A healthy weekend

'twas the weekend before Christmas... so we decided to go on a healthy weekend break.  We'd heard about The Farm at San Benito through the Lonely Planet originally and then from friends who mentioned it during our time in Manila.  It's a coconut plantation which has been transformed into a health farm/retreat.  It sounded wonderful, if a bit expensive.  And if I'm completely honest, I never thought that we'd manage a break there.

But, we decided to treat ourselves.  Our options for getting out of the city are becoming more and more limited as the due date of the baby nears.  The Farm is only a drive away.  And it's Christmas, so why not treat ourselves!

We were picked up by The Farm's transport on Friday afternoon.  Traffic was thick getting out of the city, but once we were past the airport the rest of the drive was fairly quiet.  On arrival, we were given cold coconut water with a slice of cucumber - very refreshing.  It was dark, but the whole resort was atmospherically lit, including our room.  We stayed in one of the Sulu Terrace rooms.  On the ground level there is the bathroom and a Thai-style chill out area.  On the first floor, the small but perfectly formed sleeping quarters.

With my big belly and increased need for night-time toilet visits I was a bit wary of the steep steps up to the room.  But, this is where we were to stay so we just compared it to camping and got on with it.  There were no broken bones to report at the end of the trip.

Upon check-in we were reminded that the resort only serves vegan food.  The receptionist was keen to double-check with Mr H that this was ok.  His face must have given away the impression that he couldn't survive 2 nights without meat!

The food throughout our stay (2 dinners, 1 afternoon tea and 2 breakfasts) was very impressive.  I just couldn't believe the variety you could achieve using only vegan ingredients.  The highlights were the chocolate and pecan pie on the first night and the granola for the first breakfast.

The portion sizes are not vast, but if you go for the set menu you can choose between 2 to 5 courses.  On the first evening, we weren't sure we were going to be full, so we ordered some bread.  It was delicious, and it came with 3 spreads (cashew 'butter', pesto and coconut 'butter') but it was rather overpriced for what you got - 300 Pesos (almost £5) for 6 very thin and small slices of bread.

What is there to do at a health farm?  Each day there is a set of activities which you can choose to join, or you can simply find one of the chill-out points around the resort and enjoy the silence doing nothing.  There were 3 yoga classes a day, various other exercise classes, walks around the resort and flower arranging.  We didn't do any of these.  We lay by the pool, or in the chill-out area under our hut and just really relaxed.  I've been having really swollen feet recently, and at the end of the weekend my feet were back to normal size.  It was brilliant.

It was all over too quickly, even though it was nice having 2 nights in a place for a change.  As we headed back to Manila, the air became thicker and smoggier.  But it was wonderful to have fresh, clean air for a whole weekend.

I'd recommend a trip to The Farm, even more so if you can get a good offer.  It's not cheap, but it is very special.

Haggis, kilts, ceilidh dancing & free flowing whisky... and we're still in Manila!

I think I'm from the 'Gordon' clan.

An annual event in Manila is the St Andrews ball, organised by the Manila St Andrews Society.  Ostensibly it's to celebrate St Andrews Day (30 November), but really I think it's just an excuse for a good knees up.  And a good knees up it was.

The ball was held at the Manila Polo Club.  I've been past the Club on a number of occasions, and I've always wanted to go inside.  It has a grand entrance and you can just peek at a nice driveway and manicured lawns through the entrance.  That was definitely one of the deciding factors when I saw the event advertised.  It is also more reasonable than some of the other balls (tickets were 3500 pesos each) and the word 'haggis' was included on the poster.  I couldn't pass up another opportunity to munch on some haggis (we'd missed the Burn's supper in January this year).

Being a Friday night, traffic was, well, to put it the Filipino way 'very traffic'.  In other words 'very heavy traffic'.  It took us about 20 minutes to find a cab, and then about half an hour to travel maybe 3km.  I don't think we were the only ones who suffered as the room wasn't quite full when we arrived at 7:50pm (we were meant to be seated for dinner by 8).  People kept filtering in and eventually there must have been about 250 people there.  I never thought I would see so many kilts in one place in Manila.

