived to Josephine's Restaurant we were stunned by the view of Taal Lake and Taal Volcano. The lake was created by four volcanic explosions between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.
Subsequent eruptions created Volcano Island, this island in the lake where people actually live. 47 different volcanic cones and craters have been identified on the island, and Taal Volcano remains active.
We think these are fishing huts in the lake, and we have seen them in Manila Bay as well.
The views at Josephine's were to die for, but the food was inedible. It seems you get either ambiance or good food in the Philippines, but never both at the same time!
Panoramic view of the lake and restaurant patio.
After lunch, we had an even scarier ride in the tricycle down to the lake on a steep, windy road in which it seemed that our vehicle's brakes might give way at any moment! We just held on for dear life!
The ride paid off and we arrived at the lake shore to see this incredible sight. We negotiated a great price for a boat ride to the island - I never thought I would master the art of haggling, but Manila seems to have taught me at last!
As usual, our driver looked about half our age.
We waved goodbye to our tricycle driver, who assured us he would be waiting for us when we returned.
And we took in the breathtaking views of the lake on the way to the island.
The boats to the island are called "bangka" and there were many other bangkas on the lake.
We drove right by the fishing huts in the water that we had seen from above at Josephine's and got to see them up close.
After about 20 minutes we arrived at the island, where our driver ran the bangka into the shore and into other boats without hesitation and helped us onto the ground.
We walked past much of the town of Volcano Island on the way to the hiking trail. Here is the elementary school.
Of course there was a game of basketball going on; there is always a game of basketball happening in the Philippines!
These boys were fixing their kite.
We saw several healthy looking dogs and other animals, including this puppy! I almost took it with me!
It seems that we walked right through the town center!
Most people rode horses and wore silly faces masks on the trail, but we chose to rough it.
As expected we had some unforgettable views of Lake Taal on the way up.
And we were surprised with another lake on the other side of the ridge at the top of the trail!
I congratulate Sev for his superior self portrait skills displayed here.
We saw more fishing huts at the top of the trail.
And more breathtaking views!
After flexing our muscles and patting ourselves on the back for not making a poor horse take us up the trail, we made our way down.
As you can see, it's dry season in this region and very dry and dusty. We had some grit in our teeth by the end of our hike!
We power walked the way down, since the sun was starting to set and we still had to make our way back to Manila!
We were so sweaty here you can tell that we're trying not to touch each other too much!
The boat ride back to shore was absolutely refreshing - we got splashed and soaked! We even got to see the sunset we had been looking for the day before, and it was better than a Manila sunset could have been.
As promised, our tricycle driver was waiting for us, this time with two additional passengers. That's right, our tiny tricycle carried 5 people up the hill to town! Now that I've tried riding a tricycle once, I can say that I will never do it again! I don't know if it was the jarring or the fear of it, but my back is still sore from that thing!
On the way to and from Manila, we had layovers in Singapore. This was the cleanest, quietest, nicest airport I've ever visited:
There were orchid gardens with trails and koi ponds in them.
In fact, there were orchids everywhere! These ones were about 6 feet tall!
This is a small forest to walk in during your layover!
Nicest airport bathrooms on earth.
I believe this is called a squat toilet and I gave it a whirl in Singapore!
And now for the Jeepney system of the Philippines:
Jeepneys are the most popular form of public transportation in the Philippines, and there seems to be more Jeepneys on the road than any other vehicle.
They were originally made from left over US military jeeps after World War II.
When the Americans left the Jeeps in the Philippines, they were modified to accommodate more passengers and decorated with vibrant colors and embellished chrome hoods.
The public transportation system was all but destroyed in World War II, and the Jeepney quickly emerged as the new system.
Jeepneys are privately owned, and the owners are given a permit from the government to provide transportation in a certain region or route. As you can see here, people enter and exit the Jeepney from the back.
Drivers are required to have specialized licenses, fixed routes, and reasonable rates - to ride the first 7 kilometers costs 20 US cents.
Each Jeepney is unique, with nicknames and different decorations all over them.
Modern Jeepneys are manufactured in the Philippines by private workshops and factories.
Most Jeenpeys are built from second hand Japanese cargo trucks with salvaged parts and engines.
Jeepneys are frequently crowded and most don't have air conditioning. With the traffic in Manila, I saw many people holding a cloth over their mouth and nose in Jeepneys to protect from the fumes.
It's not uncommon to see people holding on the outside of a Jeepney like this, because they don't fit inside! Luckily, with the traffic in Manila, the Jeepneys rarely go faster than a few miles per hour.
The route is painted on the side of the Jeepney as well as on a sign hanging in the windshield.
I saw many Jeepney drivers with cash in their fingers like this - I guess that's how they give change quickly.
I totally want to eat at Burger Machine. haha
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