[Throwback] New York

One of my business trips to the US was two weeks long. As luck would have it, while we had meetings scheduled over two weeks, there was nothing on the agenda on the Friday and the Monday surrounding the middle weekend of my trip. I asked my boss if I could take those days off and she agreed. Since I now had a long weekend in the US, I decided to fly to Manhattan to spend a long weekend there. Cool! The first place I visited? The Statue of Liberty. (I'm such a tourist LOL.)

Statue of Liberty

I also visited Ellis Island. It used to be the busiest entry point of immigrants into the US so it's no surprise that the National Immigration Museum can be found here.

Inside the National Immigration Museum on Ellis Island

There are some pretty awesome views of the Manhattan skyline from Ellis Island.

Manhattan skyline

On my first evening there, I got to see The Producers starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. I kept seeing posters all over the city so it piqued my interest. I had no plans in the evening so I decided at the last minute to ask my hotel concierge where I could get tickets for The Producers and he said I could get it there. I actually got a seat relatively near the stage, albeit at the far right (there were spots on the stage I couldn't see, but no big deal really). I didn't know about this musical before I watched it so I was very pleasantly surprised at how hilarious it was! The songs are also quite catchy and the performers were all incredible!

The Producers on Broadway

The next day, Eugene and his wife Lorraine came to New York to spend the day with me (they were living in Washington DC at the time). Eugene was my classmate in high school and when during that Manhattan trip, it had been years since I last saw him. Needless to say, I was really happy we got to hang out and that I got to meet Lorraine. We first visited Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller Center

We then headed to the Empire State Building, which was once the tallest building in the world. There are some truly incredible views of Manhattan from the top.

View from the top of the Empire State Building

We then caught the matinee of The Phantom of the Opera. We actually bought tickets at the TKTS booth early that morning. It was my first time to see Phantom (I have since seen it two more times, at CCP and at the Theatre in Solaire) and I was blown away by the stage - I remember being in awe of the magnificent chandelier, the candles coming out of the floor, and the grand staircase during the masquerade scene - and how fast the sets were changed from one scene to the next.

The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway

After the show, we walked around the area, taking photos at Times Square...

Times Square

...and at the studio where the Late Show with David Letterman is staged. Eugene, Lorraine, and I then had dinner before they headed back home to DC.

Late Show with David Letterman

The next day I visited Central Park and walked around. It was so cold when I was there that the lake was frozen!

I then made my way to the Met, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here I got to see some pretty incredible art pieces, including Vincent van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Straw Hat...

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat by Vincent van Gogh at the Met

...and the Hand of God by Rodin.

Rodin's Hand of God

I also swung by the American Museum of Natural History. (I don't recall spending time in this museum; I wonder if this receiving area was accessible to non-paying guests and if I just went into this area to have my photo taken.)

American Museum of Natural History

On my final evening in Manhattan, I was able to get an autograph and a photo of Matthew Broderick! I discovered the night before that after the show, some of the cast come out of the theater to sign autographs. I went back to St. James Theatre that night in the hopes I could get to see some of the cast. I made it there early enough that I was at the front of the crowd. Despite the fact that it was really cold, I was quite pleased that Matthew Broderick came out to have photos taken with, and sign autographs for, the crowd. I regret not handing my camera to someone else so I could have my photo taken with Matthew - I think I felt a bit intimidated asking someone else to take my picture and slowing down the whole process so I just took a picture of Matthew when he was signing an autograph for the person next to me - but I am happy that I took a photo of him and that he signed my program.

Matthew Broderick

Thankfully, I stayed at what was then called the Milford Plaza Hotel, which is now ROW NYC. This hotel was literally just around the corner from both The Majestic (where The Phantom of the Opera was staged) and St. James Theatre (where The Producers was staged). It was a good hotel but I do remember that when I got into my room at around 1am on my first night there, the room wasn't exactly clean. Specifically, the bed wasn't made. In one of the most unhygienic decisions I've ever made in my life, I decided I was too tired to have to move to another room so I stayed there and slept on the unmade bed that was used by some other guest. (Even as I think about this now, I have no idea why I didn't ask for another room.)

