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Posted on: 16 Mar 2023 21:10:00 PST

Categories: Travels

Tags: Silyo Dmiela Wagyupsal Hotel Sogo Malate Dolomite Beach Manila Zoo The Aviary Café Star City travel solo travel

tl;dr:

• Don’t eat at Silyo Dmiela, at least in their Light Mall branch. You’ll just waste your money. Unless your standard of quality is Jollibee, then you’ll be blown away.
• Wagyupsal is a nice place for samgyupsal.
• Hotel Sogo Malate is an okay hotel to stay in, especially if you just want a place to sleep. Emphasise you want a non-smoker’s room if you’re not a fan of fags.
• Dolomite beach is okay. Don’t expect too much. Bring a book and enjoy at your own pace.
• Manila Zoo is a nice zoo. Beware of the demon spawn; avoid them at all costs. And please do not bring your own.
• The Aviary Café is a nice place to watch birds. Don’t order Pascoco if you’re not a fan of adulterated coffee.
• Star City is a place catering mainly to demon spawn and their generators. If you have standards, don’t go here. If you must, then definitely visit Snow World. It will cost you though, as it cannot be availed on its own.

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Bitten by the travel bug and yearning for unlimited samgyupsal, I invited my teammates for a dinner out and planned a trip to Manila Zoo.

Looking for a cheap hotel near the zoo, I learned of a Hotel Sogo just across from it. Being curious about Sogo as I only hear quite scandalous things about it, I took the plunge and booked for an overnight stay.

On the 27th, me and my workmates had lunch at Silyo Dmiela. This picture sums up my impressions of the food.

Eating with friends made everything a bit more acceptable, and to be fair their fried chicken tastes okay. But if you are craving fried chicken, there are other better (and cheaper!) restaurants; 7-11 comes to mind. As you can tell, I don’t recommend this place.

14:00 was the check-in time at Hotel Sogo Malate. I was feeling anxious checking in due to its indecent connotation. Perhaps I’m just being immature.

The staff are quite welcoming, greeting you with a Japanese-style bow everytime they interact with you. Apparently, they are required to do so. The lobby was okay, as well as the elevator.

As for the room, I was informed that the Premium room I initially booked was not available, so I was bumped up to a Deluxe one. Here’s the one I eventually got.

The inside, while quite small, was cozy and nice.

Unfortunately, the room was obviously for smokers as it had a strong smell of cigarettes. Housekeeping managed to keep the smell down via air freshener, but just a tad.

The hotel also provided toiletries and two pairs of slippers.

They also serve food, though I didn’t try; in hindsight, I should have. Apparently, it’s free if not delivered to your room in 10 minutes.

Dinnertime came: unlimited samgyupsal at Wagyupsal. Unfortunately I was late; when I arrived, my teammates are mostly done. Nevertheless, everything went well and we parted ways with full stomachs and jovial laughs.

The hotel offers a massage, so I tried it upon coming back.

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Nothing dirty here; just a nice massage by a competent, professional masseuse. It was a nice one-hour massage, which gave way to a nice sleep.

The following day came quite early, waking up around 05:00. After eating breakfast at the nearby McDonald’s, I just walked. Aside from glimpses inside Manila Zoo (the Brahminy kites flying made me excited), I also saw the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas building.

Since Manila Zoo opens at 09:00 and I had lots of time to kill (it’s just around 07:30 at this point), I decided on a whim to walk towards the controversial Dolomite beach. I arrived around 07:50.

Entrance to the beach is free. The guards are quite strict, checking bags and refusing entry to guests with food in tow. As it’s quite early in the morning, the place is not crowded and it’s still possible to explore in peace.

Here are close-ups of its namesake.

For the Dutertards among us, here are the plaques at the Dolomite beach.

I was able to spot three species of birds while there, so perhaps all was not lost.

After lingering for a while, it was time to go back, check out of the hotel, and go to Manila Zoo. Yay!

Manila Zoo is not free; it costs ₱300 for non-Manileños. I booked online the night before. The zoo highly encourages everyone to book online.

The inside is spacious; the surroundings quite pristine. There are food stalls inside including a café (more on that later). Here are some videos I took.

Being me, I went straight to the aviary for some birding.

Being early in the morning of the morning, I thought I might be able to observe animals in peace. But woe! the quiet is being intermittently shattered by the wails of demon spawn.

You read that right: demon spawn. Your sanity and control will be challenged whenever you have the misfortune of bumping into them, whether it’s at the aviary, the butterfly garden, the reptile house, or the walkways. Their spawners are of no help whatsoever; I’ll go so far as to say that they condone and encourage the shitty behaviour, themselves being loud and rowdy. I do feel bad for the animals and hope they are not too stressed out by the banshees, especially the very popular ones like the toucans and the cassowary near the zoo entrance. I do hope the zoo sets some ground rules like disallowing demonious wailing, but knowing Filipinos I might as well wished it to the winds.

