Meeting the Parents in Manila 2018

I met my parents in Manila after they flew in from their US vacation where they visited my brother and helped take care of my nephew.

We stayed in BSA Tower Hotel which was my choice for its affordable rates and great location right in front of Greenbelt 5.

I used to live in Makati and wanted to go around my former favourite malls, and I got to do that with my mom while Dad was off on a business meeting.

We had hair treatments done in Dot Zero Hair Studio, a salon near Glorietta, then went shopping in Landmark and had a meal in Italiannis. I was pleased that even after 10 years, I still knew how to navigate these malls. Some shops had not changed!

On another day, we went to Greenbelt 5 with Dad. I always think of Greenbelt 5 as new because it’s the newest of all the Greenbelt malls, but actually it was there before I left for Singapore which means it’s over 10 years old already!

We had dinner at Fely J’s and they were happy with the bistek that we ordered.

But we didn’t just stay in Makati, we also went to Venice Grand Canal Mall in Taguig. It was my first time there and I was pleasantly surprised to see how pretty it was!

We had lunch at Fish & Co, which is funnily enough, a Singaporean restaurant. I didn’t even know it was founded in Singapore until the waitress told us. It serves Western food so I always thought it was a Western franchise!

Then Dad had to go on another business meeting, so Mom and I went to Posh Nails to get manicures and foot spas.

I thought the place was very pretty and they did a good job but they were very understaffed that day so we had to wait a while. The day before, there was a crazy thunderstorm which caused a lot of floods, so some of their staff was affected.

We were actually caught in the same storm while driving to Bataan the previous day. It was startling to get lots of emergency alerts on the phone because these things never happen in super safe Singapore.

We didn’t get to tour Bataan because of the terrible weather and a stupidity on my part, but I’m just glad that we survived the car ride! Note to self: don’t make Philippine travel plans in August because the weather will ruin it!

My parents then flew home while I stayed on to meet up with friends based in Manila. I am still in Manila, actually. Enjoying my stay so far!