Times Square at night

While my experience in Manhattan was great, I have to say that I did feel quite intimidated by it. In fact, this is the city I visited where I felt most like an outsider. That said, this trip remains very memorable in that I got to visit some very famous New York landmarks, I saw a couple of amazing shows on Broadway, and I got to spend a day with one of my closest friends from high school and his wife.

[Throwback] Ohio and Kentucky

I got to visit Ohio a few times for work. I have several friends who live in Ohio so whenever I went there on business, I got to meet up with at least some of them. Sometimes, we would go out for dinner. Other times, they would take me around. I got to see the Cincinnati city center where I took this photo of the Tyler Davidson Fountain at Fountain Square.

Tyler Davidson Fountain in Cincinnati

Another time, my friends me invited to join them on a Riverboat Cruise of the Ohio River. The dad of one of my friends, Amy, was visiting her at the same time as my trip so she invited a few other people to join them.

Riverboat cruise on the Ohio River

Later that afternoon, we headed to the Cincinnati Museum Center. Interestingly enough, what I remember most about this museum visit was that we watched a short documentary about bears in its IMAX theater. It was my first ever IMAX experience and it was then that I discovered that these gigantic theaters aren't for me because I got dizzy watching.

Cincinnati Museum Center

I also got to visit Kentucky, which shares a border with Ohio. My friends took me to the Newport Aquarium. I took a few photos but none of them were in focus because the fish were moving and I was still using my very first 3.3 digital camera, which was still pretty low-tech. I did manage to get a decent shot of this shark and its razor-sharp teeth that you can see from its gaping mouth.

Newport Aquarium

On a subsequent visit to Ohio, my friends took me to Kings Island in Mason.

Kings Island in Mason

I'm not a fan of thrill rides so I was hesitant to join my friends but they told me that I could just enjoy their company and walk around the grounds while our other friends got on the rides. As it turned out, I got persuaded to get on a few of the scariest ones, including Vortex (which is no longer in operation), Delirium, and Invertigo.

Invertigo

It was here that I got to try a wooden roller coaster for the first (and so far only) time, The Beast. It was actually quite enjoyable since it wasn't as scary as the ones I just mentioned. Another very memorable  ride was Tomb Raider, an indoor ride with cool visual effects (this one is no longer in operation either). We were advised to make sure there was nothing on us that was loose and/or could fall off. The only thing on me was my wallet which was in my butt pocket but I figured that should be safe enough. However, the ride really flips you around and at one point, we were left hanging upside down for what felt like a few to several seconds. At that time, I could feel space between my chair and my behind and I just kept hoping and praying that my wallet wouldn't fall out my butt pocket. Thankfully, it didn't.

The now-defunct Tomb Raider ride

If memory serves me right, I got on nine rides that day. In our group, only one person got on more rides than I did - she got on ten - and only one other person got on nine. Everyone else rode less. Needless to say, I was wiped out after that. Still, it was quite a memorable experience that I got to share with friends.

Next post: New York

[Throwback] California

I've visited California twice. I wrote about my second trip in this blog post. My first trip however, was a couple of years before that. I had a business trip to Ohio at a time that one of my friends was studying at Stanford. Since there is no direct flight from Manila to Ohio, I had the option of stopping over for a few days in San Francisco at no extra cost. My friend told me he could meet up so I decided to go to the US a couple of days before my business trip so that I could spend the weekend in California.

My friend actually showed me around Stanford, which is 35 miles south of San Francisco, but for some strange reason I didn't take a single photo of this beautiful university. Really such a shame that I didn't take any pictures of Stanford! My friend then took me to so San Francisco where I got to see a few of its more famous sights. Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf. We didn't really do anything while we were here apart from walking around and taking photos.

The sea lion viewing dock is on of the most popular places in Fisherman's Wharf. Check out this link to read more about the history of sea lions converging in this area.

The Pier 39 marina holds hundred of boats. Boat slips are available for short-term and long-term lease.

I didn't get to visit Alcatraz but you can see it from Fisherman's Wharf. Naturally, I had my photo taken with it in the background. (You can tell from the photo below that it was really windy when we were there.)

Our final stop that night was the Golden Gate bridge.

