Yes mam its the Phillipines! DAY 3 & 4

DAY 3

Okay I shall just stop procrastinating finish posting pictures of my manila trip! Guess I will put more pictures than words, lol easier for your eyes. It’s like 2.30 am now but NO I have to finish this blog post no matter what as I have many other things to post!

So the third day was another sight-seeing day, we will be going to see an active volcano inside a volcano. What….. haha yes that was my reaction when I heard that. But apparently it’s possible for a volcano inside a volcano to be formed when an volcano erupts. Okay whatever, honestly, I don’t really care about volcanoes -.- but it’s part of the tour we signed up for so we just went for it. lol

So it was a 2 hour drive to the destination, this is the volcano in the volcano from far! Lol okay I don’t think u can identify but anyway I like this shot :) 

Some plantation the car went past, pineapples? I am not too sure.

Tropical fruits, but ended up my mum bought a kilo of imported mangosteen. What the hell. Let all clap for her.

AH HA! Saw the volcano? It’s the one inside a volcano so at the place where I was taking the pic it was already a volcano. To get there, after a 2 hour drive, it’s another 2 hour boat ride that was the boat we sat. It was motherly hot and the sun was shining bright like a diamond that day -.-

Again, my generation Y peeps!With our hair all over our faces. 

So after the boat ride, we reached a small island where we have to rid a horse up the mountain to see the volcano. Actually it was quite fun as it was the first I ever sat on a horse. It was another 20 min on the horse back. It was real exciting but scary at the same time, both uphill and downhill, it was so steep. The whole journey up, I was so nervous that I was holding onto some small handle down tightly the whole time and all tensed up as I was afraid the horse I was riding will suddenly do stunts and I will end up flying off to nowhere and die in a foreign land. But luckily, the horse was damn obedient and steady the whole way up, though the journey was abit dusty and the sun is like trying to cook me. 

Taken on the horseback down, downhill was much better as I know that my horse, bronzo, is very steady so I was there taking pictures casually and even cam-whoring but the pictures suck so… hahaha actually I would say this horse riding thing is sort of the highlight of out manila trip as it was really special though a tiny bit dangerous but overall it was a good experience and program. 

Everyone in the tour group, on top of the mountain with the volcano in the volcano behind us! Lol Ikr, nth special -.- but its for the experience. Lol 

Me and mum with our horses! 

So that’s about half a day of our itinerary, after that we went to have lunch at the play where the boat service was provided. It was home cooked meal and it tasted quite delicious! Afterwards  we visited some local shopping centers hoping to be shop for sth but even though we visited a few of big malls in manila, there was nothing to buy so we sort of went back to the hotel early and rest as it was a tiring day! 

DAY 4

 So on day 4 we went to do some shopping in a shopping Centre call Greenhills , unlike things in other shopping malls, the things here were much cheaper and you can even bargain with the owners, though not much deductions but it’s definitely cheaper than those in the super huge gala shopping malls. I managed to get a few tops from there at a quite low price! At night, we went to a seafood market where u buy the seafood u want in the market and then u can go to any restaurants nearby and ask them to cook them for u! And it was pretty cheap.

As the picture shown above, we ate quite a lot of high class seafood, crabs , lobster, prawns, abalone and some clams plus other dishes like vegetables and pineapple fried rice! The total bill is onli 200 plus sgd. Yup cheap like mad! 

There was a Korean mart near the market and we couldn’t help ourselves but bought back popsicles for desserts! Most of them can’t be found in Singapore especially the banana milk popsicle! It was so damn yum! Look at all the happy face on in the picture! LOL

Finally tried their rice wine! It’s much cheaper there! Erm I tried a bit and didn’t want to touch it anymore, though the alcohol content is only like 15 %? But it tasted like it can corrode my stomach away! The after taste is damn strong; I wonder how Koreans drink it until so shiok in all those deceiving dramas. Liars.  Look at my friends face and you can roughly know how it tasted like! 

Couldn’t help it but I have to post this! Le wild mum on the horseback with scarf on her head, I don’t understand how she managed to pull through this style but it was freaking funny! HAHAHAHAHA

Our loots! Me, sis and mum! Food plus some clothing and etc. all I can say is they looked a lot but actually not really lol 

This is me with the cutie doggie in our hotel; he was so obedient and does not bark at all! So friendly and excited when u touch him!

