2 Days in Manila

8/2/19 – 8/4/19

Mabuhay! Today’s blog post is dedicated to a weekend trip to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Something that I don’t think a lot of people realize is that the Philippines has a rich, melting-pot culture. Even before Magellan and the Spanish conquistadors “discovered” the Philippines in the early 1500s, the island was already populated with people from Africa, Polynesia, Muslims, and Chinese traders. The Spanish then ruled the Philippines for 230 years, with a brief turnover to the British during that time. After the Spanish-American war, the Philippines was briefly an American colony for 50 some years, then the Japanese invaded and occupied the island nation in WWII. It was only until after 1946 that the Philippines finally gained sovereignty. You can imagine that there’s quite a bit of western and eastern influences on the island.

Anyways, enough of the history lesson! Manila is now a modern city, with plenty of food options, a vibrant music culture, and the friendliest people. The Philippines consists of almost 8,000 islands (many are uninhabited), so we definitely will make another trip in the near future to explore more of Manila and then the neighboring islands.

Hotel Review: The Manila Marriott Hotel

We stayed at the Manila Marriott Hotel for two nights. The hotel is conveniently located right outside Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), with free shuttle transportation to all three terminals. The Manila Marriott is also located within Resort World, an entertainment outlet that includes a casino, restaurants, shops, and other hotels, including a Sheraton and a Hilton. You can walk directly to the casino from inside the Manila Marriott, which was very convenient considering it was typhoon season.

Premium Balcony Room

We booked a standard guest room for about $170 USD per night. With our Marriott Platinum status, we got upgraded to a premium balcony room in the newly built West Wing, with a gorgeous view of the neighboring Air Base golf course. Included with our Platinum status was access to the club lounge on the 2nd floor, free breakfast, a complimentary bottle of Chardonnay, and dried mangoes (so good!!).

Balcony view of the Villanova Air Base Golf course and downtown Manila

Hotel Property

In addition to restaurants, the hotel also features a beautiful bar in the lobby, with live music on the weekend. We also took a quick tour of the roof top pool, although we didn’t get a chance to dip our feet in this time around.

Restaurants

Breakfast at the Marriott Cafe

The hotel boasts an expansive breakfast buffet with Western, Indian, and Filipino cuisines. Some noteworthy items to mention was the egg station with a Filipino omelette option; the barbecue meats; juice bar; and the Filipino desserts.

CRU Steakhouse

The first night we arrived in Manila, we had a late dinner at the CRU Steakhouse in the Marriott. The restaurant had a dimly-lit ambiance, and featured an open kitchen in the center. We were blown away by the options and the quality of the food. For about $40 USD per person, we had wine, a steak platter to share, a Hokkaido scallop appetizer, and three sides. I was particularly impressed by their truffle mustard sauce, which came complimentary with the steak.

Three types of homemade bread – Parmesan, spinach, and tomato

Three cuts of steak – rump, tenderloin, and ribeye. Sides included truffle mac&cheese, creamed spinach, and onion rings

Friends and Family Restaurant

In pursuit of authentic Filipino food, we went to Friends and Family, a chain restaurant with a branch in Metro Manila. The focus of this restaurant is sharing large-portioned Filipino BBQ dishes with, you guessed it, friends and family. We ordered two skewers, the BBQ chicken intestine (Isaw Manok) and salmon belly; the sisig fried rice; and the Lomi a la Eh pancit. This was a pretty affordable restaurant located in a bustling outlet shopping center.

Activities

Binondo Chinatown Food “Wok” Tour (Old Manila Walks)

http://oldmanilawalks.com/binondotour.htm

We did a 3 hour tour of Binondo, also known as Manila’s Chinatown, with a tour company called Old Manila Walks. The tour cost about $30 USD for the two of us. Our tour guide, Ivan, was extremely knowledgeable about the history of Binondo, and gave us a thorough explanation of the history of Chinese migrants to the Philippines. He actually was a tour guide for Anthony Bourdain the first time he came to Manila, about 10 years ago. We ate a variety of Chinese-Filipino foods, including vegetable lumpia (wrap), fried chicken, oyster omelette, fried meat roll wrapped in bean curd, pancit (noodles), empanadas, desserts, and dried fruits. We were so full by the end of the tour that we didn’t eat for the rest of the day! We would definitely recommend this tour to anyone visiting Manila.

Fried meat roll wrapped in bean curd skin

Oyster omelette with sticky sweet potato flour

You know the food is going to be good when it’s in a covered alley way

The Chinese empanada is made round like a coin, as opposed to the Spanish empanada which is made in the shape of a half moon

Hopia desserts come with a variety of fillings, including salted egg, custard, or ube

Intramuros Tour (White Knights E-Chariot Tours Manila)

https://www.klook.com/en-HK/activity/13134-white-knight-electric-chariot-intramuros-day-tour-manila/

Across the bridge from Binondo is Intramuros, the historical walled area of old-town Manila. We took a historical segway tour with White Knights, located in the same area as Casa Manila, a historical Spanish-style house for the elite rank. It cost us about $20 USD per person for a full hour, but I think you can find cheaper rates on Klook. I used to make fun of segway tours until we did this tour – it’s practical for covering a lot of distance in a short amount of time, and they’re really fun and easy to use! Plus, it made things easier traversing some of the flooded streets. Our tour guide Harold showed us around all of the historical sites including all six of the churches, monuments, and the old Intramuros walls.