Leisure in Manila

During weekend my friend from Manila was kind enough to show me some interesting places in Manila as that's my first visit. We visited the bay, some churches and ended with traditional dinner in a unique restaurant


The first visit was to the reclaimed land where the Mall of Asia (the biggest Mall in Philippines), some modern offices, many restaurants and also hotels with beautiful and sophisticated architecture are built. It's a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon). We didn't stop by in the huge mall, because I only wanted to enjoy and explore Manila scenery instead of shopping :-)


When passing by the baywalk, I was interested in stopping there, so we turned around and entered the parking lot. It's called "By The Bay", the popular recreation area for Metro Manila people. There were various restaurants which has open air area and also indoor. They provide various food such as western food, local cuisine, etc. Some foodstalls were also there, attempting visitors to taste snack, ice cream, drinks, etc. It's full of music, so many people hung out in that area, sitting on the edge of the bay waiting for sunset. My friend informed that sunset is very beautiful from here, so Philippinos people like to enjoy it, bringing some food and snack together with friends or family.


After passing by some restaurants, we went to the park, there was a small amusement park, where children could play with the swing, bike, etc. A small fountain decorates the promenade, with some statues accross the fountain. A big wheel such as London Eye or Singapore Flyer was also there to enable people viewing Manila from the height. At the other side of the bay, there was an exquisite yacht club area where many private yachts anchored.


The park was quite spacious, it enabled people express themselves. Such as that day there were two young boys play pantomime. It created crowd in the middle of the park to see their actions. It's good to practice and test their art performance in front of the real audience before going to professional. On the way back to the parking lot, we stopped by at Hooter, the famous bar & restaurant with beautiful and sexy waitress. Unfortunately the delicious chocolate cake we wanted was not available, so we canceled the visit for eating. The waiter was very friendly, they kept smiling at us and allowing us taking picture although we didn't buy anything.


At the edge of the bay near to the yatch club, we could see some temporary wall to close the ruin places because of the typhon last year. After passing through the main road of Manila, Roxas Boulevard, where there were some big five stars hotels, government offices, also US embassy office by the bay, we arrived at Cathedral. There was a mass at that time, I also prayed for a while, asking for 3 wishes to God. The mass ended so fast, the electricity inside the church was off after the mass had finished, lucky that I've taken some pictures before it's totally off. The cathedral's door was very beautiful, it's made of wood full of carving of the holy pictures. If you're hungry, you just need to go accross the cathedral, a unique restaurant provided various menu of cardinals' favourite meal.


Finally we had dinner in a traditional restaurant Bakahan at Manukan, Roxas Boulevard near corner Gil Puyat Avenue, Pasay City, which held cook & waiter singing and dancing. It's fun and a different ambience, all of them could sing and dance beautifully, without microphone their voice was loud enough to be heard by all guests. I enjoyed the ambience, although it's rather noisy. My friend suggested to order gisa monggo (green bean soup), and Adobo manok (chicken). For beverage, she said that the popular mango shake ice was very nice, it's true, I like it very much, one glass was not enough for me :-). The green bean soup is unique but delicious, contained of vegetable, chicken, and pork. We enjoyed the food accompanying with their live music. If you visit Manila/Makati, you should stop by at the restaurant to feel different ambience.

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