Things to do in Makati: Drinking

There's clearly something missing from this picture...

It's been a while since I've written a post related to 'Things to do in Makati'.  I haven't been doing much drinking recently, but I haven't been staying away from the pubs altogether.

Drinking establishments in Makati come in many guises.

There is Burgos Street, the main artery through the red light district.  I have never been to any of those bars, so can't comment.

Near to Burgos, there are 2 good bars - Handlebar and Howzat.  Handlebar is ostensibly a biker bar, but really it appeals to a much broader audience too.  They show lots of sport, have live music and a great barbeque.  It's a good place to hang out, with seating both indoors and outdoors.  Howzat is a sports bar with screens lining the walls showing all manner of sports.  A good place to go if you want to catch the football and eat pub grub.  We've never tried the food, but the pies looked very good as they were being taken to other punters' tables.  Howzat also stocks a huge variety of imported food - Bisto gravy, Vegemite, cheeses, chutneys and other sauces, confectionary...

Nearer to where we live, around Legaspi village, there is a handful of bars.  An Irish pub, where they have a weekly pub quiz on a Tuesday night.  Cablecar bar, where they show sport and host nightly beer ping pong games.  Bond Bar, which looks like any old modern bar, although we haven't been in.

In the Greenbelt shopping mall, there are a few decent options too.  One of my favourites is Prohibition.  Unless you know it's there, you wouldn't be able to find it.  Unless you Google it and find blogs like mine which give the secret away.  It's inside another bar, called Dillingers.  There is a fire exit type door, with the standard 'no entry' signs.  But you push the bar, and there you are in this other 'secret' bar.  It is nicely done out and has a good roof deck.  The music kicks off at around 10, but up until then you can have a very pleasant time on the comfy sofas.  You can also, as in many other bars, buy a whole bottle of a spirit and pour your own drinks (see the picture at the top of this blog - the Tanquerey is missing sadly).

All the hotels have (mostly posh) bars, many of which we haven't been into.  The Holiday Inn (at Glorietta) however, has a great rooftop bar right next to their swimming pool.  It's newly finished and has a good vibe about it.

And then there are all the others we haven't tried - those in Salcedo village.  And those at The Collective.  That has to be on our list over the next few months - apparently a collection of funky bars, some of which have good live music.  If we make it there, I'll update the blog.

Until then, cheers.

We've been infested

This is not something I wanted to take a photo of.

A few weeks ago, I went to take some sunflower seeds out of the plastic container (a recycled peanut butter jar) they were stored in, but noticed some movement inside the jar.  I had a vague recollection of my mum talking about weevils when we lived in Swaziland.  They must be weevils I thought.  I checked the package they had come in and it too was full of the little critters.

I threw them in the bin and didn't think anything else of it.

Until a recent Tuesday.

I'd just come in from a swim (with my swim cap still on), and wanted to start preparing dinner.  I went to take the brown rice out of the cupboard, but noticed a few dark marks on the floor of the cupboard.  I picked these up and the looked like baby weevils.  Nothing to worry about I thought.  I measured the rice into a jug, added some water to let it soak.  And then I saw that the rice packet was alive.  The bloody things had made it into the rice as well.

"Oh no" I thought.  They're probably not just in the rice, they're probably in many of the other packets of grains etc. in this cupboard.  Right enough, they were in the flour, the cornflour, the icing sugar, the cous cous... they didn't seem to like baking soda though.  Time to chuck everything away and give the cupboard a proper clean.  This cupboard does get cleaned every week.  And we had eaten the rice on the Sunday.  So, it is entirely possible we'd had a bit of extra added protein.

That wasn't enough for me though.  I felt so creepy-crawlied out that I had to go to the mall to buy some good food canisters.  Luckily, the mall shuts at 9, so I did manage to find some canisters.  I will need more, but for now my muesli is protected, as are my oats and pasta.  I haven't re-stocked on anything else.