There are a lot more places of interest in San Francisco that I still want to see and experience. Hopefully, I have another chance in the future to visit.

Next post: Ohio and Kentucky

[Throwback] Trips to the US

I promised myself last year that I would blog about my past trips that I never got to blog about. So since I was just posted about the US Open, I thought now would be a good time to write about my visits to the US.

View of the  New York skyline from Ellis Island

I had a few business trips to Ohio in one of my previous jobs. This gave me the opportunity to see a bit of Ohio as well as Kentucky, which is just right below Ohio.

Riverboat cruise on the Ohio River

I also had the fortune to visit other states such as New York...

Times Square at night

...where I got to visit some famous landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty...

Statue of Liberty

...and the Empire State Building.

Chrysler Building seen from the top of the Empire State Building

I was also able to go to California. Here, I got to spend most of my tourist time in San Francisco.

Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco

I will be writing in more detail about these many trips over the next few blog posts.

Manhattan architecture, as seen from Central Park

Next post: California

US Open 2022

Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek are our 2020 US Open champions! Filipino Alex Eala wins the junior  girls' title! Deirdre de Groot continues her dominance in women's wheelchair tennis!

The champs. pic.twitter.com/9SQPWIchyC

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 12, 2022

This was an incredible result for Carlos Alcaraz for many reasons. This is his first Grand Slam title. As a result of his win, he moves up to #1 in the world, making him the youngest world #1 in ATP history. He also had to survive three consecutive 5-setters en route to the final before beating the new world #2 Casper Ruud in 4 sets. Alcaraz has been playing incredibly well this year and many touted him as a future Grand Slam title winner and a future number 1. I guess the future is now as he lived up to all the hype and expectations.

Iga Swiatek reaffirmed her status as the #1 player of the women's tour by defeating Ons Jabeur to win her first US Open. This is Iga's first Grand Slam trophy outside the French Open. It is also her second major this year and her third overall. I really like Iga, especially since she is now showing a lot of consistency, what with 7 titles this year so far to complement her 37-match winning streak earlier this year. Actually, Jabeur is starting to show some pretty good consistency in the second half of the year as she made it to the finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open. If she continues to get better, we may see her lifting her own major title soon.

Congratulations also to Alex Eala, who won the junior girls' singles trophy! Alex is the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam event. This has allowed her to become the highest ranked female Filipino tennis player in history, reaching a career-high ranking of 280. Way to go, Alex!

While wheelchair tennis isn't often shown here in the Philippines, I have been following the results of Deirdre de Groot, who won the women's wheelchair singles title this year. She has now won 9 Grand Slam singles titles in a row, dating back to the 2020 US Open. Her dominance is just absolutely mind-blowing!

Congratulations Carlos, Iga, Alex, and Deirdre!

Family Celebration at Raging Bull

My mom celebrated a milestone birthday and my brother also just turned a year older. To celebrate, I took my family to Raging Bull Chophouse in Shangri-La The Fort. I first tried the steak here back in 2019 and I told myself then that I would return. I also wanted my family to try this place but it is very expensive. Since it was my mom's milestone birthday and my brother's birthday, it seemed like the perfect time to splurge at a really good venue.

The 1.6 kilo WX Tomahawk Wagyu

I was really happy that my grandmother joined us. Prior to the pandemic, whenever my family would go out, she would almost always decline (I think because she felt it was too tiring). However, now that she lives with us, I feel like she finds it easy enough to come with us when we go out for meals. (That, and maybe she has a bit more energy now that she doesn't live alone.) Sadly, one of my nephews couldn't join us because he wasn't feeling well. Thankfully, it wasn't Covid (his RT-PCR test was negative).

I told my family that I would order steak for everyone to share so they just had to choose side dishes and drinks. I knew I wanted to order the 1.6 kilo WX Tomahawk Wagyu but I knew this would not be enough for my family. Since I was already in a spending mood, I decided to get the Black market MS5+ 270 days Grain fed Rare Marbled Pure Black Angus Ribeye and the Tajima MS 6 grain-fed Wagyu Striploin. My toddler nephew likes chicken so I also got the Herb-brined Slow-roasted Free Range Chicken. Everyone really enjoyed the food! The service was also topnotch, making our dining experience here pretty awesome. (I took pictures of all our steaks but the one I took of the striploin was really blurry so I decided not to share it.)

