Friday Night in Makati City

It's 2 pm and I'm recovering from my Friday night.

We (yes, all 3 of us!) started with a series of facials at a clinic in our building after work. Everything from a facial to microdermabrasion to oxegenation peel left us with clean faces that were smooth as porcelain. All for $120. I even tried a laser resurfacing technique. The changes were quite dramatic. Who knew our faces were so filthy to begin with (although we knew the pollution here doesn't help)?

We found a restaurant in our building that is now our favorite place for lunch. It's called Gaster Deli and it's never busy. We're able to get a great meal (e.g., wagyu burger, pasta, salad, sandwiches) quickly and with great service. On Friday nights they have a wine buffet for $14 per head (for some reason they don't say "per person" here...it's "per head"). Last night it was 4 wines from Argentinia's Santa Julia winery and 2 from Spain's Rene Barbier. And canapes of tuna kebab (very tasty), smoked sirloin, eggplant bruchetta, salmon and egg crostini, etc. "Buffet" meant that we could eat and drink as much as we want, which we quickly realized was going to be a problem.

The first 20 minutes had us flying through 4 wines and at least 2 or 3 plates of food. Every time we finished a glass, our waitress (this was our third meal in 2 days here) was there replenishing. We were feeling pretty good! The favorite wine was the Santa Julia Shiraz/Malbec, which we could buy for $7. Either the exchange rate is really good or this was an incredible value. Too bad I just bought 15 bottles of wine from my Sonoma wine trip in April.

To top off a great meal and wine, we found out they sell Cuban cigars. Since I've never had a Cuban, Brett had to introduce me to them. So I had a Punch Coronation and Brett taught me how to properly smoke a Cuban (in the 4 times or so I've smoked a cigar in my life, no one really showed me how - thanks Brett!).

The wine plus the cigar buzz = me having to put my head on the table as the world was moving just too fast! An hour of drinking water while laughing with my head on the table (there are photos....not sure if I'll post them), I felt much better. At least I didn't pass out or get sick. Yeah, the Filipinos walking by were staring, but so what?

Here's a photo...I'm not that embarrassed about this b/c I was not passed out and I do have a smile on my face. :-) I needed to use Emily as my post. Probably the world was spinning to some extent. LOL!

Brett bought Romeo y Julieta cigars for the road since the restaurant closed at 11. We then proceeded to the Hard Rock Cafe across the street since we heard a decent band covering Journey the night before. The Hard Rock has a nice smoking section with closed circuit TVs to watch the band. The first band was decent. The second band was the Filipino of the Pussycat Dolls. Beautiful women, skimpy clothing, suggestive dancing and the same songs to boot. They also favored singing Fergie and getting people to dance with them. We have photos and videos of the girls...how could we not? Here's a link to a video shot by Emily.

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=ngsqhk&s=3

Addendum: The group is called Mocha and they're considered to be one of the hottest girl groups from the Philippines. They're made up of girls named Mocha (lead), Bambie, Hershey, Grace and Bez. LOL!

We closed the joint at 2:30 am and the cigar buzz returned with a vengeance. I couldn't sleep. I felt like crap. Plus my room was freezing because I turned on the A/C before I left since they sprayed my room for cockroaches earlier in the day (I've seen 2 and had to complain). Luckily our volcano tour was canceled today due to rain and I finally got some sleep. I just woke up at 2 pm, feeling much better.

Not sure what we'll do this afternoon and evening. May be doing some shopping since there's not much else we need to see in Manila. We hope the tour will take place tomorrow. Let's hope for better weather!