24 Hours In Manila

Before I landed in Manila I met two native Filippinos on my Perth to Manila via Brunei flights. One gentleman told me he was going on a tour of churches and quietly read his bible throughout the flight. My second seat companion hailed from London, narrowly missed the volcanic ash chaos and warned me to be careful, watch my drinks in bars and "not get too much drunk."

First Impressions

Manila is a sprawling city. It's so separate and distinctive from one area to the next. The traffic is utterly crazy. Cars pull out in front of each other constantly and traffic lights are a suggestion. In this game of friendly on road co-operation - I didn't see one accident - it can take 45 minutes to get from an adjacent suburb to the next. No wonder there are hawkers weaving in and out of cars selling everything from bottled water to fishing rods.

For some reason, I found it difficult to get my bearings in the city. I couldn't pin point one exact main street or landmark. Maybe this was because I was travelling in taxis from one place to another and the roads felt like a blur. Maybe it was we were staying in Makati which is a gentrified urban area and financial district - almost a city itself. Maybe it was because I didn't organise any transportation.

Nevertheless if you only had 24 hours in Manila, I recommend doing the following three things:

1. Eat a buffet dinner

My dinner plated up

Halo-halo with strawberry ice-cream

Julie playing a game called Sungka

Filipinos love to "eat and talk" at the same time. Buffets let you socialise and eat as much as you want. At the Lola Maria Restaurant the buffet featured Filipino foods like chicken adobo, deep-fried seaweed, barbecued seafood and smoked tuna belly and DIY halo-halo for dessert. I was intrigued by the seaweed with little "grapes" which were salty and burst in your mouth as you crunched through the leaves.

2. Shop at least one mega mall

Pace yourself in Manila, shopaholics. There are a lot of shopping centres in Manila like Greenbelt, Rockwell and the infamous Mall of Asia - which I'll go into more detail about in another post. If you were pressed for time and on a tight budget, I'd have to recommend visiting the department store Landmark for its crazily cheap prices. I picked up a bikini for $15, a headband for $2 and socks for 50c AUD.

3. Have a night out at The Fort

Street performers at an outdoor festival

Myself and Julie posing in front of an outdoor art exhibition

A Saturday night must start, though not necessarily end, at the Fort in Bonifacio. A hub of nightlife, the area is full of restaurants, bars and nightclubs. The nightclubs may even have heavily made-up lady-men hostesses who hand out business cards stating they are a Broker/Realtor/Actress. Seriously.

Pork sisig - normal meat, no pig's liver

Pier One is a themed bar set on the high seas. Wait staff are dressed in sailor outfits, signal them with an ahoy there if you dare and order cocktails for around $4 AUD. Bar foods like sisig (of the non-mystery meat variety) are a great accompaniment if on the off chance you're still hungry after a buffet dinner!

Lychee Martinis with four lychees!

Once you're ready to hit the dance floor head to Encore. This is quite possibly the nicest nightclub I've ever been to in a long time. Chandeliers hang down over the stairwell as you strut upstairs into the main third floor area. The DJ pumps out a heady mix of old school RnB and new hits whilst the dancefloor is shoulder-to-shoulder with the trendy 20-something set.

A private booth at Encore will set you back 1,000 peso per head or roughly $25 AUD inclusive of all food and drinks so keep them coming. The only downside is that patrons still smoke inside the clubs.

Once you're all danced out, jump into a cab back to your hotel. If the song playing on the radio is "It's Time To Go Home Now" you know you've had a great night.