Black market MS5+ 270 days Grain fed Rare Marbled Pure Black Angus Ribeye

As it turned out, I over-ordered. We weren't able to consume the tomahawk and the chicken so we took the leftovers home (at least my sick nephew was also able to try the steak). I'm really happy that I got to to enjoy a fantastic meal with my family. Hope we get to do this more often.

Long Weekend Gone Awry

Monday was a holiday so my plan for the long weekend was to rest and recharge, catch up on my to-watch lists on Netflix and HBO Go, and maybe even read a book. Unfortunately, it turned into a sequence of really bad events that made my long weekend even more stressful than normal work days. Ugh. Exactly what happened?

1. My bathroom wall tiles started falling off. I noticed that there was a problem a few weeks back when a crack appeared. I felt that maybe it was caused by the pressure and vibration from the construction going on at the apartment above mine (and maybe made even worse by the earthquake in late July). Anyway, on Friday night, as I was taking a shower, several tiles starting falling off, leaving a sizeable section of my wall "bald". What's worse is that there is an even bigger crack now, which could lead to the entire wall just collapsing. As such, I spent a significant amount of time last Monday going to the different home depots in Metro Manila to look for tiles. Despite many hours of doing this, I didn't find a tile that I liked (size-wise and looks-wise). I decided to drive to Mariwasa in Pasig in the late afternoon but when I got there, it was closed. I'm not sure if it was closed because it was a holiday or if I missed its opening hours. Needless to say, it was a waste of a trip.

2. My building access card stopped working. All residents in the building where I live need an access card to go to their floor and their parking floor. On Saturday, I realize my card wasn't working anymore. As a result, I had to keep asking our lobby guard to help me. This was not an issue if I was at our lobby needing to go up to my unit. However, in cases where I was in my unit and heading down to my parking floor, I would have to pass by the lobby first to ask for their help to get to my parking floor. That made it extremely difficult for me when I was bringing a lot of stuff from my apartment to my car (which I had to do a few times during the weekend). That this happened during the long weekend meant it was such a bad hassle for me for a few days. It was only on Tuesday that I finally got to replace my access card (which I had to pay for).

3. I had to deal with my family's internet and cable issues. It started when my nephew told me that they had been struggling with their internet speed at home. Since I manage their internet and cable, I decided to call Sky Cable to increase the speed. I selected the highest SKY Fiber Unli Broadband + HD Cable TV plan, which meant a significant increase in our internet speed but a reduction in our channels. (We would lose AXN, our favorite channel, so I had to ask Sky to add the AXN pack to my subscription.) I was on the phone for a really long time before the changes were update was completed. However, for some reason, some channels that should still have been part of our line-up, such as HBO, Warner TV, and Dreamworks, were not appearing. What?!? I had to call Sky Cable again a few times but despite that, the channels were still missing. That, and the our internet speed at home hadn't improved yet. Ugh, what a nightmare! The customer service agent told me to just monitor the cable and internet speed over the next 24 hours to see if all issues would be resolved. Unfortunately, the next day, the missing channels had still not appeared. I called Skycable again to ask for someone to visit us and see what the problem was. (Thankfully, the missing channels finally reappeared and our internet speed did increase later that day, but not after a lot of stress.)

4. I lost some receipts that I need to reimburse. I set aside some receipts that I placed in an empty letter envelope but during the long weekend, I couldn't find them anymore. I spent a couple of hours cleaning up my apartment to see if I might have placed the receipts under piles of random junk but they didn't turn up. I wonder if I might have thrown them away accidentally.

The fact that all this happened after a very difficult couple of weeks at work didn't help. Maybe it's time for me to take another vacation.