Okay let me just briefly summarise my trip and end this post here and my eyelids are really really closing. Overall, this trip was fine. Yes fine, just fine. Honestly, the last min change of plan was damn sudden and our trip happened before we have too much time to think of what we wanted to do. Pity. I mean there’s no harm going to another country. And I have friends who are telling mi that I sld be happy as at least I am getting put of Singapore. So yea, I treated it as a weekend getaway. I sort of enjoy talking to the locals and being with them as they are real polite! Everywhere you go they will “hi mam and sry mam” u, yes even to themselves and u can feel that they are very friendly and pure just a look at their faces. Manila is not as dangerous as u all think. If you ask mi whether I would recommend manila to other tourists, I would say there’s more place to visit. So yea, here’s my 2 cents on my trip! Now I have to get to my bed! Byeee! 

Yes mam its the Phillipines! DAY 2

It’s the second day in manila, my flu recovered after getting enough slp! Today the rough itinerary is to go shopping in the malls near our hotels, go for a short city tour and have dinner at a famous buffet restaurant that serves a wide range of local and international cuisine. 

So for the rest of the day that we stayed in somerset millennium we had our breakfast there, I have to say their spread is pretty good with different dishes everyday but some standard dishes for breakfast fixed like scrambled eggs and pancakes. It was a cozy little restaurant so it makes u feel very comfortable eating there and will enjoy ur breakfast, which one of my tour mate reckon as the most impt. meal of the day in a warm ambience! 

Taken in one of the shopping malls near out hotels, all the ‘elders’ in our group, there are like ard 10 shopping centres at that area? Or more I don’t know didn’t manage to visit all as they are too huge and our schedule didn’t permit. It’s just like orchard roads in Singapore, malls after malls and they are linked but most sell the same thing though, with labels like Uniqlo, cotton on and zara. Actually nth much special, it’s just quantity there.   

This is the garden of a huge cluster of shopping malls near our hotel with the name Greenbelt, just like suntect city , they have 5 buildings which they call Greenbelt 1 to 5. Again, we didn’t manage to visit all as everything in the mall is the same so nth interest us so we chose to forgo them. This is the middle of all 5 malls, those who think manila is still a third world country who practice barter trade, u are wrong, okay I don’t not say other cities of Philippine is so advanced but at least manila is with numerous shopping centres .

So in the afternoon we went for the city tour, I forgot the name of the places we went, so please just enjoy the photos XD 

 In the car, a statue in the middle of their central banking district.

 First local tourist attract we visited, some fortress I guess XD one unfortunate thing is I don’t know why my camera didn’t capture much nice pictures due to the lighting reason, that day It was cloudy and was abt to rain, or maybe is I noob and don’t know how to adjust my camera T.T

 Hahaha sorry I just had to do it.

 I was trying to take a picture of this kitty that stopped suddenly beside me, I was quite surprised it didn’t run away when I was going nearer to him and take the picture. It turns out he was shitting so he didn’t move -.-

 Le wild tourist.

 My 2 generation Y tour mates!

Sorry I just couldn’t help it XD

 With my mum!

Second stop is the oldest church in manila or sth built by a Chinese and yes I gained some weight.

So for dinner we came to this restaurant I found online that is quite famous apparently for their wide spread of buffet dinner. It’s called kamaiyan, I think: / didn’t managed to take pic of the wide spreads as I was busy eating. It was quite yummy just like those international buffets u can get in Singapore without local Philippine food, but I actually don’t know what their local food is and don’t dare to eat them also.

 So there are performers who sings in front of every tables, when I stopped in front of our table it was so awkward I don’t know what to do, I couldn’t eat cause its quite rude to eat when others are performing for u so I just stoned until the performance was over.

 Roast pork is famous in Philippines, I just find it interest so I took it but after that I realized its quite gross :/

Anyway guys next time when you visit the Philippines you have to try this drink naming ‘ four season’ apparently it’s made of fruits of different seasons, like watermelon, orange, banana and mango! The taste is so fresh and unique! I really like it, not to mention it’s pretty appearance!

So here’s day 2 of my trip! Have been procrastinating to post the rest as work is killing me! But I will try my best!  So stay tune! 

Yes mam its the Phillipines! DAY 1

 I think I have rant abt how excited I am for my Thailand trip before. But of all times they chose to be unhappy about their govt then. So after much fiasco and discussion my tour mates who consists of my mum, sis and my mums friends decided to go to Manila, Philippines.

At first I was quite against the idea cause like I don't think I will even come to Philippines in my life and not after the hongkong bus incident here. But since my mums friends who are the elders sort of persuade us to change our trip to Manila instead. I have no choice but to complied, oh well, there's no harm going to another country and I will just treat it as a weekend getaway. Okay I shall not set a negative tone here, the trip was okay, it wasn't a holiday to me actually it was sort of like an overseas excursion trip, not much on the fun but the lessons learnt. 

