Goldilocks' Polvoron

Second time to have a business trip to Philippines, everything is so familiar to me, never expect that so fast i'm here again. What a surprise that the Vivere Hotel's workers still remember me, indeed a five stars service. :)

This time i buy some Goldilocks's polvoron (a Spanish word) which is a type of heavy, soft and very crumbly Spanish shortbread. Polvorones are popular in all Spain and Latin America and other ex-Spanish colonies, just like Philippines.

There are many different flavours of polvoron, such as coffee crumble, pinpig, cashew, peanut, cookies and cream.

polvorons

I've bought two packets of peanut flavour as i tried it before, really taste good.



peanut flavour




mixed flavour




coffee crumble flavour

 

Halloween Celebration in Vivere Hotel

As we know, 85% of Filipinos are Christian hence no doubt that they are celebrating Halloween on 31st OCT every year. So while i was in Philippines, almost every corner of the hotel was decorated with little pumpkins...

On the actual day, there was a Halloween celebration in Vivere Hotel's ballroom for all the guests but unfortunately my flight back to Singapore was on 29th OCT so unable to join this special occasion.  :(

Besides that, there is a special promotion from Sky Lounge (a restaurant in Vivere Hotel) for Drink of the Month and Dessert of the Month.....With an order of Drink of the Month, a free little pumpkin will be given as a souvenier...



Drink of the Month - mixed fruit juice

  

Dessert of the Month ......YUMMY!!

In order to get more little pumpkins, i ordered the Drink of the Month everytime i had my dinner in Sky Lounge. Eventually i brought back 4 pumpkins....hehe.. very cute, right?

little pumpkins

Halloween party is very fun with all kinds of special costumes, hope i have the chance to join the party next time....

Delicious Philippino Food

Almost three weeks in Phlippines, sure i had tried some philippino food. Now, let me introduce to you one by one, my number one favourite food isssss............... Pancit Palabok. It is actually a Filipino noodle dish of Chinese origin, called as palabok because of the thin rice noodles are covered with a bright colored orange shrimp-flavoured thick sauce. Aside from the sauce, pancit palabok has a toppings of prawns, wedge cut hard-boiled eggs, chicharon (pork cracklings), flaked tinapa (smoke fish), fried garlic and chopped of green onions. Then finished it with squeezing lemon all over. Wah, it makes me feeling hungry now.....

Pancit Palabok

The second goes to Halo-halo, a popular Filipino dessert which is a mixture of shaved ice, evaporated milk, sweet beans and fruits, and then served in a tall glass or bowl. It is exactly like the 'ice-kacang' in Malaysia. No doubt that this mouth-watering dessert is the favourite of the kids because of its colourful looking. While i was eating halo-halo in the restaurant, the kid who was sitting in front of me kept starring at my halo-halo, i felt very 'paiseh' but still kept on enjoying it....haha... :P

Halo-halo

The third one is 'Leche-Flan' or Filipino custard which i have mentioned before in the post of Leslies Restaurant in Tagaytay , a very popular dessert in Phillipines.

Leche-flan

Well, there are also some very special Filipino food like balut which is commonly sold as streetfood in Philippines. Balut is a fertilized duck or chicken egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. Besides, it is popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered as a high-protein, hearty snack. Another type of balut which is fried until golden brown, they called it Kwek-kwek.

balut

kwek-kwek

So after seeing the picutre of balut, do you brave enough to eat? I'm not dare to eat both type of balut as found uneasy to eat the small chick insides........ >.<

Besides, they eat also small worm/bug. I tried few of them, it was a bit salty....

small worm

Next is Puto, it is a a type of steamed rice cake, taste a bit sweet..

puto

Last is fried kangkung, i guess you never tried it before. It tastes good, very crispy, you would certainly want more after trying....

crispy kangkung

So which one will be your choice?

Palace in the sky - Tagaytay

After lunch, we headed to our next destination, 'Palace in the sky' which was an unfinished mansion of Philippine former President, Ferdinand Marcos. Now it is opened for public and is renamed as People's Park in the Sky.  Since it is situated in one of the highest places in Tagaytay, it offers the majestic view of the Taal Lake and Taal Volcano.

We took jeepney to go up to the Palace of sky. Jeepney is a very popular means of public transportation in the Philippines, they were originally made from US military jeeps left over from World War II and are well known for their flamboyant decoration and crowded seating. My first time to experience jeepney was just like the feel of sitting in the 'tutu' car in Thailand.

Jeepney

From the Palace of sky, you can see very beautiful tagaytay view besides the taal lake and volcano. I like the cool and refreshing air over there which makes me feeling extremely pleasant and calm...

breathtaking view from Palace in the sky

garden

Jesus statue

Before leaving, don't forget to buy some souveniers. There is a street in the building selling various kinds of souveniers, you can easily get what you want over there. For me, i just bought two clothes as souveniers, one for me and one for my husband.

