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The Style Mermaid by Kisty Mea • Manila Adventures by Kisty Mea & Maine Manalansan I’ve been living in the Philippines most of my life (22 years and 51 weeks to be exact). I grew up in Manila but when someone asks me what to see in my city, my usual answer is “I don’t know”. Heck, I can even give you an itinerary if you planning to visit Singapore, but never Manila. I’m so engrossed in visiting another country, immersing myself in their rich culture and history, that I’ve completely forgotten to appreciate my own land… Until now. When in Manila, you should…[[MORE]] Start your day with a morning exercise at the CCP Complex. There are tons of morning activities available there for free. If exercise is not your thing, you can skip and indulge yourself in your hotel’s buffet.  The monument of the country’s National Hero Afterwards, go straight to the Intramuros/Rizal Park area. Take a photo with the Kilometer Zero and the national hero’s monument, Jose Rizal, in the background. Manila’s Walled City To totally immerse yourself with Manila’s diverse history, sign up for the “Walk This Way” tour by Carlos Celdran. For rates and schedule, visit this website.  What I love about Manila’s tourist spots is their proximity to one another.  From Intramuros/Rizal Park, ride a jeepney (a must for tourists, you won’t see that kind of transportation anywhere else!) that will take you to Binodo. Binondo is most commonly known as Chinatown due to the ethnic Chinese people living in the area. Chinatown Manila is apparently established in 1594, making it the oldest in the world [source]. Visit the Binondo Church (you won’t miss it!) and pay homage to the Basilica’s patron saint, Lorenzo Ruiz. San Lorenzo Ruiz was the first Philippines’ saint and canonized in 1987. The Church was consecrated in the late 1500s to convert the Chinese to Christianity.  From here, you can either walk to the long stretch of Ongpin St. or ride a Kalesa (horse carriage) to roam around the area. You’ll see a lot of Kalesa parked outside the church.  Ongpin is this street with the red-green Friendship Arch between the Filipinos and Chinese.The street was originally called as Calle Sacristia and was renamed in 1915 after Roman Ongpin, the first Chinese-Filipino to wear the Barong Tagalog, an embroidered formal garment. Since Ongpin street the heart of Manila’s Chinatown, it is full of restaurants, apothecaries, jeweleries and other imported goods from China. Kalesa. Philippines’ version of a horse drawn carriage. Possible routes from Binondo Church to Sta. Cruz Church. The blue arrow is what Google Maps recommend you to do. But I recommend taking the whole stretch of Ongpin instead.  (view larger image) At the end of Ongpin, you’ll stumble upon the area of Sta. Cruz. You know you’re in the area once you see this big old-looking fountain with a Church nearby and an old building with Plaza Fair signage on it. :p You should take time and appreciate the architecture of this place. Aside from that, you can also do a little bit of shopping here. :)  From Sta. Cruz, you should make your way to Quiapo. If you’re a photographer lover, it is a must that you walk along by Hidalgo Street. Hidalgo St. is a photographer’s haven. You can buy new and old, digital or film cameras and accessories here, and have broken cameras repaired. To get there, just ask the locals where SM (a department store) is. Just enter SM and exit on the other side. ;) After shopping for your camera, just follow the path full of people selling vegetables and other stuff. That road will take you to Plaza Miranda and Quiapo Church.  Quiapo Church and a glimpse of Plaza Miranda Quiapo Church is the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene and is one of the main churches in Manila. They hold a procession every New Year, Good Friday and January 9th. If you happen to visit on those dates, it is better not to go to Quiapo due to the congestion of the crowds.  Plaza Miranda is a public square in front of Quiapo Church. The area is full of fortune-tellers and vendors of lucky charms and amulets. Some vendors also sell flowers, fruit and vegetables. My friend and I had our fortunes told a few years ago and true enough, we did end up living in a foreign country. Indulge yourself with their fortunes and who knows? It might come true. :) From here, you can either ride the LRT or Jeepney or cab that can take you back to the CCP Complex and visit SM Mall of Asia, the 3rd largest shopping mall in the continent. You can either shop to your heart’s content or have an early dinner by the bay side and watch the sunset.  Alternative Itinerary: Double Exposure of Manila  Now, I believe visiting Binondo-Sta. Cruz-Quiapo is a great way to know more about the Filipino culture but if you have kids or you’ve been there before, you can opt for visiting our museums and other tourist attractions such as the National Museum, Museo Pambata (a museum for the kids and kid-at-heart!) and Manila Ocean Park. All of them are located near Rizal Park. :) After a long day, you can choose to snooze the night off or go to Resorts World Manila to watch a movie, play at the casino or party in Republiq. :)  And that concludes my City of Manila itinerary and it’s good for a day or two trip in Manila. If you happen to say in the country for more than five days, don’t fret because there are 16 more cities and at least 2000 islands to explore. You’ll never run out of things to do in the Philippines. ;) I  hope you like this itinerary as much as I did making it. I might make a Part 2 but in the meantime, you can help me win a spot for the Big Blog Exchange contest. If chosen, I’ll be one of the few bloggers who gets to represent the Asia Pacific region! :) Just visit this page to vote. Thank you! <3  ——- In your opinion, what is a must-see place when in Manila? I would love to hear your recommendations! Drop your thoughts in the comment section below! Special thanks to Maine Manalansan for letting me use her film photos. Check out her blog and Flickr if you like everything about art. ;) 

