How lovely to be met by Dan’s mother and sister at the airport. Family is important to me and these two made Dan smile broadly. Our flights both went smoothly but the flight to Manila was a little delayed due to waiting for some passengers from other delayed flights, so it was almost midnight when we got to the condo. After visiting until 3:30 a.m. Evelyn and Diane went home to finish packing for their trip to Boracay.
This was the view from our window. First time seeing it from our new perspective. It’s sort of an astounding view and a real mix of buildings and houses. Toward the back of the picture is Manila Bay and all the development along the water, as well as the bay and harbor. It was a little smoggy in the morning so the bay isn’t very clear. I am a little disappointed that I did not bring my binoculars.
There are literally millions of stories out there.
After a really short night, we got up and found our way to Coffee Bean & Tea for morning caffeine and a quick search for a press pot, coffee, and a few other essentials for the week. What’s morning coffee without a pretty typical Filipino sweet? This is an Ube Pandesal. Ube is a sweet, purple, tuber that’s been a staple of the Filipino diet for 400 years. In this case, it’s a sweet and creamy filling in a soft bun.
After some shopping for a few details and essentials and bringing them home we went to lunch at Ramen Kuroda. The flavor I chose was basic and yummy. I’d go back and try the Kuro Ramen, which is loaded up with garlic. Dan had this one and it was great.
I’m not posting any pictures of the messy condo that we worked on the rest of the day, but I will say we did a pretty good job of putting together the things that Dan’s mom brought over for us from his home in Caloocan (another part of Metro Manila). He had books, pictures, travel souvenirs, Pokemon plushies, and a real assortment of Starbucks travel mugs.
So after that, we decided we deserved dinner. We tried Iron Man’s Steak House. Again, it is Japanese food and it is done well. I think it suffers from low review numbers because it is not cheap. However, the flavors are good as well as the service. While I might not make it a point to go back, I also was not disappointed in the meal.
And now, it is time to wrap up our first full day in Manila. It is pretty clear that my favorite thing to do when traveling is eat. What’s yours?
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