I have done some reading, and it turns out that weevils are most likely already in the grains when you buy them.  In the form of eggs.  These eggs hatch if you don't make your way through the ingredients quickly enough.  One solution is to freeze anything you buy for 4 days before putting it in your cupboards.  Apparently this kills the eggs.  Just remember to put whatever ingredient into a sealed plastic bag so that the moisture in the freezer doesn't ruin your grains or flour.

No doubt we'll have another infestation during our time here, but for now I'm going to buy smaller packets of rice and make sure that everything is in a sealed food canister.

A visit to the homeland

We're very excited to be heading back to the UK for some autumnal weather and some good British food.  I have planned a few blog posts to go up whilst we're away (the wonders of technology).

We've been in Manila for just over 9 months now, so it feels like a good time to go back to the UK for a short visit.  One thing that isn't short is the length of my list of food to eat.  Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries.  Fish 'n chips.  Curry.  My mum's chocolate cake.  And various other things.  Can't wait.

It'll also be great to see family and friends after such a long time.  Our niece, Lauren, who will look so different from when we saw her during Christmas 2012.  Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins.  Very exciting.  And they'll get to see the ever-growing Harvey bump in 4D rather than just on Skype or photos.

Ah, and to have the freedom of having a car and being able to drive wherever, whenever we choose.

I may report back, on our return to Manila.  Or I might find other topics, more related to the Philippines.  Only time will tell.

Riding the MRT in Manila

Even though I almost always have my phone with me, which has a camera, I am still not in the habit of using it to take pictures.  So this will be another blog post without a photo.  Google 'Manila MRT rush hour' to get a feel for what it's like!

A few weeks ago we had tickets to see The Killers at Smart Araneta Coliseum, in Quezon City.  Quezon City is one of the 16 cities which make up Metro Manila and is to the North of Makati where we live and work.  We had planned on getting a taxi there after work, but one of my colleagues reckoned that it could take 3 hours to get there at rush hour.  She suggested we take the train.

We have been in Manila for about 9 months now and we have never taken the train.  No time like the present then, I suppose.

One of the reasons we haven't taken the train is that the stations just aren't conveniently located.  We both work on the main street in the CBD.  There are 2 Mass Rail Transit (MRT, the name of the train) stations to choose from.  But both are a good 30 minute walk away.  Getting a taxi to one of the stations is an option, but it's nearly impossible to get a taxi at rush hour, especially if there is any rain at all threatened.

We decided to head to Buendia station as we thought we would have a better chance of getting on a train there; it should be a bit quieter than Ayala station.  Ayala station is situated next to a massive shopping centre, and has more offices nearby.

The walk was mostly ok.  However, the last 200 metres or so are along a very narrow, unlit path where you are hemmed in against a big wall with a protective railing (protecting you from the road).  Not somewhere you'd want to be by yourself.

We found the ticket desk easily enough.  Tickets were only 12 pesos (about 17 British pence) each for a one-way journey.  Good job we could save some money here.  Tickets for The Killers were more than 6000 pesos each!  That's about 100 quid.  We followed the masses of people down to the platform.  The signposting was poor.  I think there was an indication of the route direction, but there were no route maps.

One of the good things about the MRT is that they reserve the front 1-3 carriages for women, pensioners and disabled people.  If you're pregnant, we found that your husband can accompany you on this carriage.  But, this doesn't make these carriages any quieter than the rest of the train.  There were hundreds of people on the platform.  We didn't manage to squeeze into the first train.  Luckily the trains come along every 2 minutes or so.  It took us 4 goes before we squeezed ourselves into a carriage.

I don't think I have ever been so closely packed in with other passengers anywhere in my life.  Apart from maybe at an Arctic Monkeys gig where the crowd went mad for "Brianstorm" and charged forward to the stage.  I was really shocked at what lengths people will go to, to squeeze onto the train.  Really, you could not move at all on the train.  If there was nothing to hold onto, it didn't matter because you couldn't fall over anywhere anyway.

But the train got us there in 15 minutes, whereas a taxi from the same point would have probably taken about 1.5 hours.  The train station was joined to the mall which was joined to the Coliseum, so there was no wandering around trying to find the venue.

Would I do it again?  Probably if I was travelling to the other side of the city.  But probably not at rush hour, especially as my belly grows!