Coming To Manila, Day 14: Return to Manila

So we woke up at the crack of ass to get ready to go back to Manila.

Because of the "super typhoon" warnings, all the hotels had put their boats on dry dock, so instead of taking those, our escorts from the hotel rode the public ferry with us to Caticlan. From there, we took a shuttle to Kalibo, since we were flying out from there. The flight was delayed yet again, but good ol' Rodel was waiting for us at the airport.

For our last night, we were staying at the Manila Peninsula, and I must say it was a pretty darn nice hotel. It was one of the nicest ones I had ever stayed in actually.



I don't know if the picture does it justice, but it really was so elegant, the lobby. Unfortunately, about a week later, this and this happened, which led to a running joke about how TJC and I were the Prophets of Destruction. I mean, we were at the Philippine Congress hours before it was bombed (see Day 3), and now, the Pen was the scene of a mutiny and a siege.

Ate Michelle met us at the Pen, and she went out and did her own thing while Tito Alex picked us up and brought us to Serendra to get a closer look at things, including the model units they had. It was pretty darn sweet, I have to admit. I checked out the site where the condo my sister and I bought will be going up, and was quite pleased.

Above is a model of The Aston, and it was quite a treat imagining what the thing will look like once it is built. Our unit is on the 32nd floor, right below the Penthouses, facing East, so being the geek that I am, I started counting up to 32 on the model just for fun.

After our visit at Serendra, Tito Alex brought us to the Mall of Asia for a quick look see. Holy cow, the malls in the Philippines are huge, but this one took the cake. Biggest one in the country, and the third biggest one in the world actually. It took us about half an hour to walk about 1/10th of it.

Tito Alex then dropped us off back at the Pen, where we met up with Ate Michelle again. Since the rest of the family was in Iloilo for a wedding, Ate Michelle was kind enough to take us to dinner with some of her family members on our last night. We went back to Serendra again, and ate at a restaurant whose name escapes me right now. Don't get me wrong though, the food was delicious.

Joining us for dinner were Ate Michelle's sister Marielle, her fiance Andre, and Ate Michelle's cousins Katrina and Miggie. Here is a picture of us after dinner:



We all went to a coffee place afterwards, and stayed there till pretty late actually - about 1 A.M. or so. And it turns out Miggie was in a convent at one point, before the Mother Superior gave her the "Climb Every Mountain" speech straight out of The Sound of Music. Or at least that's the version I remember. Ha.

Afterwards, it was time to go back to the hotel. Ate Michelle told me she'll drop by before we leave, and that Tita Dors will drop by as well, and then Rodel will bring us to the airport.

The end was almost here...