This is a really late post because this year has been one of moving around for me, travelling and also, just hardly doing anything else when I should be blogging/posting stuff everywhere. Lol. Especially on my 'gram. (I just got locked out of my personal instagram account, btw, Idk how or why or it's just instagram and META being a d*ck rn. Well, they always are so I'm not at all surprised by this.)
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September 2024 had seen me travelling back and forth from my home city of Cagayan de Oro to Manila and to somewhere else then back to Manila and so on...at least twice. I was in Manila a few couple of times that month for both leisure and family business (work). Something there needed to be worked on for one.
First trip out from Cagayan de Oro is from September 13 to September 23. In between September 15 to 22, I had somewhere else to be.
I flew with AirAsia from here in Cagayan de Oro City to Metro Manila on September 13 to do stuff there...in Metro Manila:
It was the 11 a.m. flight so we arrived in Ninyo Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 at around 1 p.m.
We almost missed our flight because we had to eat something before boarding said flight. I did get a prebooked meal beforehand, when I booked this flight, and it's vegan too! so I was actually alright without taking in much but water while at the airport, right before boarding time.
Well, hi there, Metro Manila. :)
From any of the terminals in NAIA, there are P2P shuttles that move you around between them and then out of NAIA and into the city proper (Araneta City-Cubao, PITX in Paranaque, etc). NAIA terminal 2 didn't have the bus or shuttle going to the city proper (our destination was Araneta City-Cubao because it's the one that's closest to the family's new place there...and yes, this is the family biz I was and have been taking care of whenever I'm in Metro Manila...so yep) so we had to take the P2P bus/shuttle to NAIA terminal 3 and take the shuttle/bus from there to Araneta-Cubao...for only Php 200.
You can use this link: Premium Ninyo Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Shuttle Bus Transfers for Manila to make your airport to anywhere in Metro Manila (be it in Araneta City-Cubao, Pasay, Alabang, etc) easier. You can also find this link below, at the very end of this post.
If anyone travels to Metro Manila and wants to not spend much on a Grab car to your end destination there (AirBnB rental, hotel, etc) and you don't have anyone to come get you and take you to where you're staying, your end destination, you can always take this bus/shuttle out of the airport to take you to a place, either Araneta City-Cubao, Paranaque's PITX, Robinsons Manila, and so on, (just make sure to go to the shuttle's/bus' drop off point that's the closest to your place) and you can take the Grab car from there to save on expenses for your Metro Manila trip. This is how I do it these days when I am there or anywhere else for that matter.
Anyway, so my first order of business was this:
The Metro Manila International Book Fair or MMIBF was on that week. I think it was on for the weekend so I had to check it out for...yes, #romanceclass. #romanceclass is a group of or circle of Filipina romance books/novels/stories writers I have been following for a while now. Since around last year, I think? I have 3 books from them so far. I got one from their website and it's a reprint and it came with freebies some time last year ish. I bought these two other books of theirs at this event. They had shelves displaying them at Komiket's booth.
I was actually with my aunt at Ikea the afternoon of this MMIBF day and I just stole some time away to get to the SM Convention Center next door where this event was going on. I got there towards the end of the Blush Books launch and although I bought these two from the Komiket booth there, I didn't really have any of them signed by the authors that were there and participating in the launch event. I was on stolen time from what should be more Ikea Philippines time anyway so I didn't have that long a time to linger in the MIBFF area and had to go back to my aunt in Ikea Ph next door.
I still have one more book to get from the website. I hope they can reprint one of that for me. I like the story since it's set in the city I did my Literary Studies Masters in, Dumaguete City, so yep, I'm definitely getting myself a copy of that one, one of these days.
Oh, right. This was my pre-ordered/bought lunch from AirAsia. It's not exactly the best vegan/vegetarian food I've had in an airplane but it'll do. It's the vegetable rice bowl and it's alright.
Unfortunately, this is not in their menu anymore when you book their CDO-Metro Manila and back flight anymore but it appears as a second meal option once you've ordered one for both flights. It costs Php 200 per serving now. It would be nice if they can bring this back int the pre-booked meal options again so we don't have buy it as vegetarians/vegans on a 1 hour and 40 minutes or so flight to and from Cagayan de Oro City and Metro Manila.
We didn't really do much else in Metro Manila...I was supposed to run some errands for the family but I only got to do so little of it while we were there this week in September but we did get to explore some of Antipolo, Rizal:
My aunt is into churches so we attended Sunday mass, around September 15 here at a church by or next to a seminary. It's the St. Anthony de Padua Church in Inarawan. People just call it seminary/seminaryo and ask to be stopped there when taking the jeepney.
Antipolo, Rizal isn't that big a city or area so it's easy to go around there in either the grab car or their public transportation. We were staying in the new family's place in Katipunan, Quezon City, Metro Manila so this is just about two stations away from LRT 2 Katipunan (Araneta City-Cubao is just one station away from LRT Katipunan, going to Recto) going to Antipolo which is the last LRT 2 station so far, opposite of Recto. We just took the jeepney to this church after alighting Antipolo LRT 2 station and then we went around by their version of the tricycle or so, an e-trike.
We also visited, more like, checked out the Antipolo Cathedral which is very pretty, by the way, on our way to check on, visit other tourist spots in Antipolo, Rizal.
I think the one place in Antipolo, Rizal I'll be going back to is the Pinto Art Museum. Well, the art isn't exactly my favorite but I like that it's a chill and relaxing place to be:
The outdoors of this place get me. I want to just chill here for either a day or a morning or maybe an afternoon to the late evening somehow and go back to the city later on. Heh.
If I were to pick my favorites from the art works, art installations in the rooms here, however... I'd say these are what get me:
This is from a room with artworks for women and couples and as a (I confess that I am this,...) hopeless romantic and someone who identifies as a sexual being and with the feminist movement and its causes at the same time, I'm into this room. I'm very much into this room.
I just like how this looks like from afar.
The entry fee to this museum is Php 250, btw. It's an alright price if you want to get into somewhere that's pretty, aesthetically pleasing too the eyes, the senses and somewhere that's, to me, is pretty relaxing with all the greens and stuff. Oh and I think you can lay around in the beds on its grounds if it's not raining or something at all.
The rest of this Metro Manila trip wasn't as eventful as I'd have liked it to be since I was travelling with someone much older so yep, this is the most I can share for this one.
We did go to the Quiapo Church (I dislike going there any time of day due to the crowd in the area, Quiapo is a super chaotic part of Metro Manila) to hear mass there the Sunday after our sandwiched international trip to somewhere I'll be blogging about later, after this. We also tried some Chinese food in the oldest China Town outside of China in Binondo that's next to Quiapo or very close to Quiapo but we didn't really try the ones from establishments a lot of people rave about like the xiaolongbao and more. I'll do a proper blog of the area and especially the food in the China Town in Binondo next time.
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In this post:
Click on the link above to access and (pre-) book the shuttle transfers on the Klook travel app or site. You can use the voucher to claim the rides when you make it to their designated bay (it's on the outer bay area) in NAIA terminal 3.
Until the next post!
P.S.
It's super near Christmas now. Maybe, yeah, just 4-5 more days but I think I can work on a Christmas gift guide via Shopee PH, Lazada PH, and even some SM Store and Zalora PH ones very quickly in between posting these late travel diaries of sorts. Definitely watch out for that one. It should go live in, like, two days tops.
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