Vague Reveries

We left Puerto Galera around 9 am the next day, took a bus from Batangas to head back to Manila. There’s a lot of sellers getting on and off the bus from each bus stops, selling food and drinks, especially hard boiled eggs. A smart way to do business without having to have headache of which business insurance to buy eh?

Hard boiled quail eggs - 20 pesos for 5pcs, with salt. Never knew that boiled eggs tastes great with salt

Halfway to Manila, we smell something foul, a bad case of fart. Or that’s was what we thought at first. A girl from the opposite seat from me moved to the seat at the back of the bus since it was empty. When we got to Manila, she got off first and I was unlucky enough to turn to speak to Linda who was sitting behind my seat, and I got a whiff of what it was really when the girl at the back passed me by! She was covering her behind with her bag, and I think you can guess as well as I did of what actually happened! Poor girl…

Anyway, we checked in to Friendly’s Guest House at Malate as per Linda’s booking, made way back before this trip. Linda, Mandy & Lyn stayed at this backpackers’s lodge before, and it is definitely much better than Malate Pensionne though it is slightly costly. There’s a lot of spacious bathrooms and toilets for the guests’ convenience, unlike at Malate Pensionne :P  The ambience are friendly too, which matches its namesake Ooh, free advertisement….

We got ourselves some Starbucks frapps, ensaymada and waffle and relaxed at the rooftop terrace at Friendly’s.

Once we got ourselves rested well enough, we went to Mall of Asia with the intention of going to its bookstore. Since we didn’t get our lunch, we decided to get something to eat first. We went to the food court area, and boy oh boy, there were so many choices to choose from!

Some of the food stalls at the food court

We settled for Chinese food, the type of food that we’re used to

The ice skating rank inside the mall

Once we got our a-lot-cheaper-than-in-Malaysia’s books, we took a taxi to Robinson’s Mall in Malate so that I could get the Levi’s jeans as I planned since I know the branded goods in Manila are a lot cheaper than in our country too

Muhlach Ensaymada, the best ensaymada there is! In my opinion that is..

It was raining so we went back to Friendly’s Guest House by 3 tricycles and called it a night to prepare ourselves for our plan the next day!

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It’s high time for an update here, just as Lola’s comment in my previous post! I said to Lola that I’ll explain in my next post, so here it is. I was away for a 8-days vacation in Manila and a few other places as mentioned by Mandy in her post for our itinerary and then hibernated for 2 days when I was back home during the weekend. Then I was busy at work preparing for 3-days outstation to Tawau and Lahad Datu. Back to hometown for the weekend, and hibernated again. Too tired to blog

I will be away doing outstation work to Beaufort tomorrow and day after, then to Tenom and Keningau on Thursday and Friday. So I might as well make an effort and post something about my vacation tonight, while munching on Margerita Pizza that my sister got for me from Upperstar, which means it’s a call for diet pills again soon with all the lack of exercise due to my busy schedule…

Okay, let’s get to the vacation… we took the Philtranco Bus from Clark Airport to Manila, which took 4 long hours due to the heavy traffic jam! We got to Malate Pensionne in Malate around 10pm or so.. dumped our backpacks in the rooms and headed out for dinner to nearby eateries area.

This was where we dined!

We ordered grilled food and the BBQ chicken was awesome. Coupled with the cold beer, though I wasn’t fond of beer especially the brand that Linda and Lyn was so crazy about and I ended with the usual San Mig Light A mere bottle! LOL! Unlike the Mindoro Sling that we had in Puerto Galera the day after, but that’s another story

Colt 45 - it’s a strong beer with the 7.2% alcohol content, definitely not for me

There were many mobile stalls selling food, and we tried two of the food that could be the local favourite.

Dried squids that were grilled before serving and dipped in some sort of vinegar concoction

Fish balls, they look the same as those that we usually have here in Malaysia, but taste a tad bit different though

Lyn is always the adventurous one when it comes to food, and maybe Linda too since she dared to picked on it too … they had the well-known Balot!

Balot anyone? Definitely not for those with queasy stomach!  It required an acquired taste for sure

I had a taste of the balot in Tambayan; but not as “matured” as the one they had with the well-formed baby duck… I just couldn’t bring myself to give it a taste - yet! How about you, dare you to try if it were served to you like the one showed in the photo above?

Till next time, I need to pack for my overnight trip to Beaufort ….

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