Tag Archives: manila

SEA: Day 44 – Ontu Cebu

Posted on by under Travel

I had posted the day before on insta that I had a poor dining experience at a restaurant in Manila. Luckily, Anne Maria, friend from college, read it and gave me a bunch of other recommendations, which I happily tried and really enjoyed! Before I left for the airport, I ate at Noodles North Park for lunch where I ordered two dishes for myself. In hindsight, when people ask me which cuisine I enjoyed the most, I say the Philippines! Even though it’s an island country, they surprisingly eat a lot of pork. I was down with that since seafood ain’t my thing.

Traveling to Cebu City took me quite awhile. The flight was only an hour and a half, but my trip to the airport took longer than the actual flight. Also, was delayed at the airport for a bit. But it’s okay cause they had TV there and Mission Impossible was on. Big fan of Tom Cruise movies, even though people say he’s crazy. Whatever, his movies are entertaining. Comparing his personal life to his work is like saying Jeff Bezos is crazy so I won’t use Amazon. Are you crazy? I’m trying to rely less on Amazon, but it’s so convenient. Him and Elon are going to rule the world one day, if not already.

I eventually got to Cebu City and checked into The Golden Prince. Around this time, I had increased my budget for hostels and was very pleased with this selection. I was happy to be staying in the first hotel of my trip. I was originally booking all my lodging on hostelworld.com then eventually switched to booking.com since they had more options in more cities.

Look at his ears.

I got to the hotel pretty late, maybe around 10pm. I wasn’t tired at all so visited their hotel bar and listened to someone playing some live music. It was nice, but the place was pretty empty and the vibe was dying down. I did some quick research and found a bar, Cubana, which had live music and served hookahs. I headed over and spent the rest of the night there. Recommend it, especially if this band is playing. Sorry, I’m not sure who they are … I should have asked. They took song requests and somehow knew how to play every request that came in. Really impressive. I liked their version of You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing the best that night. I have a lot of video clips of them, but loading those takes some time, so here’s a picture of Cubana and a picture of Miggy that my brother texted me that day. Look how cute he is. I love him.

Lots of Koreans were here, supposedly in the Philippines to study English.

SEA: Day 43 – One Day in Manila

Posted on by under Travel

Manila traffic is insane. I landed at 6am and was out of the airport in a cab by 6:40. I thought I’d get to my hostel within a half hour at the latest. Short distance and pretty early in the morning, figured traffic shouldn’t be too bad. I was very wrong. It took over an hour and according to the driver, that was a “light” traffic morning. Mental note, try to avoid cabs as much as possible in Manila. A couple hours later, my next mental note was, Manila is huge and you cannot walk everywhere, idiot.

I’m going to post a bit differently today. The following is what I did over the next 18 hours.

  • checked into Our Melting Pot
  • walked to M Cafe
  • had breakfast at M Cafe
  • cabbed to Rizal Park after realizing it could not be walked
  • sat in cab for over an hour
  • visited Rizal Park for a half hour
  • saw the National Museum next
  • went to check out Intramuros for over 2 hours
  • cabbed to Milkway Cafe
  • had lunch at Milkway Cafe. If i remember correctly, I did not like this place.
  • cabbed to Max’s Jupiter
  • ate again at Max’s. Think it was some fast food chain. I may have eaten again cause I didn’t eat much at Milkyway Cafe? Shrug.
  • walked back to the hostel
  • washed up and rested for a couple hours
  • walked to Commune Cafe to attempt to do some work. Internet was horrible so could not. Not even sure what “work” i had to do. Assuming it was travel logistics related.
  • went back to hostel to call it a night
  • somehow started to chit chat with a guy named Lionel
  • discovered that Lionel is pretty cool
  • Lionel offers to show me some of the scene around the area
  • ate some street food
  • visited a bar
  • got back to the hostel to pack
  • got an awesome swedish massage at a discount cause the owner of the hostel also owned the massage spot
  • finally slept