Grass triangles

"The Bermuda Triangle got tired of warm weather. It moved to Alaska. Now Santa Claus is missing."

~Steven Wright, American comedian

CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY: TRIANGLES • Four triangles of nipa palm leaves make up the roof of Sofitel Manila's Sunset Bar.

Tag-init, the hot season—also known as "summer" even though we don't have the other three seasons—arrived in the Philippines last week and our temperatures in Metro Manila are already hitting 32˚C/90˚F. I want to go to the beach!!!

VIP

It looks like a golden fortress to me from outside, but apparently, Maxims Hotel at Resorts World Manila is the most luxurious hotel in the metro to date. It only has suites and each is assigned a butler who is on call 24-hours a day to take care of guests' every need. Wow.

Row houses

The Marriott Hotel Manila, which is in Pasay City, looks like a row of tall, narrow buildings standing shoulder to shoulder. I think it's charming.

Not eternal

A dreary morning at the runway of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport's Terminal 3, exclusive to Philippine Airlines and its low-budget Airphil Express. Only the yellow tail of rival Cebu Pacific Air's plane and its matching yellow hangar evoked the sunshine of the summer just past.

Land under construction

THEME DAY: UNDER CONSTRUCTION • The Cultural Center of the Philippines (including Sofitel Manila and Harbour Square which are in the same complex), SM Mall of Asia (currently the 4th largest mall in the world), and many of the luxury residential condominium buildings in Pasay City with fantastic views of Manila Bay and its gorgeous sunsets, all stand on land reclaimed from the sea. And it looks as if the sea is still trying to get some of it back.




What is man constructing all over the world? Let City Daily Photo bloggers show you. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Unknown jungle

A view of Pasay City from a balcony of Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila. Except for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, I rarely have reason to go to Pasay and know next to nothing about it.

Hi there!

THEME DAY: REFLECTIONS • Just having fun (again) with the mirrored ceiling of Sofitel Manila's 7Pecados by the Bay.



See the world in mirror images through the lens of CDP bloggers. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Leisurely breakfast

I've already shown you the striking spiral sculpture and staircase of Sofitel Manila's Spiral restaurant. We are looking inside from its outdoor dining deck, which is perfect for an early morning breakfast when it's not the rainy season. The sound of falling water from this ornamental reflecting pool and from the waterfall of the lagoon-shaped swimming pool is very soothing.

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

Beat the heat

The waterfall feature of Sofitel Manila's lagoon-shaped swimming pool. Exceptionally tempting right now since the Philippines is in the middle of summer, which usually begins in March and ends in May.

Natural or man-made, take a refreshing dip in Watery Wednesday.

There will be darkness

SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City is currently the Philippines' second and the world's fourth largest shopping mall, with a floor area of 390,000 square meters (4.2 million square feet) in 42 hectares of land reclaimed from Manila Bay. Tonight, this whole area will be plunged in darkness, at least for an  hour, for Earth Hour 2010.

8:30 P.M. • SATURDAY • 27 MARCH 2010

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

Good afternoon. Good morning.

The Philippine Plaza's lagoon-shaped swimming pool has been famous in Metro Manila since the 1970s when National Artist for Architecture Leandro Locsin designed it for the Westin group. In 2005, Sofitel took over its operations and refurbished the entire hotel, including the pool which now has bright blue tiles.



Sofitel Manila has every right to boast that it is Metro Manila's only resort hotel. With twelve acres of landscaped gardens beside Manila Bay, it is easy to forget that the big, bustling metropolis is just a kilometer away.

Natural or man-made, take a refreshing dip in Watery Wednesday.

Floating fish

We saw a new restaurant in Harbour Square during our last visit, but afloat on Manila Bay rather than being a part of the complex. Does it look like it can actually sail? Even if it doesn't, if the dining area overlooks the bay, it might still be worth trying out. Mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) is a large fish found in warm seas; its flesh is firm, white and very tasty.

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

I feel like howling

A full moon over the Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila. Sofitel is located in the same complex as the Cultural Center of the Philippines and overlooks Manila Bay and its beautiful sunsets. Its flagship restaurant is Spiral, famous in the metro for its huge buffet spread. Its bar, 7Pecados by the Bay, I've featured quite a few times already.

Visit the Sky Watch Friday home page and tour the skies of our beautiful world.

There was a crooked man

Ballet Manila (see yesterday's post), aside from principal ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, may not be as technically proficient as Ballet Philippines but it has done more to make ballet accessible to the masses. They choose pieces with strong story lines, tickets cost a fraction of Ballet Philippines', and when you do buy a ticket, you also get a free all-day pass to Star City, the indoor-outdoor amusement park right beside the Aliw Theater. I confess though that I've never been inside. The most I've done is walk down that sidewalk and if it weren't for Arabesque, I would never have noticed just how funky their doorways are.

Unbelievable

Would you believe hundreds of 16 to 18 year old first year college students orderly and patiently lined up to watch a ballet? By the time Ballet Manila's performance started in the Aliw Theater, there were about a thousand of them. And even more astounding, they actually enjoyed it! Tomorrow, I'll show you why.

Split hull

I do not know anything about this boat, even its name, which was just a string of numbers that my brain refused to remember. I just like how catamarans look. It was docked near Harbour Square last weekend when we went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines to watch The Nutcracker performed by Ballet Philippines and accompanied by the Manila Symphony Orchestra.

Spirals

Since we're already at Sofitel Philippine Plaza, let's take a peek at Spiral, the hotel's flagship restaurant. It is one of the most popular buffet restaurants in Metro Manila, with open cooking stations and the widest array of multi-cuisine dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the lovely spiral staircase that leads from the lobby to the restaurant, and its unusual and very striking spiral sculpture.

Waiting to leave

Back in November, I mentioned in a post about its arrivals waiting area that only passengers are allowed inside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). This means that everyone with international flights have to show their tickets and passports before they can even enter the building. Despite having a separate entrance for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), on very busy days the line of passengers snaking its way towards the entrance can be so long it spills over onto the driveway.