Philippines Adventure Pt6- Cebu, Manila, Tagaytay, Angeles, Home

After leaving Bohol we had a night in Cebu, actually Mactan Island right next to the airport, before our flight the next day back to Manila. I had wanted to do the ferry from Cebu to Manila as it looked really good and was a cheap night's accommodation, but after more than one Filipino said it's not a good idea I gave in and booked flights!

That night in Cebu we enjoyed fresh crab and it was the first time I actually ate crab having to crack it out of the shell!



So then back to busy Manila, this time to see it properly!



And not just see Manila, but meet up with my friend Joselle because she is working there right now so couldn't join on any of my travels. She took me on a Makati night out:



Which involved hanging out by this 'hungry rover' food van and other food stalls right outside the Hard Rock Cafe in Makati where her brother was helping out. This was the view from our table:



And this was buying some traditional, purple (!) rice dessert made in the Christmas season:



The next day me and Jr went on a day trip out of Manila to see the last place on my travel list, Lake Taal, about 2 hours bus out of the city. Following Lonely Planet's instructions we went to Josephine's and ate food like this:



With a view like this:



Tagaytay is a village on a crater edge, where you can view stunning Lake Taal which in turn contains a volcano with it's own crater- just stunning!



And then we followed Lonely Planet unsuccessfully as it took us to People's Palace in the Sky which according to our tricycle driver was this view:



Still nice, but there was supposed to be stuff to do there and nothing...

So on the way back to the bus station we also stopped for this view:



And that was it, my last trip within the Philippines. I was hoping to catch sunset over Manilla Bay, I sort of did, but from the bus!



That night me, Jr and Joselle went out for dinner at Jolibee, one of the food chains I hadn't tried yet, imagine fried chicken with sweet spaghetti!!



My weekend break in Manila, thanks to agoda.com, was in a hotel with rooms fit for entertaining right in the middle of Makati (the safe bit!). And from our 11th floor room these are great views of the city at night and in the day:





And that was it, I took the bus back up to Angeles City the following day and we spent one more night there before heading to the airport and back to Sydney where I am writing this a week on.

I miss Jr painfully but I've been having a backpacker Christmas and New Year so I will blog about that next.

Thanks for reading.