As the change of plans was so last min, we didn't have time to plan the itinerary as we changed the destination like 4 days before our trip. Yup, so despite the fact that both of us end work quite late at like 9 plus every, we googled and googled for places to go in manila and slept at onli like 3 or even 4 am almost every day leading to the trip and what happened was, at the end when we reached there, we didn’t follow our plans AT ALL, only managed to go some of the places we found. So yea, it wasn’t that pleasant initially and it didn’t turn out to be even relaxing or a getaway it was supposed to be.  But I really learnt a lot from it, like how am I supposed to deal with disappointment, not to be too stubborn/serious over certain things, and kept telling myself to have an open mind on everyth and most impt make the best out of the situation. 

And not to forget to mention my dad, being the most paranoid person ever who still thinks his daughter is some embryo in my mum’s womb that he ordered me and sis MUST NOT WANDER OFF ON OUR OWN. I am sure he thinks manila is some third world country that I will get raped any minutes I am left alone and let me assure u manila is the safest place ever. And just by typing this piss me off and this is the sole reason I didn’t enjoy the trip as much. 

DAY 1

We travelled to manila by Tiger Airway, flight at 1.25 am and reached there at 5.00 am.  Look at the smile on my face, of course that was before my flight where I tot I would get some sleep and will never expect any flu to haunt me on the first day of my trip. But most importantly, did u see the cutie pie chick luggage tag I was hanging on my hand carrier? I checked it in and when I reached manila and it was no longer on my bag T.T whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy I just started using it for like last than 12 hrs.

For the whole trip we stayed at Somerset Millileum Makati which is in the city where most of the shopping malls are clustered. Reached the hotel at abt 6 plus 7 am and everyone was drained from the overnight flight and the hotel has kindly arranged a room for us to rest for a while even though we reached way earlier than the supposed check in time at 2pm. Didn’t take picture of the lobby, which I forgot why but I got a picture of the view in front of the hotel, it was a quiet street with a family mart right in front, hence it was very convenient for us to get bottled waters every day. And the cute golden retriever is the hotel’s ‘guard dog’ where he will sniff the luggage of visitors once they enter the hotel!

So after putting down our luggage in the temporary room we left for breakfast in the shopping malls which are a 5min walk away. Yup this is my first meal in manila, pancakes for breakfast; initially I thought pancakes will be those more special local delicacies with exotic flavors that won’t be found in Singapore but I was wrong. Turned out to be those typical pancakes that McDonald’s breakfast offers and don’t expect anything from the taste it tasted just like any random pancakes u can think of. Dang, I was disappointed but as the elders in my tour wanted it, I just didn’t complain much and complied since I was hungry as I was having a really bad flu as I didn’t catch munch sleep the night before. Anything I stuff in my mouth will be tasteless anyway so yea pancakes won’t make much diff. I mean honestly I feel that their local McDonald’s breakfast will be more special.  And the price is not even a lot cheaper than Singapore properly just a few dollars less. Yup , first meal in manila, pancakes.

After breakfast, we went back to the hotels, some decided to swim and some to sleep while I chose to put on a mask by the pool side. i was sneezing non-stop and mucus kept dripping automatically and I feel like fainting anytime, the feeling sucks, I should have slept seriously -.-

So in the afternoon after we have settled all the admin stuffs and checked in, we went to SM Mall of Asia, one of the biggest shopping mall in the world. Yes, the world, just in case some of u still thinks that manila is some third world country that still do barter trade as living, no. Surprisingly manila is quite advanced with shopping malls each easily bigger than ion orchard or Vivo city in Singapore. We wanted to catch the sunset along manila bay near the mall but it was a couldy day so we didn’t manage to catch it -.-There are food courts just like in Singapore in the mall tried some drilled stuffs, I couldn’t taste anything but I was hungry so I just kept eating.

         

Okay this is actually a mood lifter; there is Krispy kermes everywhere in manila, all the shopping malls! And the price is cheap cheap cheap. In Singapore, the original one cost 2.50? If I didn’t remember wrongly, one original donuts there cost around a dollar only and not to mentioned the cutie packaging! Ate this on the first day while I still had my flu but who cares I was damn down on the first day so yea it makes me happy.

Okay this is actually a mood lifter; there is Krispy kermes everywhere in manila, all the shopping malls! And the price is cheap cheap cheap. In Singapore, the original one cost 2.50? If I didn’t remember wrongly, one original donuts there cost around a dollar only and not to mentioned the cutie packaging! Ate this on the first day while I still had my flu but who cares I was damn down on the first day so yea it makes me happy.

So yup, tis sums up my first day in manila, was real drained the moment my butt touched the bed. I put on my thermal eye mask but can u imagine? I fell asleep before the mask was even heated up! Wasted my mask  -. -  okay sry to end of abruptly here, stay tune for day 2 J

missed this little guy like mad which i was in Philippines  T.T