Manila Adventures

by Kisty Mea & Maine Manalansan

I’ve been living in the Philippines most of my life (22 years and 51 weeks to be exact). I grew up in Manila but when someone asks me what to see in my city, my usual answer is “I don’t know”. Heck, I can even give you an itinerary if you planning to visit Singapore, but never Manila. I’m so engrossed in visiting another country, immersing myself in their rich culture and history, that I’ve completely forgotten to appreciate my own land…

Until now.

When in Manila, you should…

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The Style Mermaid by Kisty Mea • Travel With Love 99% of the time, I don’t like Valentine’s Day because of the traffic and nauseating public display of attention. The remaining 1% is the fact that I will spend the day with my boyfriend. Oftentimes, we’ll just stay at home or go to the nearest mall to eat at my favorite restaurants. Sadly, we can’t go on a quick lunch date anymore because we live at least a thousand miles away from each other (Hopefully, this will all change next year or so!). :( But thanks to Chinese New Year, we were able to make that a reality. We had a wonderful food adventure. Not just for one day, but for one really long weekend! :) Hearts Day Ad Promo! Before I proceed with our adventure, make sure you avail the FREE Medium Ad on my blog today, just enter the “VDAY2013” promo code upon checkout. Visit my sponsors page for more information. :) Check out the things we’ve done throughout this mini-vacation under the cut. [[MORE]] First stop: Boomerang Bistro and Bar Boomerang is an Australian bar and bistro located at Roberston Walk near Studio M Hotel and DBS Arts Centre. I ate at Boomerang after watching Potted Potter a few months ago and I instantly fell in love with the place. The ambiance is very chill and it is overlooking the Singapore River. It’s a perfect place to unwind after work and celebrate small parties with office mates and friends. Boyfriend ordered the Peppered Kangaroo Loin. As you can see on the photo, the serving was pretty small but it was pretty heavy. He was really full. I, on the other hand, ordered a Rib Eye steak because I craved for their steak for so long.  My boyfriend wanted to walk after eating at Boomerang. So we’ve decided to go around the area, with no particular destination. We ended up arriving at Clark Quay. Personally, I think Clark Quay is like Philippine’s version of Eastwood City. At least, the look and feel of the place. This is the place you want to be if you want to party or eat different cuisines. We went to The Central, the mall on top of the Clark Quay MRT station and just went around and see what they have to offer.  Second stop: Bliss House Theme Restaurant Bliss House Theme Restaurant is an Italian restaurant located at The Central, Clark Quay. You won’t see the indoors of the restaurant unless you really go in. The exterior, to be honest, reminds me of a nail spa because of the white walls and pink accents. We’ve decided to check out the menu and see if there’s anything we like so we can go back. The waitress asked us if we want to see the interior of the restaurant and OMG. <3 I know, I know, the photo is too dim. Sorry about that, but that was the point. The place was very intimate and romantic. The walls were covered with white roses and vines. And the funny part was, there was a firework display a few blocks away. ROMANTIC! <3 Because we were already full from our heavy dinner, we’ve decided to just go for desserts. The waitress recommended their homemade Tiramisu, so we ordered that and I have to say it was the yummiest we’ve tasted so far! <3  Boyfriend got sick the day after, which was sad. So we just stayed in all day. Ordered pizza and/or ate Beef Baconator from Wendy’s. Bacon is not really popular with Singaporeans. :( When boyfriend started to feel better, he said he wanted to eat Japanese. We’ve decided to go to Bugis and see if there are any Japanese restaurants open. It was Chinese New Year so selected stores and restaurants were closed.  