Clan paraphernalia decorating the ballroom

There was a lot of ceremony, lots of food, free flowing booze and ceilidh dancing.  A great night.  We had a bit of a delayed start - we weren't eating until about 10pm.  This was after a demonstration of Scottish dancing by some local children (they were fantastic), the chieftan's address (sadly he couldn't be there, so it was read by Roy Espiritu who gave up his piping duties for the night) and the piping in of the haggis.

Starter was tomato and basil soup (tasty) followed by haggis and neeps (they forgot the tatties.  They did rectify their mistake by bringing us cold scoops of potato), and then onto fillet steak, chocolate pud for dessert and a cheese selection.  Very indulgent.  There was wine and whisky on the tables and you could order beers and other drinks from the waiters.  They even made me freshly pressed apple juice!

  

Plenty of ceilidh dancing followed, in amongst a performance from a band called The Spirits (a Celtic fusion dance band apparently).  Plenty of fun.  We lasted until about 1am, but the party was still in full swing when we left.  I'm sure there were plenty of sore heads in Manila on Saturday morning.

I just want to buy an ice-cream

Well, and eat it.

Friday night = treat night.  If I'm lucky.  I was lucky - we headed to a Gelato stand in Greenbelt 3 which a huge selection of flavours.  I went for Amaretto.  In a cone.

The ice-cream lady scooped up a nice big ball of ice cream, placed it on the cone.  And the cone broke.

She tried again.  The same problem.  This time, some of the cone attached itself to the ice cream, and landed up back in the original tub.

She handed over the scoop to another lady.  I could see she was about to try the same thing again.  At this point, Mr H couldn't watch any longer.  I suggested that I just get a cup, instead of a cone.  Ah, problem solved!  By the customer.

I still really wanted the cone though - I ended up with an ice-cream that might be served at a children's party, to look a bit like a clown.  All that aside it was delicious.

Frozen peas and other miss-cellaneous

Like any big decision, the decision to move far away from home involves a lot of thought, discussion and thoughts of 'what if'.

Before Mr H even had his confirmed job offer, we were playing through lots of scenarios in our heads related to 'if we moved' and 'if we didn't move'.  A lot of the 'if we moved' centred around being so far away from friends and family.  When we lived in England, we were about 2.5 hours away from Mr H's family and about 4 hours (if we flew) away from mine.  It wasn't as if we could just nip round for a cup of tea.  But being on the other side of the world, 15 hours minimum flying time, is slightly different.  You can't just nip back for a weekend.  We rationalised it based on 2 key factors: 1) we wouldn't stay away forever and 2) technology is so good these days that it's easy to see each other via e.g. Skype.

When we first arrived, we had a really shoddy internet connection.  This made Skype calls, with video at least, nigh on impossible.  A big priority for us, when we moved to a more permanent abode was to get a very decent internet connection.  It was such a relief when we did - we managed to have decent conversations with our families for the first time in about 3 months.

My other big considerations in the 'if we move' category were the availability of food I liked to eat, or ingredients for baking.  Would there be decent flour so that I could make bread?  Would we be able to get cheese easily?  When I lived in China back in 1999/2000 I would wake up dreaming of macaroni cheese or beans on toast.  Both bread and cheese were very difficult to come by.  Where you could get bread it was inevitably sweet.  And where you could get cheese it was processed.

It turns out you can get flour here, but it tends to be very white all purpose flour.  I have yet to find any wholegrain flour.  Or self-raising flour.  I have been able to find recipes where I can use all purpose flour e.g. to make pizza base or cinnamon buns, I guess because it's a common flour in the USA.  But it is just SO white.  But you can buy bread here, which isn't sweet.  And I even found some decent-looking wholegrain bread the other day at The French Baker.  I didn't buy any (I had too much shopping as it was), but I will venture back out to try it at some point.  You can also get cheese in many varieties.