Reunions Galore

I've had a few reunions and get-togethers with good friends over the last few weeks. The first was with my English friend (and ex-colleague) David. He messaged me recently saying he would be in Manila and wanted to meet up. It had been a few years since I last saw him so I definitely made sure I blocked off one evening for him. He was staying in BGC and wanted to have Asian food for dinner so I suggested Mango Tree. He also wanted to catch up with some of our other ex-colleagues. I messaged a few of them and the ones who were in Manila joined us. It turned out to be bit of a reunion for me as well since I also hadn't seen some of those folks in years. Over dinner, David said that he wanted to try Bank Bar, the hidden bar behind the 7-Eleven at RCBC so after our meal, we walked over to RCBC to have a few (many?) drinks there. Interestingly enough, most of us had never been to Bank Bar before so it turned out to be a first for most of us.

Bank Bar

Shortly after that, my Jay was in town. He started working out of the country right before the pandmic struck so it's been maybe two and a half years since I last saw him in person. We had dinner at Bistro Madrid in Estancia. Most of our friends couldn't join us but a few of us made it. I am familiar with a couple of good wines at this place because I had dinner there a few months ago and my friends ordered wine - Simonsig Pinotage - that I really liked. Wines here are sold at 15% off every Sunday so when I know I need good wine, I would pass by this place on Sunday evenings to buy some. I've tried a few bottles, including Fabre Montmayou which I also really liked. I recommended these wines to my friends that night and thankfully, they enjoyed them too.

Later that week, I met up with Mai and several of our college friends. Mai has been based in the US for a while now so it had also been many years since I last caught up with her. Our friend Mitch suggested that we just have our get-together at her place so that it would be more comfortable and private. We definitely did a lot of catching up that night and our conversation went from the intellectual to the inane haha.

We had more of those crazy conversations a week later when our other college friend Val was in Manila. It's too bad that she and Mai weren't here at the same time. The last time I saw Val was about 10 years ago! She said that she wanted Filipino food for dinner so I suggested a few places where we could order local dishes. Based on the menu options, my friends went with FoodTray2Go, which is one of my go-to places when buying food for my family during weekends.

While a lot of my get-togethers were reunions with people I hadn't seen in years, I also met up with a couple of sets of friends for birthday celebrations. My ex-colleagues Joh and Pia celebrated their birthdays together and treated the group for lunch at A Mano in Rockwell. I had eaten there once before. My favorite dish is the Cacio E Pepe. For Joyce's birthday, we celebrated by ordering food from The Creamery, which is one of the places I order food for special occasions. The Braised Beef Shortribs with Hungarian Sausage in Garlic Paprika Sauce was a big hit. In fact, the people enjoyed it so much that they said we should order it again in our next get-together. Cool!

Quarantine Stories Part 22

Another Fitbit achievement unlocked: I got a Hawaii badge. This means that I have walked the entire length of the Hawaii archipelago, a total distance of 563 kilometers, which means I'm averaging 7.5 km per day. I think that's pretty amazing!

New Fitbit badge: Hawaii

Speaking of gadgets, I bought a Chromecast for my family so my family can watch more shows. I have an IWanTFC subscription that I don't get to maximize and I realized that my grandmother would enjoy watching a lot of shows on this platform. Unfortunately, there is no IWanTFC app that I could find in my family's Smart TV and I wasn't quite sure how to set it up on the TV's browser. So during the recent Lazada sale, I purchased a Chromecast from the Spoyl online store. I got it very soon after I ordered it and set it up. Now, my grandmother is able to benefit from my IWanTFC subscription. Cool!

New discovery: Bulla Neopolitan Ice Cream. I was looking for an ice cream flavor for my family but I wanted to get something new. I saw this brand and this flavor and I wasn't quite sure what it was. However, the description at the back of the container said that it was "all your favorite flavors." I decided I couldn't go wrong with that so I bought one haha. I found out what it meant when I finally opened the lid. It contains three flavors: strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. Something for everyone, perfect! It's also really nice and creamy. I am definitely buying this again.

Bulla Neopolitan Ice Cream

I also rediscovered Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen recently. I used to enjoy this restaurant many years ago but I barely ate there over the last few years because I felt that the quality of the broth diminished. However, I passed by this ramen place again recently and saw that their most inexpensive ramen is now only P235 (it was P380 back in 2014). What?? Are they serious? That was enough to entice me to eat there. While Mendokoro is my absolute favorite ramen, Ikkoryu becomes a favorite again with its very affordable price and good-enough flavor. I look forward to eating here again on a more regular basis. 