It was really a pleasant trip to Tagaytay, i love it!! Thanks to my 'pare' who spend their precious time for accompanying me.... :)

Leslies Restaurant in Tagaytay

Besides the beautiful scenery in Tagaytay, the food in Leslies Restaurant also thumbs up. We arrived there close to 12pm but could you imagine that no seat for us, it was full house inside, ending up we had waited 20 minutes to have the seats. My two 'pare' (buddy in Filipino) had ordered some local food for me to try.... Don't drool after seeing the picture..yummy, yummy!!

See, this one looks like cheesecake right? They call it 'Leche-Flan' or Filipino custard which is a popular dessert in Phillipines, the ingredients are only egg yolks, condensed milk and caramel, but the taste is heavenly good, melt in ur mouth. :D

Leche-Flan

Next one is Seafood Bicol Express, it is a little bit spicy. Not only nice to see but nice to eat....hehe..

Seafood Bicol Express

Then comes the Sizzling Sisig, just found out that it is a dish made from parts of pig’s head and liver. OMG, i have eanten it?? =.= But that day what i ate was only pork....let me clarify with my 'pare' tomorrow, I can't imagine if i have really eaten the pig's head and liver??? @@

Next dish is Tortang Talong which is just like eggplant-omelette, a simple dish that cooks the eggplants together with the eggs. The point is the eggplant never cut into pieces but roast it until slightly burnt, remove the skin and then flatten the meat with a fork and mix with the egg. It is really a very different way of cooking compared to our cooking method.

Going to next is the beef soup, it should be taste good i think as my 'pares' like to drink very much. As a buddhist, i never take it, see will be enough..... :P

beef soup

Besides enjoying the nice food, we had a drink over there. These two are my 'pare', tour guide of the day...haha....very friendly and sometimes very funny... :D



my pare


After seeing all these food, feel like want to try them out?? According to my 'pare', leslie restaurant is quite popular in Tagaytay because of its delicious food and nice volcano view. So don't miss out this place when you visit there...... :)

Taal Volcano in Tagaytay

Yeah! i managed to visit Taal Volcano in Tagaytay during my first weekend in Philippine. Before this, my friend had told me that it is a must-to-go place as you'll never see the volcano in Malaysia or Singapore. So i was extremely excited when my two friendly collegues offered themselves to become my tour guide of the day. Hehe. Really thanked to them very very much. :)

This is the volcano. Can you see it?

Taal Volcano

Actually we never went near to the crater of the volcano as i was told that the expensese was quite expensive and you'll have to hike for few hours to reach the crater. So we went to Leslies Restaurant in Tagaytay which provides a good view of the Taal volcano while we can also have our delicious lunch over there. Besides, Tagaytay is also a popular tourist destination because of its cool climate due to its high altitude.

 These are the beautiful view from the restaurant..

Leslies Restaurant

small volcano on my hand...haha.. xD

Luckily the wheather of the day was very good so that i could capture such beautiful photos. Hehe. :P

Beautiful night view of Manila

Inside the Vivere Hotel, there is only one restaurant which located at the 31st floor (the highest floor) so basically for my first week of stay i had the dinner at the skylounge everyday. Eat until i wanna vomit already as day day western food and the portion is too much for me, not sure if i have gained weight or not after few weeks here. =.=

entrance to skylounge..

Beautiful night view from skylounge...

Morning view from my room, floor 27th..





Besides, the hotel is well-equipped with amenities like swimming ppol, gym, jacuzzi, sauna and spa but unfortunately i have no time to enjoy them until now. Maybe i'll try them out this evening...hehe...

Vivere Hotel in Philippines

Finally i'm a bit free to update my Philippine trip. Reached here last Tuesday and i had a very bad experience in the Manila aiport and annoyed me upon my arrival. You will hardly to believe that the guard asked for the laptop tax, this was first time i heard that ppl who brought the laptop need to pay tax. >.< Of course, i had questioned him what is the reason for me to pay the tax since i only visit philippine for few days and that is my own laptop and is not new. He still confidently told me that it was the rules to pay the tax. Then i argued with him for few minutes and asked him to show me the proof and as expected he can't show me. So just a reminder to all, be careful if you are coming to philippine, there are some ppl who may take the advantage of tourists to earn more money....

Luckily the angry feeling was immediately washed away by the enthusiastic welcome of the hotel staff upon my arrival in Vivere Hotel. Their service are really very very good, all the staff are extremely kind and always greet you with a big smile. I just can't resist to praise them... :)

Here is the hotel entrance..

This is the hotel lobby..

I'm staying at floor 27th..

Let's go to take a look at my room.....  The hotel staff told me that my room was upgraded to suite without extra charge, i was so happy to hear that but after that i met another ST collegue from France, he told me that the hotel staff also telling him the same story the time he checked in. Hmm...we doubt that if our room were really upgraded or just a strategy of the hotel. But anyway, i'm very satisfied with this room.... :)

Philippine is well-known for its sweet tasting manges, so don't forget to have a taste of the mangoes here if you are coming to Philippine...