Third stop: Itacho Sushi It was the only Japanese restaurant we could find in Bugis Junction.  We ordered Tonkatsu (my favorite), Sashimi and 2 steamed rice. When you’re in a Japanese restaurant, you expect them to serve you with Japanese rice. But no, the rice that they gave us was like a typical Filipino rice. Weird. Overall, the food and the experience weren’t that great yet the restaurant was busy as a bee. Fourth stop: Nando’s My boyfriend is into science. So I figured that he will enjoy Science Centre as much as I did the first time I visited that place. But before we went there, we’ve decided to check out JCube, a mall near Jurong MRT/Bus Interchange.  Nando’s is a South African cuisine with a Portuguese/Mozambiquan. Their specialty is the Peri-Peri chicken. We’ve decided to order their Valentine’s promotion, The Peri-Peri of my Eye. You get 2 chicken breasts, with 2 sides and 2 designer drinks, and 2 single scoops of Ben & Jerry’s for $42 (w/o GST, methinks).  They had different levels of spiciness and although I’m not a big fan of spicy food, I thought I could handle their “mild” flavor. I was wrong, the “mild” mix/flavor was still too spicy for me. I’m just thankful and lucky that my boyfriend ordered the “herbs” mix and I was able to enjoy the chicken. For their designer drinks, we both ordered Citra, a mix of Citra syrup and Sprite. Honestly, we didn’t like the drink that much. My boyfriend said it tasted like a bathroom cleaner LOL. I wonder if the Apple-like juice is a much better choice? And that concludes my foodie trip with my boyfriend here in Singapore. :) We’ve tried at least, four cuisines in one weekend (I’m certain we had five but I can’t remember the last one, perhaps Western?), and I obviously gained a lot of weight.  For the record, this is the third “out of the country” trip we had as a couple. Technically, I wouldn’t count it as an out of the country trip since I do live in Singapore but I am still from the Phlippines. So go figure. I just find this info funny because we never had any local out of town, of just the two of us, trips yet. Hopefully, that will change next month for our anniversary. I am stoked! :)  Since I don’t know how to properly end this entry, let me share with you my first successful film with my Polaroid OneStep camera. :) It’s a real Polaroid shot! :) 

Travel With Love

99% of the time, I don’t like Valentine’s Day because of the traffic and nauseating public display of attention. The remaining 1% is the fact that I will spend the day with my boyfriend. Oftentimes, we’ll just stay at home or go to the nearest mall to eat at my favorite restaurants. Sadly, we can’t go on a quick lunch date anymore because we live at least a thousand miles away from each other (Hopefully, this will all change next year or so!). :(

But thanks to Chinese New Year, we were able to make that a reality. We had a wonderful food adventure. Not just for one day, but for one really long weekend! :)

Hearts Day Ad Promo!

Before I proceed with our adventure, make sure you avail the FREE Medium Ad on my blog today, just enter the “VDAY2013” promo code upon checkout. Visit my sponsors page for more information. :)

Check out the things we’ve done throughout this mini-vacation under the cut. 

Read more