Ajitama Tonkotsu Ramen from Ikkoryu Fukuoka

My board game group decided to switch back to virtual gaming due to the recent rise of Covid cases. While we played some online board game versions, we also played a few Jackbox games, including The Devil and the Details. I hadn't played this game before and honestly, I didn't understand how it worked for the first few (many?) minutes. I was so lost haha but when I finally figured it out, I realized it is actually a lot of fun. I think I ended up in last place but I did win an award: Helicopter Parent. Apparently, I performed the most blocks of people who were performing selfish tasks. This award is so me hahaha.

The Devil and the Details on Jackbox

Oh and you can also buy a mug:

The Devil and the Details Mug

And while we are talking about Covid surges, I had a bit of a Covid scare myself. On a recent Sunday, my throat felt a bit scratchy. I figured I was just tired but I started to worry a bit when my throat started to feel worse as the day progressed. I tried using my antigen test kits at home that evening but the two tests I applied both failed (no red lines came up). I decided to sleep it off, hoping that my throat would feel better the next day. Unfortunately, it didn't. I immediately reached out to a home service lab to schedule an RT-PCR test. Thankfully, they were able to visit me that same morning.  My results came in that evening and they were negative. Whew! I was so happy that I didn't contract Covid again. I still haven't gotten a second booster but I hope I can get one soon.

Spider-Man: No Way Home and Other Netflix Shows

I finally got to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home! It became available on Netflix on July 13 and it premiered on AXN on July 17 so I watched it on both platforms haha. The film had its global theatrical release in December 2021 but I didn't get to see it in the movie theaters; I think it was supposed to be shown in the Philippines in January 2022 but that was the time that we had a massive Omicron surge so I can't recall now if cinemas were closed. In any case, I'm really happy that it finally made its way to online streaming platforms and cable TV. The thing I regret about not getting to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home when it premiered globally was that I didn't get to experience the big reveal: Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both appeared in the film! There was so much talk about both of them reprising their roles as Spider-Man but in the months leading up to the film's release, Andrew Garfield kept denying that he was in the movie so I started to doubt the rumors. I normally don't like spoilers but since there was no clarity as to when the movie would be shown in the Philippines, I actually searched as many spoilers as I could find online and I found out that Andrew and Tobey were indeed in the movie. Yay! I've seen a lot of reaction videos online where audiences cheered wildly when both Andrew and Tobey appeared onscreen so it's too bad I couldn't experience that. But at least I've seen the movie now (a few times already, in fact) and I did enjoy it.

Spider-Man: No Way Home on Netflix

I also completed the 5 seasons of Kim's Convenience. I wasn't familiar with this show but it appeared as a recommendation on Netflix and I decided to add it to my list. Initially, I thought it was just okay. However, a few episodes into the first season and I realized I started to connect with the characters a lot and I became invested in the series. Each episode is only about 20 minutes long and because it's a comedy, it's really easy to watch. I would watch a few episodes each day, often before I went to bed. The sad thing is that Kim's Convenience ended prematurely. It was renewed for a 6th season but I discovered online that the creators of the show decided not to proceed with it because they wanted to work on other projects. Which was a shame because the Season 5 finale opened the door for some really interesting storylines. It really left me wanting for more. Despite the abrupt ending that came with a lot of unresolved loose ends, I really enjoyed this show.

Kim's Convenience on Netflix

Another show I finished recently was Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. The show pitted challengers against the Iron Chefs and the challenger who won their battle and got the highest score during the preliminary rounds would face all five Iron Chefs in the finale. If he or she won that battle, he or she would be hailed as an Iron Leged. Chef Esther Choi earned the chance to claim this title by beating Marcus Samuelson and getting a score of 86, which was the highest score achieved by all challengers during the preliminary rounds. In the finale, she lost by the slimmest of margins against five Iron Chefs who each had to prepare only one dish so major props to her. I've always enjoyed this show - I remember watching the original Japanese series even if I couldn't understand what they were saying -  so I'm glad that Quest for an Iron Legend is now on Netflix. There's talk of a season 2 so I am looking forward to that.

