Trip to Clark

The Ber months last 2013 proved to be very busy and very stressful. I badly needed some me-time away from the noise of the city so I decided to go to Clark. Partly because I hadn't been there in a while and partly so that I would have an opportunity to do some duty free shopping right before Christmas. :) I used the voucher for Hotel Stotsenberg that I purchased some months back. I had seen photos of this hotel before and it looked interesting so I thought it was worth a visit.

Based on my stay here, I would say it was just okay. The room is pretty spacious but it does feel a bit old. Unfortunately, I slept through my alarm and missed the free breakfast so I can't comment on how good it is. WiFi in the room is free for one device; for any additional device that you want to connect, you have to pay around P120 which would be good for 24 hours or more, if I recall correctly.

I saw a sign for Giada's Cafe and Kitchen while I was driving along M. A. Roxas Highway. I didn't really have any any specific plans of where I would eat that night so I figured this would be a good place to try.

The waitress told me that the special of the day (P349) was the Baby Back Ribs and it came with soup and salad. By some strange stroke of luck, the baby back ribs is exactly what I wanted to order so I opted for the special instead. It's not a very good photo but it tasted really good.

Baby Back Ribs

Soup and Salad, part of the Set Menu

I wanted to eat in C' Italian Dining for lunch the next day after checking out of the hotel. I don't have GPS so it took me a while to find it but when I did, I discovered that it had already closed down. Darn! I wasted a lot of time looking for it so I then decided to just drive to the Duty Free area and have lunch there. Unfortunately, it turns out that the only restos there are McDonald's and Chowking LOL. I didn't want to have to drive back out and look for a better place to eat so I ended up just having lunch in McDonald's before heading to Pure Gold.

I planned to buy a lot of stuff but somehow I ended up just getting a few bags of chocolates, a couple of cans of Pringles (I got the Honey Mustard and Four Cheese since I hadn't seen nor tried these flavors before), and a few biscuits that my mom purchased there a few years ago that she liked. Clearly, I wasn't all "shopped" out yet so on my way home, I stopped by a couple of gasoline stations along NLEX, not to gas up, but to visit the outlet malls and shopping centers there. While I was initially planning to get something from Nike, Adidas or Puma, I ended up getting a DC Shoes shirt.

I got back to Manila in the late afternoon so hung out a bit in Trinoma before heading to Romulo's at 7:30 PM, in time for dinner with my high school and college friends. I really enjoy these solo-flight, out-of-town trips so hopefully I can do this more often.