Breakfast: tomato soup, really a thickened clear broth with
bits of tomato; fried bangus (milkfish), bony but tasty; and
penne pesto.

We walked down Ayala yet again (despite lili's saying that
she never wanted to see that street again, with its roots
and stumps and vendors of fishy-smelling things), because I
needed stamps for my postcards, and what hotel desk doesn't
sell stamps? this one.

The post office, a local landmark, is at the corner of Ayala
and Malugay (I persisted in calling it malunggay, which
means horseradish), or so we thought. There's a door on
Malugay with a signboard outside "Manila Post Office," so in
we went, only to find that it was the employee entrance. No
worries, the guard led us through the mail sorting rooms and
to the public lobby, where I got my stamps and all was well.

The Yuchengco Museum is right near there, and it sounded
interesting. The Yuchengcos are a wealthy old Filipino
Chinese clan, and the museum, in the Rizal Bank building,
is mostly a collection of the family's stuff. On the top
floor is a history of the bank and a paean to the patriarch
Alfonso, with the obligatory shrine to Rizal. Downstairs are
the art collection, with a more modern or experimental focus
than the other museums. I found few things to admire, but
the sculptures and the small traditional textiles display
were kind of interesting. The price is P100, a bit steep
considering the National Museums cost only P150. Allow half
to one hour, probably not more.

When we got back to the hotel we discovered we'd been locked
out of our room. This was fixed promptly, and it was close
to checkout anyhow. We got our traps together and trundled
them down and had a bunch of beers.

A cab to the airport came when ordered and got us there in a
real jiffy, it being a weekend.

As you need a boarding pass to get in the building, outside
was a mess, with people waiting for their people, milling
around, trying to sell stuff, and so on. For those with the
fancy blue passport at least, the initial security was
negligible.

A long line at the Jetstar checkin showed that it hadn't
opened yet, so we waited for half an hour until that
happened. The line is a lot shorter for people who have
pre-web-checked-in; it's to the left.

The second security was negligible as well, as was payment
of the exit fee (P550 - Internet reports anything between 0
and 750). Emigration was easy, though lili got slightly held
up for some unknown reason.

Terminal 1 is in the throes of major renovation. You can
see that it aspires to be a mini-Changi, but there's a way
to go. It's not so horrid as people claim, but food and
diversions are scanty.

I was not entitled to access to any of the lounges here, as
I was not on either a OneWorld or a Star flight; lili is,
through Priority Pass, and she gets to have a guest admitted
for $27, while the public a la carte price is $20 (P894).
What's with that? I paid the fee, still having a bunch of
pesos left, and we went in. Some time later, one of the
attendants chased me down with my 6 pesos change.

Bargain hunters note: there are also the middle-class lounge
at P650 and what is apparently another lounge at P450. It is
said that the 650 has better booze but worse internet.

The room: reasonably attractive, pretty comfortable seating
in adequate quantity. Good lighting and interesting reading
material (newspapers, magazines, airline magazines).

Catering:

a murky soup served with mantou; this looked unappetizing
enough that I didn't bother even trying;

penne carbonara was like mac and cheese with bits of deli
ham loaf - bland but probably comforting enough for a
particularly unadventurous segment of the western clientele;

industrial but palatable roast pork buns of which I had two.

A chocolate brownie was extremely mediocre but Tanduay rum,
also not so special on its own, made it terrific.

Blueberry panna cotta was somewhat better but ever more
dairyful.

Napoleon VSOP from the oldest Philippine distillery,
whose name shall be discreetly and forgottenly unnamed,
was pretty nasty. This bottle oddly carried a label "Makati
Supermarket Alambang P210.50." What the lounge was doing
buying booze retail I haven't a clue. The product is raw
and uncouth - not worth the calories.

Other liquors, neither generic nor top shelf, were also
available, as was a cooler with San Mig, Tiger, and soft
drinks.