Iron Chef: Quest for  an Iron Legend

Final thoughts on my visit to Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar

After being stuck in Metro Manila for two years due to the pandemic, I'm happy that I am now able to travel. This trip to Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar in Bataan was the first time that I drove out of Metro Manila. One of the things that surprised me was that Las Casas is actually a beach resort. I guess this is because every photo I've seen of this resort before was of the beautiful colonial Philippine-style buildings and never of the beach.

This was also the first time that I got to use my Easy Trip RFID. I was worried that maybe it might not work since it was set up almost two years ago but thankfully, it did. I actually forgot that the card also comes with a P200 load so I put a bit too much money in it. I guess that just means I need to go on another road trip via NLEX soon.

Las Casas is a beautiful resort and it is very photogenic. That said, it does come with some challenges that you need to be aware of and ready for if/when you decide to say here. The first is check-in. The guard at the entrance did give me instructions: I should drive to the reception are, check in, then drive back out to leave my car at the parking lot because parking inside is not allowed. That said, I didn't know where the reception was so I ended up driving my car inside the resort. I thought I needed to go to the hotel area to check in there but as it turned out, reception was actually in the building right inside the entrance. I was probably the only person who stupidly drove all the way inside the resort because I got a lot of strange and surprised looks from the people inside.

After checking in, guests need to bring their vehicles to the parking lot right outside the resort premises. It's a bit too far to walk to the hotel with all your belongings but they do provide a shuttle. I think some extra shuttles were provided that day to help the wedding guests so I ended up in an open air jeepney being used as a shuttle. Under normal circumstances, that would be okay. But I had a lot of stuff with me, including a suit, so it was really difficult riding in a jeepney with everything I was carrying. (On my way back to the parking lot after checking out the next day, I rode an air conditioned coaster so that was much more convenient. Also, for check-out, they stationed a few people at the hotel so that guests could check out there instead of at the reception area. Cool!)

Another watch-out is that there is no room service nor mini-bar. There is a mini refrigerator in the room but it contained only two bottles of water and nothing else. (I believe guests are allowed to bring snacks and drinks inside the resort but not proper meals.) When I wanted to call reception to ask where and what time breakfast would be served the next day, I realized there was no phone in my room. I did spot a phone at the hallway of my hotel so I guess if you really need to call someone, you had to go out of the room and use the phone there.

I was a bit lucky though that breakfast was included in my room reservation. I booked through Agoda and I thought that the room I got didn't include breakfast. I decided that I wanted to eat something that morning since I had a long drive ahead of me so I went to the breakfast area thinking I would have to pay. When I got there, my name was included in the list which meant my food was free. Cool! There weren't a lot of protein options - I think I just had longganisa - but the spread was decent and the food was good. Needless to say, I ate a lot.

Thankfully, I did because my trip home was a disaster. I made a couple of critical errors on my drive back to Manila. First, I trusted Waze too much and didn't even look the recommended directions. Second, I didn't realize that Waze has a new functionality that requires you to enter which tollways you can access. I didn't run into any issues on my drive from Manila to Las Casas so I wasn't expecting to run into issues on the way home. However, I realized after some time that I wasn't anywhere near NLEX and the road I was driving on wasn't the road I passed by the day before. I figured that I was being given directions that avoided NLEX completely. Unfortunately, by then, I couldn't find any road signs pointing towards the highway. I tried changing my destination in the hopes that I would be brought back to NLEX but it didn't work. As such, I ended up driving on the service roads of Bataan, Pampanga, and Bulacan - some of which were extremely bumpy - for a prolonged period of time. Eventually, I saw a sign that pointed me to NLEX so I finally got on the highway. Whew! But even then, Waze kept telling me to take the next available exit. Crazy! I had to turn Waze off because it wasn't helping and by that time, I already knew my way home. All in all, I lost maybe 30 to 45 minutes of driving time but the stress made it feel a lot longer. When I got home, I updated my Waze settings to allow me to drive on Easytrip (and Autosweep) tollways. Still, I am baffled at how I didn't have this problem driving to Bataan but encountered it on the drive home.

Despite the craziness, the heat, and the exhaustion I experienced, I am still happy that I got to attend Jeyo and Michelle's wedding. I am also happy that I have now experienced Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar.