Arrived in Manila on a cloudy Monday morning and the time it took me to leave the airport from setting foot on the tarmac was around a mere ten minutes. My date lived north of the Pasig River but arrived late to meet me due to traffic so I had to endure 45 minutes or so, fending off persistent taxi drivers, even though I told them I was waiting for someone.

The hotel I booked offered rooms priced from P7000. This was according to their website but I smugly paid P2000 for the solitary night via an offer on Agoda. The website also stated that the hotel was located in Muntinlupa City and was only a ten minute journey from the NAIA. Yeah, right! It took nearly an hour to arrive in an area called Sucat which I don't think is Muntinlupa at all. I was expecting a plush establishment as it had a poncy title - Bellini Suites at Presidio, Lakefront, but it didn't look anything special going by the exterior.

It was a tower block amongst other tower blocks with a shared swimming pool. A pool we couldn't use due to being closed for maintenance for the entirety of our stay, and this was one of the reasons BSAPL was chosen. Our booking wasn't recognized at first so we had to hang around reception getting scowled at by a Imelda Marcos wannabee who presumably was a guest here. By now my smugness had completely worn off and we were eventually allocated a room. It was decent enough although the balcony area was grubby but I certainly wouldn't pay P7000 for it. The room had all the facilities to cook food but strangely enough it didn't have a kettle but more annoyingly it didn't have a bottle opener, so each time we wanted to open a beer, we had to go down to reception.

At around 10am the next morning I was glad to leave this "hotel" behind. We headed to the Victory Liner Bus Station in Pasay to catch a ride to Olongapo in Zambales, a four hour journey away.