Looking forward to leaving Manila

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I've been in Manila now for a while and have decided put a few thoughts down about this city. I quite enjoyed being here at first, especially when in the Makati area. That is the main business district, so things tend to be a bit nicer.

My favourite part of Makati is Greenbelt and the malls next to it. Greenbelt itself is a row of restaurants and shops around a very nice tropical garden. It is somewhat of an oasis away from the concrete jungle outside. Next to it there are more malls including Landmark, Glorietta and SM Mall. It is a very handy place to shop or just go for a bite to eat.

Recently we have been staying in Mandaluyong which is the next town over. Actually it is its own city but the concrete jungle never lets up between them. Traffic is even worse in Mandaluyong and the area on the whole is not so nice. Recently it rained and we had to walk home from a mall. Not a pleasant experience with rats and cockroaches running around here and there. I think the rains had flushed them out of the drainage systems.

Mandaluyong doesn't have anywhere nice outdoors like Makati has with Greenbelt. So the only refuge from the heat and traffic is inside malls. We are close to the Makati mall Rockwell which is possibly my favourite in Manila. They have a grand piano in the basement where the restaurants are located. There are often very talented musicians playing jazz and bossanova. The pianist is often accompanied by one or more musicians too.

The other day we ate at the new filipino restaurant (sorry, forgot the name) and were treated to some excellent music from a guy playing the saxophone and a woman playing the piano. In Mandaluyong itself we also visit Shangri La mall and Mega Mall.

The weather here has been mostly cloudy recently. So we haven't bothered to use the pool much, especially as when it is sunny there is rarely any sun on the pool. So we have mainly just been getting out when we want to visit the malls. We did all the touristy stuff a long time ago.

We are planning our trip back home for Christmas. We will spend over a month in the UK. Starting up north to see the family, then we splashed out and booked this cottage for a week in the countryside, then a few days in London at the end. It will be great to get back for some home luxuries and we are even looking forward to the cold weather (fingers crossed it snows).

We got our flight from Philippine Airlines who have just started a direct route to London. It was a good deal but they extended the flight time by 90 minutes after we booked which makes it a really long flight. I'll try to remember to review the flight because it could be a great alternative to the other airlines which stop off half way.

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