But I hadn't considered missing the British countryside.  Or a good British pub (granted, Mr H had mentioned this a number of times before we left.  I just didn't 'get it', according to him because I had spent so much time outside of the UK already.)  Or the big sporting events (Wimbledon and The Ashes).  Or having a car and the freedom that brings with it.  Or the convenient banking hours.  Or the reliable postal system.  Or the reliable public transport system in the bigger cities (and the amazingly awesome journey planner).  Or the clean, fresh air of little Wokingham.  Or being able to see independent cinema (I don't know how many more action blockbusters I can stomach).  Or being able to listen to decent chat and music on the radio (at least I'm getting to fulfill my guilty power-ballad pleasure during every taxi journey I take I suppose).  Or being able to kick back and watch something decent on TV (which is not Asia Food Network).  Or frozen peas.  

Things to do in Makati: Eating

When I first arrived in Makati, I was struck by just how many restaurants there are.  It's not like some of the other Asian cities I've been to where there is lots of street food, hawker stalls and hole-in-the-wall type restaurants.  I'm talking about proper restaurants.  And a really international selection.

Perhaps this is because Makati is the main financial centre in Metro Manila.  It's not entirely representative of the rest of the Metro.  But this is where we live and work, so this is where we spend most of our time.

Within Makati there are at least 3 BIG malls - Glorietta, Greenbelt & Powerplant.  Within each of these malls there are countless restaurants representing cuisine from all over the world.  Often these are chains, either national or international.  With lots of fast food choices.

Outside of the malls, particularly within Salcedo Village, Legaspi Village and the area around Burgos Street there are numerous other restaurants.  The restaurants found here tend to be independent and a bit more interesting.

There is a great website, www.munchpunch.com which gives details of local restaurants including, sometimes, a full menu.  This is really useful as most restaurants don't seem to have their own websites.

We've eaten at Japanese, Korean, Italian, North African, Spanish, Middle Eastern, Indian, Thai, American, Vietnamese, Mexican, Serbian & Filipino restaurants.  Generally, the quality of food is decent (some better than others).  But sometimes it's just a bit sweet, or a bit greasy.  The service isn't quite up to European or American standards - the most common grumble being that food is just served when it's ready.  If you're part of a big-ish party, this can sometimes mean that the first person has finished eating before the last person's food has even arrived.  And the costs are far below what we'd pay in the UK.  Generally, a meal for 2 in a decent restaurant, with drinks is almost always less than £15.

Particular favourites are:

1. Spudoo (for lunch) which is found in the RCBC office block.  Spudoo serves what is probably best described as 'comfort food'.  Roast lamb, spare ribs, lasagne, salads, great sandwiches, baked potatoes etc.
2. Balkan (Serbian food) which is on Perea Street in Legaspi Village serves delicious food, but the bread rolls in particular stand out.  Really good bread isn't easy to find here.
3. People's Palace (Thai food) in Greenbelt is excellent, serving authentic tasting Thai.
4. Tsukiji (Japanese) which is on Pasay Road, almost directly opposite our apartment block.  A bit more expensive than some of the others but really really good quality.

During the working week, there are also Jolly Jeeps, which are a bit like the trailers you get at the side of the road in the UK serving breakfast rolls, hamburgers etc.  Jolly Jeeps display their available, ready-cooked, dishes of the day for punters to pick and choose.  They're then served on plastic-bag covered plates, and the punters will stand at the counter wolfing down their food before making way for next-in-line.

I've only been brave enough to try the banana-cue and banana turon from the Jolly Jeeps.   Both of these are local specialties which tend to be served as merienda or an afternoon snack.  Banana-cue is 2 small bananas, on a kebab stick, covered in sugar and fried.  Banana turon  is banana, wrapped in a pastry case similar to a spring roll, covered in sugar and fried.  Both frighteningly healthy.  But who cares about the health properties when they're so tasty!