We have a very good supermarket, Rustan’s, a 2 minute walk from our apartment. There is also a local market about a 10 minute walk away. The prices in the market are probably about half of what they are in Rustan’s for fruit & veg. The first thing that you see when you walk into …
On Friday 1 February, I received a forwarded email from Simon. One of his colleagues was suggesting a one-night getaway to ‘Puerto Galera’ on Mindoro Island (the island immediately south of Luzon, where Manila is). It was rather serendipitous as we’d been planning to get out of Manila in one way or another that weekend. …
36 hour beach break: Manila – Sabang (Mindoro island) Read More »
For me, words like ‘baywalk’ conjure up romantic strolls along palm-tree lined promenades, listening to the sounds of waves crashing gently on the shore. Something like that anyway. We decided to venture out to Manila Bay, which we can just see from our apartment window, last Sunday. We hailed a taxi to take us to …
Whilst it’s relatively inexpensive to eat out, it can get a bit much to eat out all the time. It stops feeling like a treat and I’m sure it’s not good for our waistlines, or in fact our wallets overall. And often it’s just nicer to eat a home cooked meal. But cooking here has …
We have up to 3 months in our current apartment, and then we need to find somewhere a bit more permanent. The norm here is to pay 12 months’ rent in advance + a 2 month deposit. Ouch. We decided to start looking for an apartment fairly soon after we arrived, for a few reasons: …
On Sunday, Simon and I ventured out of our Rockwell bubble-in-a-bubble and headed to China Town in old Manila. The roads were blissfully quiet and we even managed to get to 80kph at one point! We drove North from Makati through San Andres, past the Manila City Hall and into Binondo (where China Town is). …
Rockwell We live in an area called Rockwell, in Makati City. It comprises about 11 apartments blocks, a shopping mall – Powerplant Mall – and a couple of office blocks (Nestle has its Philippines headquarters here). The 4, or so, roads running through the complex are quiet, and there are traffic wardens to help you …
Our immediate surroundings -Rockwell, Makati & Fort Bonifacio Read More »
Our apartment, for the first 3 months of our stay in Manila at least, is located on the 36th Floor of ‘One Rockwell’ within the Rockwell complex in Makati City, Manila. It’s been provided to us fully furnished. It could be described as ‘small, but perfectly formed’, which I think most apartments in Makati City are. …
