Manila

Rain, thunder and lightning greeted us as we landed at Manila. Philippines entry was quick and easy without needing the eTravel documents we had prepared before leaving home.
Ursula had organised a car to our hotel through Booking.com. Less than half the cost of our departure Uber. Bryant met us with no problems. Our hotel, the Seda, is quite big. Comfortable room with some outlook.
We have a full day in Manila so try to organise the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus. No luck. Seems to be too new to have a website, although there is an app which doesn't work. We make a Grab account instead. No Uber here. After breakfast Grab takes us into Intramuros, the old walled part of town. We see most of the sights. Needed cash to enter Fort Santiago so used an ATM. The fee was 50 pesos more than the entry for the two of us.
The Fort is old; built in 1571. Lovely gardens and lots of stone walls.
We had a good walk around then crossed Intramuros to our lunch restaurant (Batala) in an old stone building. We ate a couple of typical Filipino dishes. Not blindingly exciting.
Then the heavens opened. We decided to curtail further touring. The Grab home took a while to arrive but finally did.
Evening sundowners at Straight Up, the rooftop bar. We ate in the hotel. Reasonably priced and quite nice.
Now Tuesday, 9th September. We leave today but not until 7:20 this evening. Exercise is called for to counteract the flying hours ahead. We walk (provides exercise and a sauna effect) a couple of kilometres to SM Mall of Asia. It is the 2nd largest shopping mall in south-east Asia. Spectacular, glitzy and AIR-CONDITIONED. Ursula upgraded her jewellery collection. Relaxing time at the hotel until Bryant arrives to return us to the airport.Читать далее