manila

was in manila for less than 48h. recounted the brief getaway to F who described it as 'bleisure' (bizniz+leisure) which's supposed to be the latest buzzword i'd yet to hear about. as usual, slow on the uptake! had the most gracious hosts who spoilt us rotten, taking care of everything. it was nice to go into man mode, army-speak for being a follower. they're old friends who very kindly let me stay in their berlin apartment when i was on exchange in stockholm all those years ago, so to finally visit in their home in makati was a real treat. the scale of which they've acquired art is nothing short of awe-inspiring. the level of curation, thought and expression of pure taste and class was sublime. 

will be the first to admit i know scarce little about art but always happy to learn, and no one better to learn from than experienced collectors with decades of good calls under their belt.

we'd dins at makati*garden club then 2h massages. silly me, only ever having had 1h massages thought 2h would be too long. turns out that they're onto something good and the 2h massage was a game-changer. 120min of pure bliss and left feeling like a very relaxed noodle. can't go back to hour-long massages now! relatively late night (past midnight! i zz by 9ish usually so this was wayy after my bedtime!) and early start at the polo club. delicious brekkie and i loved the arroz caldo (like porridge!). the thing about filippino food is that it's different yet familiar. same same but different? oops wrong SEA nation. defo shared elements with chinese / straits chinese cooking i'm accustomed to (garlic, ginger, sugar) and it was new but still comforting, to say the least.