Intramuros

Within Fort Santiago

Manila doesn't have a huge number of tourist attractions.  One of the most famous, if not the most famous, is Intramuros.  It is a citadel built by the Spanish in the late 16th Century, to protect the city from foreign invasions.  It was badly damaged during the Second World War, but restoration work began in the early 1950s.  Today it is a mix of old Spanish-looking streets and buildings, some of which have been turned into museums, and an area where local Filipinos live, work and play.

After almost 11 months in Manila, this was a site which we had still not visited.  We decided to visit today.  We had heard mixed reviews from others who had already been there - some friends who live in Manila and most recently from my dad and sister who ventured there during their short stay in Manila.  So I dug out the Lonely Planet to get some tips.  One of the best tips was to head to Fort Santiago, where they have a visitor centre which gives out good maps of the walled city.

Horse and carriage

Fort Santiago has been made into a museum.  The grounds are immaculate and the buildings in a good state of repair (other than those which are under restoration at the moment including the Rizal Shrine).  As you wander around the fort, you spot many a horse and carriage (of many different designs).  Whilst the horses are tiny, they are in very good condition (compared to some of the ones we've seen in Binondo and at Taal Volcano).  You could walk along part of the elevated wall which gives views of the Pasig river and real Manila on the other side of it.

One of the quirks of Intramuros is that there is a golf course which wraps around it.  I'm no golfer, but I'm led to believe that it's quite a prestigious course here in Manila.  It was odd walking up to one of the walls and seeing people teeing off below you.  Not a sight I had expected to see!

Manila Cathedral

From Fort Santiago we wandered down General Luna street.  Along this street lies the Manila Cathedral - an impressive looking building, but currently closed for renovation.  Parts of the street are cobbled and there are various restaurants and souvenir shops.  It has a really old feel to it, and you could be in parts of Europe here.  From there we headed down a few side streets, with our final destination of the Bay Leaf hotel in mind.  As you head down the side streets, the feel of Intramuros changes completely.  The streets become full of tricycles (of the push-bike rather than the motorbike variety), local street stalls and, as it was a Sunday, lots of locals enjoying some time with their family and friends.

Today was the day that Manny Pacquiao was fighting Brandon Rios in Macau so as you walked down some of the quieter streets you could hear TV / radio broadcasts of the fight.  Manny is a pretty big deal in the Philippines.  And he won the fight.

Bay Leaf roof deck (ignore the finger)

We reached our destination of the Bay Leaf Hotel only to find that the roof deck didn't open until 5pm.  We asked if we could go up for a look anyway.  When we got up there we realised that the bar there WAS closed, but that you could order food and/or drinks from 9 Spoons restaurant and get them delivered to the roof deck.  So that's just what we did.  It's a great spot with views all over Manila, including the bay.  It would be a great spot for some sundowners.  We'll just have to head back.

So I probably would recommend Intramuros for a visit.  I'd start at Fort Santiago and work your way from there - it gives you a base, and you're not just dropped somewhere in what may feel like a bit of a ghetto to some.

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.

Buzzing Boracay

Puka Beach, Boracay

We were lucky enough to have some visitors for the first 2 weeks in September - my parents, Jill & Peter, and my sister, Sarah.  It wouldn't be a fair representation of the Philippines if all we'd shown them was Manila.  We debated, at length, where else we should go in the Philippines.  The main spanner in the works of choosing where to go was the weather.  We hadn't lived through a rainy season in the Philippines yet, so had no idea what effect these much fabled storms would have on travel plans.

In the end, we settled on Boracay.  It is one of the highlights of the Philippines, there are very frequent flights there and on paper it's a short easy journey.  On the weather maps, which show the 4 main weather regions of the Philippines, it also seemed to be one of the places that escaped some of the worst weather.

There are 2 airports which feed Boracay: Kalibo and Caticlan.  Caticlan is much closer (a short tricycle ride, followed by a short ferry ride, followed by a van/tricycle ride to your hotel.  Kalibo has an additional 2 hours bus ride to get to the port for the ferry across to Boracay.  2 benefits of Kalibo though: bigger planes fly there, and it's considerably cheaper to fly there.  So we flew into Kalibo (with delays, a 7 hour journey!) and out of Caticlan (no delays, 4 hour journey).

View from our apartment at Argonauta

We had booked to stay in an apartment, part of Argonauta resort, about 10 minutes away by tricycle from the main White Beach.  We were greeted with a refreshing fruit juice on the terrace overlooking Banyugan beach.  Stunning.

The accommodation at Argonauta was great.  A 2 bedroom apartment, with a lovely verandah was perfect for us to be able to enjoy the time together as a family.  The breakfasts served were hearty and delicious.  You could choose from various options including healthy (muesli, yogurt and fresh tropical fruit), light (fresh fruit, pancakes and 2 boiled eggs), Filipino (fruit, rice, longanissa sausage) and one which included eggs and bacon or ham.  They would easily keep us going all day, with perhaps a light snack in the afternoon.  The service was warm, friendly and efficient.  A definite perk was the free shuttle which provided us with transport to anywhere on the island, with the very friendly driver Alan.

Puka beach

We had a good mix of weather.  Our first full day was spent sunning ourselves on Puka Beach.  No complaints at all about the weather that day.  The second day was a bit mixed.  In the morning we managed some beach time at Ilig Iligan beach before the rains arrived.  On the third day it was a bit grim, but we decided to make the most of the fact it wasn't raining and headed out on a round-the-island boat trip.  This included only one snorkelling stop, at Crocodile Island.  I was a bit disappointed as on visits to other islands in the Philippines there had been numerous snorkelling stops.  Still, it was a fun way to see the whole island from the sea!  We had a bit more rain the next day, but decided to go up Mount Luho for views of the island from an alternative perspective.  Even with the rain, it was great being able to see the island and the sea.

Along with the sightseeing, we had a few good meals.  Our first meal was at Kasbah, which also has a branch in Manila.  We sat with our feet in the sand and enjoyed a delicious North African supper.  Next was at Cyma, a greek restaurant which also has a branch in Manila.  Very good Greek food including their famous flaming cheese, which is delivered to your table with the entire staff shouting 'Oooompa!'.  We also enjoyed a beach barbeque, again with our feet in the sand, wood-fired pizza at Aria and a home-cooked meal at Argonauta.  Not bad choices for such a tiny island.

Because Boracay is one of the highlights of the Philippines, it is busier than a lot of the other places we've visited.  But it is a deserved highlight.  The beaches are long, white and beautiful (especially white beach), the sea clear blue and warm, and the food options great.  Would I go back?  I wouldn't rush back, but if we have more visitors, it might be a place I recommend to them.

More photos from our Boracay trip.

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!