Sara doing the laundry...

Our first laundry experience...

Super Six...

There's a restaurant...well i guess you could call it a restaurant, around the corner from our hostel called Super Six. It's open from 6pm to 6am and usually doesn't get hoppin until around 9:30 pm. It's not really a restaurant but more like a covered grilling station set up on the front of a building along the side of the street. The family that runs the place probably all live upstairs and sleep all day and work all night. The food is FANTASTIC and cheap. It was recommended for us to try by, Benji, the owner of the hostel we're staying at.

This is how it works...you walk up, and they have a menu, but from our observations you really dont get the good stuff ordering straight from the menu...so you walk up to the "counter" which has all kinds of meat, seafood, and veggies just laying out for you to choose from. You choose what you want and voile! They grill/cook/barbque whatever is on "your plate" and bring it to your table. The first night we ate we had a clam soup that came in a huge clay pot. The soup consisted of a clam juice and ginger broth, approx. 50-60 baby clams, tomatoes, onions and tofu. We then got some Chinese greens with garlic and soy, barbequed chicken, beef, chicken heart (or possibly liver) and eggplant wrapped either in very thin bacon or some sort of fat similar to bacon. Along with 4 San Miguels...a total of $10 US.

The next time we got a plate full spicy baby clams, Chinese greens, grilled squid...the pics are from the second time we ate. Needless to say, this is a place we'll prob. be talking about for a while!

SUPER SIX...

This gives you an idea of exactly how "on the street" it is...those are headlights of cars passing by on the left. Once while eating there we had to move to a different table b/c the police came by and made them take the tables out of the street so more cars could get through.
The selection of meat, seafood, and veggies you can choose from...ummm YUM!
The cooks/grill masters cooking up the plates on order...Rodney sitting at our table that we pulled up beside some fellow backpackers...all but one who taught English in South Korea.Spicy hallan (?) a.k.a. spicy baby clams...delicious.
Beef and Scallops on a skewer...Chinese greens, beef and scallop skewers, grilled squid, and soy/garlic sauce...Our friendly waiter at Super Six...

Manila Bay at Sunset...and of course, how to drink your San Miguel in the Philippines

Manila bay is known for it's sunsets...the cool breeze off the bay along with the beautiful colors of the sky attract tourist and locals alike. It's a nice relief at the end of the day from the bright HOT sun... Almost every night the boardwalk is crowded with people selling food/drinks/massages/or really anything you could think of to sell (perhaps a pearl necklace, a watch, some American coins or maybe some Viagra or Cialis...yes that's right). Everyone else who isn't a entrepreneur is just sitting around or taking a nap.

Part of the Manila skyline at sunset...Rodney is slowly becoming quite the photographer.

Sitting on the roof top of bars across from the bay enjoying the sunset and a San Miguel.

This is the boardwalk where most people come to view the sunset.A little man on man massage...the customer seemed satisfied...and you can't beat the view! haha

Awww...how romantic :)

One of Rodney's favorites...Nightfall on the bay...

How you drink your San Miguel in the Philippines...check out the video below.

Chinatown

We took a visit to Manila's Chinatown which is to the north of the "city". We went for lunch at Ling Nam Noodle Factory and Wonton Parlor...it was delicious. I had the pork wonton and Rodney had the Beef, their specialty. Afterwards we moseyed down to a local bakery to pick up some sweets (Sara had been about 3 days without anything sweet and had started to get the shakes....) anyway...haha...We ended up getting some sort of angel food cake with a custard bottom which tasted like a cakey moonpie...the first bite was a bit interesting but by the 6th, you couldn't get enough! Rodney ended up getting these crunchy fried bread twist with sugar on the outside...they were also good. (We were going to eat some today, but i accidently left them sitting beside the bed last night and when we went to get them, they were covered in ants...we didnt eat them.) So after we got the sweets we sat on the curb, people watched and ate them, they were perfect. We decided that a huge bottle of milk would be excellent...but they only had soy milk. As Rodney described it, "it tastes like spoiled breast milk"...Gross, he says that he doesn't know how that taste, but...he can imagine. We didnt drink it.

Friendly's Guesthouse...our current living quarters

The hostel we're staying at in Manila is called Friendly's. It's at the top of a building with a great patio, kitchen, and washing area...and yes, we're washing our clothes by hand. We plan on staying here until we leave Manila, which will prob. be Monday. We are staying in an AC dorm room with 10 other people from all over the world. In the mornings we wake up, come out to the porch, have some coffee, check email and such and discuss how we are going to spend our day.

Today, Saturday, we've decided to hang around the hostel, so we made a trip to the local supermarket and bought groceries. Rodney was inspired by the local cuisine and cooked an AMAZING meal, as he always does.

Fresh wanton noodles with pork steak, onions, bean sprouts, fresh cabbage, and oyster mushrooms in a spicy garlic soy broth. And to garnish, two San Miguels.....

Last night we had our first thunderstorm...and WOW...it was definitely a thunderstorm. I don't know if it was being at the top of a building or what, but the rain was coming down so hard it sounded like it was going to bust through the roof, but luckily it didn't, and we woke up to beautiful clear and sunny skies.

Tonight at Friendly's we are having a wine and cheese night...Rodney and I are very excited as we both love wine....And Joe, I'll definately post which wines we are tasting...How's CRUSH doing??

Rodney enjoying his morning coffee on the porch of our hostel...Me checkin email and such on the porch in the morning...

View from our hostel...

And from the other side...

And one more...

The common area of Friendly's

This is the view from inside out to the patio where we spend most of the time when here..