Basking in the Bay

DISCLAIMER - The day following the posting of this blog I picked up the local Star newspaper upon returning to my room. Star is not a tabloid but one of, if not the, main newspaper here in Manila. Apparently my guess as to the missing restaurants while completely logical was incorrect. Turns out all these restaurants...nice restaurants mind you, we're not talking taco stands...were essentially squatting on the land. They literally just pulled up stakes, or in this case tents, and opened high end restaurants catering to foreigners and other people with $. The kicker is that these guys aren't mobsters or members of the underworld. They're ex-big name politicians and celebrities. I don't have the article in front of me but I remember a Vice Mayor, an ex Police General, and even the biggest name boxer in the Philippines. They literally just plopped down restaurants on the on the main baywalk for this city of apx 10 Million. Wow! Let me say that again WOW!
One of my fondest Manila memories up to this point has been watching the sun set on Manila Bay with a San Miguel beer clutched tightly in my fist. That moment was a few weeks back. Sadly it was in the aftermath of camera loss numero uno. With the innards of my Cannon Elph caked with salt water I had no way of documenting the sun set and accompanying live music.


So when my Yahoo co-horts agreed that would be the ideal place to grab dinner in honor of Jennifer’s last weekend in town I was ecstatic for a few reasons. #1 – It’s a stellar place to go and quite cool with the breeze coming off the surf. #2 – Now I could share this experience with my
co-workers/friends. #3 – With a new camera ever ready at my side I could now document it for the folks back home. Especially Carrie who had specifically requested for photos to share with her mom and friends.

With five of us heading down we had to caravan with a couple of taxis. Which in and of itself was an interesting affair. Our Taxi was originally the leader, we told him the other cab would following and Noelle told her cabby to follow us to Manila Bay. That lasted for all of 30 seconds when their
driver shot by us like a bullet. I was surprised at our driver’s ability to keep up given his relic of a car. Sunday is the only day where you can exceed forty miles per hour within the city confines as people are at church and in general relaxing.

A short fifteen minutes later we arrived. As everyone else enjoyed the cool breeze and snapped pictures I looked around and scratched my head a bit. This certainly was the right place, there was no mistaking that. And yet there wasn’t a single restaurant along the bay walk. Which is about the time I was hit in the face with a splash from the choppy surf in front of me. From there the dots started connecting, torrential rain all week, still rough waters, water splashing right where I had previously been sitting. Searching my memory I did recall that the restaurants while having structure were tent-like from the outside. So much for that.

Several kilometers in the distance we noticed a brightly lit building. In my eyes it looked Casino-esque. But everyone else wanted to go there, and given my initial recommendation I went along. My only regret is that we hadn’t left the hotel just 30 minutes earlier. Because as we walked through a little restaurant area along the bay there was a side exhibition from the First Ever Manila Motor Show. These guys had cleared out the parking lot to allow anyone with a speedy car and reckless abandon to speed around and spin out into 360’s. This was NOT a large area and at one point four or five different cars were zipping around. One dumbass had the entire upper half of his body hanging out of the car as he drove around like a madman. On more than one occasion his sliding car stopped just a few short feet from another vehicle. Anarchy. Alas it was too dark to take any recognizable photo. Damn! Would have been one of my top 5 pics.

With uncanny precision we maneuvered through a myriad of cultural centers and parks, arriving at our destination, Jumbo Kingdom. This place truly was Jumbo in stature. Even that might be an understatement. Four massive stories of building, which actually floated on the water. Jumbo Kingdom could easily house hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of guests all at once. They had multiple restaurants and I think I saw a few Karaoke rooms. They told us the best view would be on the fourth floor. So the fourth floor we went.


Apparently it was the Restaurant/Music Lounge. The ambience and setting was top notch, which was a strange combo to the roaming laser dance lights and techno remixes. Some of my favorites were remakes of Kool and the Gang, Michael Jackson and I think even Ghostbusters. But they were mixed so much you could barely detect the original comoposition beneath the beats the booms. Not bad though. And certainly better than the cliché love music I constantly and deservedly bitch about.

Dinner was solid at best. Although they did
have a Vegetalian portion of the menu. And no that was not a typo, I did write Vegetalian…should’ve snapped a picture. All in all an enjoyable evening. My plan was to hit up an outdoor bar upon returning home, as it was only 10pm on what was essentially my Saturday. But I just couldn’t do it. Between the sun at the pool earlier and the zoo later I had nothing left despite plenty of sleep. So like a nerd I passed out around 10:30 and didn’t wake up until about the same time the next day.


Which is where I write this blog from. It is currently 5:30pm. I am 1 ½ hours into a 15 hour shift. As with Vegetalian that was not a typo, 15 hours. So I’m not feeling too regretful of that 12 hour sleep-athon. I’m going to need it. At least for the first few hours my only responsibility is to keep a lazy eye on one trainee at a time to take the computer portion of the test. Freeing up some time to write.
I’ll wrap this up with two notes. #1 I posted another blog at the same time down below, so don’t skip over it. #2 – I am officially plugged into Filipino culture. Today I purchased my first cell phone to allow me to text both locally and internationally. If you’re lucky you may receive a text message from me. And mom you’re not getting the number because you will use up all my credits in the first day! Ha. Just kidding mom, love you.