About birding: if you are planning to bird, this isn’t really the place. Yes they have many bird species and they look well-cared for, but if you want to observe them doing their natural things, they won’t - they’ll just either stay away or stare at you. This behaviour makes them great for bird photography and cringy social media selfies, but if you’re not into narcissism then you’ll just feel sad for the birds and get second-hand cringe. The same applies for our non-avian friends, excluding demon spawn of course.

This did made me chuckle.

Now if the admins just confined all demon spawn there, I’ll be happy as a lark.

Despite the demon spawn, I managed to get the most enjoyment while there. I also tried to buy some souvenirs, but unfortunately they are either meh or require a good mode of transport. For instance, I would have liked to get some caterpillars and butterflies on sale at the butterfly garden, but then I have no greenhouse to put them in. So sadly, I only have the pictures, videos, and memories tainted by demon spawn.

As mentioned earlier, there is a café inside the zoo named The Aviary Café. It has expensive food, drinks, and clientele.

Aside from being fancy, this café is a prime location to watch birds at the aviary, as the café is literally one of its sides (hence the name). Unfortunately, the birds do not come near the café’s glass sides.

I discovered the café after I had eaten my lunch, so I was not able to order much. On the bright side, I can review the food quite objectively, as hunger would not affect my judgement.

To have an excuse to stay, I ordered a drink named Pascoco. According to the barista, the drink is passionfruit mixed with brewed coffee. It looks good when served.

Then I took a sip, and instantly my mouth was assaulted by the shitty taste of passionfruit syrup mixed with the bitterness of coffee. The taste was horrible, not because of the bitter coffee (I like black coffee) but due to the overwhelming sweetness and tanginess of the passionfruit syrup. Stirring does not help, nor does the ice gradually diluting everything. It’s like drinking Nescafé instant black coffee splashed with a bit of balsamic vinegar. That might sound delightful to you, but for me it’s ₱189.00 down the drain. Now, I’m not one to waste food if I can help it, so I soldiered on, gradually sipping the horrible concoction while watching the male peacocks parading to non-caring females. Eventually, I managed to finish the whole thing.

I was planning on staying at the zoo up to 16:00, but come 13:00 and I was tired walking and revisiting sites. Lots of people were also coming into the zoo, increasing the demon spawn count. Deciding on where to go next aside from home, I was apparently near to Star City so to there I walked.

On the way, I met two foreigners wanting to go to the Cultural Center of the Philippines. They asked me for directions, and I managed to guide them with my broken English. What a non sequitur.

Entrance to Star City is not free. The base Star Pass ticket, which grants one unlimited access to all rides excluding Snow World, costs ₱699.00 as of visit. If you want to visit Snow World, you will need to pay an additional ₱160.00 on top of Star Pass for a grand total of ₱859.00. It is not possible to just get a Snow World pass.

If you have a bag or lots of items, you might be required to pay for a locker to put them into, as some rides do not allow them to be brought with while riding. The one I rented costs ₱50.00 for 3 hours. Since I’ll need to pay that amount again after three hours, that will be my overall time in the amusement park.

The first thing you will see upon clearing the turnstiles are souvenir stalls like this:

Afterwards you get to see the rides and attractions. Here are the ones I tried:

• Giant Star Wheel
• Digital Surround Theatre
• Dinosaur Alive
• Jungle Splash

Yeah I know, I’m boring. Especially after experiencing g forces at the Jungle Splash, I don’t want to ride anymore.

The main star of this place is Snow World (and the management definitely knows it). Picture and video taking are banned inside, so I only have the gloves and earmuffs as souvenirs. I forgot exactly how much they cost but I think it’s around ₱150.00 (they gave no receipt). When you first step inside it’s not so cold, but as time passes the cold seeps through the provided coat and your clothes. The attendant at the entrance said that it’s -15℃ inside; I’ll take her word as I have no thermometers with me. There are also hot drinks being sold there; it was entertaining to drink hot coffee and chocolate and watching your breath. The drink costs ₱50.00 per cup.

By 15:00 I noticed the number of people is increasing. It also seems that there is a field trip going on, as there were groups of young students (probably high schoolers) in their P.E. uniforms. So after going to Snow World for one last time (yes, I went again, drinking another cup of coffee and chocolate) until 16:30, it was time to go home.

I arrived home quite late at night, with aching legs. But the experience was definitely worth it; I felt very accomplished. Excluding the demon spawn of course.

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