Republic of Philippines Day 5

View of street in Ermita from our hotel room

Our hotel room key

Breakfast Voucher

7th Egg of the Trip, Milk Fish and Sausage

Corn Soup

Mangoes which Sophia bought two days ago

Pineapple which Sophie bought two days ago

We checked out from our hotel after 9a.m.

Before proceeding to Angeles City where we will be staying overnight tonight as it is nearer to Clark, we stopped by Tutuban Centre Mall/168 for another round of shopping before leaving Manila.

Sophia and I allowed Sonny to accompany Sophie in buying her materials while we proceeded to look for some handbags. She bought two handbags for her mum.

Sophia and I had lunch as we could not wait for Sophie.

Sophia’s lunch

Sophia’s dessert

My lunch

My lunch

For our entire trip, besides the half a dozen bottles of 600ml water I brought over, we consumed three bottles of these.

We left Tutuban Centre Mall after 1 p.m.

And we arrived at San Guillermo Parish Church at Pampanga at 3p.m.

The windows of the original church have now become the doors.

The lava buried the tombstone until they are almost invisible.

Our journey from Pampanga to Angeles City took almost an hour in the midst of heavy traffic congestion and a detour due to one of the roads being under repair.

Tonight we will be staying in this hotel.

Our room in Sydney Hotel

Our room in Sydney Hotel

Our room in Sydney Hotel

Our toilet and shower in Sydney Hotel

A club outside Sydney Hotel

Sonny and Dante came to fetch us at 7p.m. for dinner at the following place.

The restaurant serves cooked food and cook to order food.

Sonny and Dante

Rice wrapped in banana leaf

'Halo-Halo' (equivalent to our ABC)

After dinner we walked around the city for a while to absorb in the night life.

‘Balut’ (boiled fertilized duck or chicken egg

with a nearly developed embryo inside)

Sonny eating the ‘Balut’

Dante eating the ‘Balut’

A child eating the ‘Balut’

We were so happy to be able to ride the tricycle back to the hotel before calling it a night.

Republic of Philippines Day 4

External View of Café Bocobo taken from across the road

Taken inside Café Bocobo (Pictures of Intramuros)

Internal of Café Bocobo

Once again had two eggs for brekky but I forgot to take the photo of the second egg.

Staircase of Casa Coboco Hotel

This morning our itinerary was to go to Quiapo Market to absorb the sight and sound. (It reminded me of our Gaya Street in KK on Sundays)

This guy was so shocked when I took a photo of him but at least he did give me his smile.

At the end of the market is this church, Quaipo Church.

There were so many worshippers until many had to stand outside to listen.

This is a figure of Black Jesus and people were touching it.

This is the famous Milk Fish. It tasted great after cooking.

Teeny weeny crablets

In between our visit to the market, we stopped by the following and I bought some things from the shop. The owner is from Foochow, PRC.

There are a lot of Chinese shopowners in Manila, in particular those we met were from Foochow, PRC.

This souvenir shop is situated parallel to Quaipo Market but we did not buy anything.

We spent about one and a half hours at the market before proceeding to our next itinerary.

Entrance Fee to Manila National Museum is FOC on Sunday. Other days PHP100/RM7.20. No photos are allowed to be taken inside.

I think our tour coordinator was surprised we wanted to go for visit here.

It is a 4-Storey building, though not all are accessible. We learnt some histories of the Philippines and saw some pretty cool art pieces. We spent about one and a half hours inside here.

Inside this shopping centre, there is a gallery housing a 3D model of the Holy Land (has a cute lechon being cooked), the 12 Stations of Christ, the Life of Christ, etc. No photos are allowed to be taken inside.

I saw 2 American gentlemen (next photo) ordering this when I went near so I decided to have this for lunch. Sophia and Sophie ordered from here as well.

These 2 American gentlemen had four burgers each.

Every beef dish I ate tasted great. And thumbs up for these beef burgers.

I have heard a lot about these Buffalo Wings. But they were big disappointment to me. The fries were good though.

Garlic Sauce

After lunch, it was time for shopping once again. We spent two hours shopping in this mall and the one next to it.

Our tour coordinator Sonny told us to bargain any offer price of things we wanted to buy to half. I saw a purple jacket I liked. I asked the vendor the price and counter offered him half of that. Instead of giving me an affirmative answer, he said he could cut the jacket into half. I was really disappointed on hearing that cos I really like the jacket. I offered another two vendors who were selling the same jacket the same price and both rejected my offer as well.

In between the two shopping malls was this chapel.

At V Mall, Sophia and I had this fruit juice icy pop. Wow we were totally blown away by it. Anyone visiting this country must try it. Sophia had the watermelon flavour while I had the mango one.

From Greenhills Shopping Centre, it took us about seven minutes to arrive here.

Sign for Male Toilet

Sign for Female Toilet

Inside Female Toilet

I saw a few dogs parlour.

Inside one of the pet shops, Sophia and I saw the dogs look as if they have been sedated. Poor dogs.

At 6p.m. we had the priviledge of watching some Filipino traditional dances FOC. According to Sonny if this was shown in a hotel, they would charge in between PHP500-1K.

I could not take many photos cos there was a kid in front blocking my view.

At the end of the performance, the dancers invited some viewers to join them including this kid who blocked my view.

We had a wonderful bbq dinner before going back to the hotel. There were Milk Fish, Chicken, Pork, Veges, Mango and Salad.