Cassey is here!

Cassey arrived in Manila on Saturday night and we've been running around non-stop since!

Sunday morning, we went for breakfast at Heaven & Eggs where she had this crazy pancake plate with four kinds of gourmet pancakes. Afterwards, I took her on a tour of most of the malls and department stores in the area around the Ascott, including Glorietta, SM, Greenbelt and Landmark.

Once our brief mall tour was done (including a quick visit to the arcade), we enjoyed Pale Pilsens by the pool and took a soak in the hot tub. Later in the evening, we had supper in Greenbelt on the terrace of Mr Rockafeller's. Dinner consisted of raw oysters on the half shell, linguine and prawns and baked garlic cheese scallops. So delicious! By the time we were done, it was nearly midnight so we headed home.

After a buffet breakfast at the Ascott, we spent Monday afternoon at Mall of Asia. Built right on Manila Bay and opened in 2006, MoA is the second largest mall in the Philippines. Amongst other things, MoA has a tramway to bring you around the mall, a ferris wheel, an IMAX theatre, an ice rink, a hypermarket (similar to Wal-Mart) and a bowling alley. The place is absolutely enormous and you can easily wander around there for hours.

I was able to get 2 hours of sleep before heading to work to co-facilitate a new class in our new office in Cubao. I left word at 7:20 AM but didn't get home until 9:50 AM. It took me almost 30 mins to get a cab and about an hour to get home. After a quick breakfast, Cassey and I hopped back into the car to head back to work to meet up with Carrie and a few others from the office to go shopping in Divisoria.

Our co-workers decided to give us a real taste of Manila, Filipino style. Despite the warnings from several other co-workers, we took the LRT out to Capo and then took our first jeepney ride to Divisoria. The jeepney is quite something else! You hop on the back, pass your 7 pesos up to the front and hold on for dear life. We were prepared for the worst so we were pleased to find 168 Mall in Divisoria to be uncrowded, clean and full of awesome bargains.

Cassey will be here until next Friday. Stay tuned for more stories!