Some photos of the condotel and surrounding streets for those of you wondering where I'm staying.First a view out of my bedroom onto the balcony and across the courtyard to the unit opposite.
The contrast in this shot is knackered because I'm shooting from a darkened bedroom into full sunlight. I can't quite get the impression of faded grandeur across but the ironwork on the balcony is quite cute as well as providing ample space for hanging your undies after doing the washing.
Immediately outside my room is quite a good view across local rooftops to palm trees and on a clear day the skyscrapers of Makati in the far distance.
Below is the condo shrine to St Francis of the Mezzanine, the patron saint of roaches.
After passing St Francis on the left, you cross the balcony into the restaurant and videoke bar areas. To the enormous disappointment of the girls working there I've so far managed to forget to visit the bar in the evenings. Videoke indeed. Bah Humbug.
The view below is the front of the condotel seen from across the street - the balcony and restaurant are visible above the blue parasols. This photo gives you a good idea of the sort of vegetation you see at the side of streets. There's also a view in the same direction from about a hundred yards away from the junction, beyond a small stall selling sweets and tobacco.
Turning around to walk directly away from the hotel here's a view up the street opposite. More lush roadside vegetation and big shiny 4x4s. Not a poor area! The apartments visible at the end are also to rent but for longer periods, typically 6 month minimum lets.
Here's a typical house in the neighbourhood with beautiful manicured garden. Two girls were sweeping the lawn free of leaves when I arrived but made themselves very scarce on seeing the camera!
Walking up to the apartments and turning left takes you towards the main high street in this part of Quezon. The taller trees at the end of the view mark the junction with the high street and under these the taxicle drivers shelter during the day waiting for customers. Taxicle = taxi tricycle. The taxicles are all colour coded so that the regulatory authorities can easily spot a driver straying out of his or her designated area. They're white in this part of the city but yellow further across near Ali Mall.
On the right of the junction there's a small corner shop where I buy among other things camera batteries.
Walking to the taxicle stop and turning right, up the high street here's a view looking back down towards the taxicle stand. I love the spreading tree. Towards the bottom of the hill on the right you can see the empty concrete shell of what was supposed to become the new city hall. This has been in this state for some years now and the project is under investigation for corruption... Presumably someone got paid for the concrete though!
Turning round to look uphill we're almost at the big junction with the main road. This is where I've been catching the Jeepney in the mornings. Across the road is the local big supermarket.
Walking back downhill there are a couple of nice restaurants, most notably the Treehouse which does a fabulous fish curry (skate off the bone with coconut milk, green chilis and basil) and whose security guards sit round in the evenings playing blues in the car park. Hand-guns and guitars by moonlight.
Continuing downhill there's the Kowloon (pronounced distressingly by the locals as 'colon') House on the left. This is a massive Chinese restaurant and they have a counter which opens late for soup and noodles if you like that kind of thing. Which I do. You can also get Sausage Pao and a Royal In Can. I didn't try the 'Assorted Cold Cuts'. Sounded too much like 'Curry Of Meat' to me. There's absolutely no 'Sweat and Sore ball of Pig' though.
Past Kowloon House and turning left by the KFC opposite the city hall building I snapped the sleeping guy... Doubtless waiting for his next helping of (allegedly delicious) fried Chicken.
This takes you back to the Mocha Blends coffee shop and the condotel - here's the view along past the condotel.
