Big City Life

While daily work brings new surprises every day, the city becomes more and familiar. However since Ho Chi Minh City holds approximately 10 Mio + people there are always new places, bars and restaurants to find.
Recently I have been forced to go for Karaoke with my colleagues.

Of course I had to sing as well. It was fun though.

Basically every week you have at least one or 2 networking meetings organised by different organisations like the different business associations. Sometimes those events are continued at another place. Last week we found an excellent bar, very close to the Notre Dame church. However, you would never dare to walk alone into that little alley, if you wouldnt know, that there is a bar. The view was just beautiful:

One of my favourite places has become a burger place called Gotcha. I often go there, since the food is great and really cheap.

The place is located in the Backpackers district, which is a world of its own. Always crowded by foreigners whor are looking for cheap accomodation. The main road in this area is called Bui Vien.

Sometimes it's quite fun to be there, but you have to be quite careful, too, since there are a lot of locals trying to screw tourists and foreigners. Of course if you're looking for some hours of paid fun, this is the place to go. 

But I still have the feeling that I only scratched the surface of this city after a bit more than 6 months. Time really flies...

Trip To Manila

Last week I flew to the Philippines, to Manila to be exact. This had following reasons: I needed to get out of Vietnam, in order to renew my visa (so called visa-run). Therefore I took the opportunity to visit 2 companies which we are working together. And furthermore I was interested in seeing the Philippines.
Actually I regret not having stayed a bit longer. Even though Manila is not a very nice city, since much was destroyed during WW2, the people are extremely nice and hospitable. Additionally Manila / the Philippines do not feel like Asia at all. Everything is very americanized, and with a lot of spanish influence as well. Street signs look exactly like in the US and the buildings look rather spanish. So if the people wouldn't look asian, you could think you were in a middle/south american country. This and the fact, that basically all people speak decent, if not perfect English. So it is very easy to get around. There are huge Malls all over the city. Apparently this is the place where the Filipinos cool down, since electricity is pretty expensive there, I've been told. The Malls look like in the US, and especially all the US shops are there. A&F, Hollister, Gap, you name it. Of course all relevant fast food chains as well, like TGIF, Ihop, Hooters (they will close down soon), Cinnabon etc... Just amazing!
The nightlife in Manila is great. There are so many bars all over the place and there is a stage in every bar and there is a band on every stage. These bands play a certain set and another band plays. And of course there are lots of people and the mood is pretty happy.

I stayed at the H2O Hotel. I got a room with bay view:

and here the view from the outside of the hotel:

The hotel is located inside the Manila Ocean park. Unfortunately I didn't have time to visit it.

First night I was invited to Hard Rock Cafe in Makati, basically the business center of Manila. The Hrad Rock Cafe is in a huge mall called Glorietta.
There I realized for the first time the American influence:

We had quite some fune there, even I had the pleasure to sing.

Was a beautiful evening!

Next day I went to the Singing Cooks and Waiters Restaurant:

An absolut entertaining place with very delicious food.

Filipino food is very good. There is a lot of seafood, fish, chicken and especially pork! And apparently you get very good Spaghetti and Pasta here, but haven't tried it.

Of course one of the main export products are Mangos. You get them as fresh fruit, dried, salad, juice etc. Very sweet and tasty! Even better than the Mangos in Vietnam.

Traffic in Manila is crazy as well, but somehow more organized. There are far less motorbikes and the cars stick to the lanes. However it is totally overcrowded and always congested.

Here another mean of transport, a moto taxi or tricycle, which people commonly use:

Next day was on my own, so I did a little sightseeing. From my hotel it was a short walk to Intramuros ("within the walls"), basically the historic center of Manila. 

Apparently a philippine movie star was visiting Intramuros that day as well. That's why there was such a big crowd in front of the Manila cathedral:

A second church is the San Agustin church which is supposed to be the oldest church in Manila:

In Intramuros you can feel the spanish colonial time:

Cock fighting is very popular in the Philippines, that's why you see a lot of them in the streets.

Furthermore there is the Fort Santiago within Intramuros, with a nice park before the entrance.

Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines 

Very interesting to see the whole area. Unfortunately this is more or less the only historic place in Manila. Otherwise the city is just a huge Megacity, not many special landmarks to see.

In the evening I met with one colleague again together with her husband Jomel at the Mall of Asia. Jomel is a professional photographer.

He took me on a tour through the mall and around the whole area, see here some sample pics we shot together:

All pictures were taken without tripod, he calles it Guerilla-technique...

Then we went of course to a bar on the premises of the mall. Perfect location to exercise stage photography:

We had a great evening together and I learned a lot. Jomel is already putting together an itenary for my next visit, so that he can show me more of Manila and teach me even more.
That means I have to go back soon. Anyway, I really enjoyed my stay in Manila. I got to know many nice, kind and hospitable people and at least the glimpse of a beautiful country. Hope to find time to go back very soon. The flight from Vietnam to Manila is only 2.5hours anyway and there is so much more to explore.