Manila Marriott Hotel
Booked: Standard Guest Room - King Bed
Upgraded to: Junior Suite
MNL Arrival
Since I was flying BI, we arrived in T1 at MNL NAIA. T1 seemed to be recently renovated and was fairly orderly, if a bit small. Immigration and customs took about 15-20 minutes, which wasn't too bad. I changed some money in the terminal to pay the cab (ATM fees were crazy) and I was off.
Taxi
Outside, I easily found the metered taxi (yellow cab) stand and quickly got a car. I directed the driver to drop me at the Manila Marriott and we were off; I could tell he was annoyed to get such a short fare. The ride took around 15 minutes, despite the fact that it was only a 5km drive. It could've been worse. Traffic was light at that time of night. The taxi cost roughly 250PHP ($5 USD) using the meter. I was monitoring most of our route on Google Maps to make sure he wasn't driving in circles or anything, but still the fare was a bit (50-100PHP) more than I was expecting. Not too worried about $1-2 USD.
Security
After passing through the outer security perimeter where the taxi's trunk was checked and given the once over by a bomb sniffing dog, we were allowed to drive up to the front entrance. Then I had to put my bag through an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector to gain entry into the building. I did not remove my watch or phone before going through the metal detector, but I didn't set it off. Perhaps it's all largely for show. Either way, I didn't like it.
Check-In
Once inside, I was informed by the front desk that the hotel was very full that evening, so they'd upgraded me to a suite. Nothing to complain about on that count. I was a bit surprised since I have zero status with Marriott; I guess I just got lucky. They pointed the way to my room and I was off. The room was in the west wing on the 12th floor overlooking the golf course.
Lobby at Night
I must say, the lobby has exceptionally crowded with people when I arrived. There's a wine bar in the lobby, so that's probably part of the reason. Definitely not the calm, quiet environment that most hotel lobbies maintain. It was actually a bit of a zoo, mirroring the streets of Manila near the airport to an extent.
Junior Suite
The room was large, but the fit and finish was not as good as any of the other hotels I'd stayed in recently (e.g. PH Saigon, Raffles Le Royal, etc). It was absolutely fine for a night or two, but I wouldn't make the hotel a destination. One drawback to this room was it adjoined the room next door and the soundproofing was not great. My neighbor was playing loud music for about an hour after I arrived and I could hear it clearly. Luckily, it stopped after a while and I was able to sleep quite well.
The plumbing setup under the wet bar sink (at the far end of the below pic) was disgusting. Instead of a U-bend style sink trap, the waste pipe was interrupted by a huge rectangular metal box (presumably a ridiculously oversized drain trap). When opening the doors to the sink cabinet, sewer gas came wafting out. It was truly disgusting. The stench went away if the doors were kept closed.
Room Service
I ended up staying in and getting room service for the evening. I had it in my mind that I wanted to have Filipino food, but when the time came I was a bit tired and didn't want to risk a disappointing meal. I also was not up for braving the hectic zoo downstairs. So I got a burger from room service. My first and last burger on the entire trip, for what it's worth. It was a pretty good burger, though.
Breakfast Buffet
I was up early, so I got my stuff together and headed down to hit the breakfast buffet (included in the room rate) at 7:30AM. The buffet seating was quite full, but they found me a table quickly. The buffet itself was pretty good. Roughly on par with the Grand Hyatt KL quality-wise, though a somewhat smaller selection. I wasn't overly hungry, so I had scrambled eggs (to order, not the premade swill), a few rolls, four seasons juice and espresso. Everything was good. The stand out was the pan de coco, which was truly excellent. I could eat a thousand of those little things. Ridiculously good.
Convention Craziness
Apparently, the Manila Marriott boasts the largest banquet hall in the Philippines. Yay. So there was some sort of cheerleading competition/event happening that day and there were tons of people around the hotel lobby. Easily 100 people milling about with loud dance music blasting from the banquet hall around the corner.
This is what the non-crowded section of the lobby looked like at 8AM on a Friday.
Don't let the lonely orchids fool you. There were fifty people milling about to the left of that column and a further 50-100 golf bags lined up against the outer wall. The x-ray and metal detector are clearly visible on the other side of the glass in the center of the photo.
Airport Transfer
After breakfast, I checked out and then waited in the lobby for the shuttle to arrive at 8AM. It was prompt and we were off. Not too many people to pick up from the nearby hotels, so I was at the airport by 8:15AM or so. Free and painless.
Shotguns and Assault Rifles
There was a ridiculous amount of security at this and nearby hotels. There were heavy duty metal security gates in front of each hotel entrance. Each was staffed by at least two (federal?) police officers armed with either shotguns or assault rifles and bomb dogs (in some cases). Their presence made me feel significantly less safe than I would have otherwise felt. Now, I realize the Philippines has had issues with terrorism in other parts of the country recently, so I can't blame them for the enhanced security measures. But, it's really not conducive to putting people at ease (at least in this person's opinion), especially when deployed in this manner.
I was in Paris this summer and I remember seeing a heightened federal police presence throughout the city, but they weren't stationed at hotels and their presence didn't unnerve me at all. The way police were deployed in Manila was completely different and it made each hotel feel like a bunker that was under siege. I don't know how to better explain it, but I didn't like it.
Observations
I didn't have high hopes for my time in Manila. I'd heard bad things about MNL Airport, taxi scams, violent crime, etc. But I wanted to see for myself. My short time in Manila was fine. No problems encountered and I didn't really see anything of much interest. Granted, I didn't plan enough time on the ground to accomplish much of anything. The most off-putting part of my visit were the armed police checkpoints around the hotels. That aside, the city felt a bit hectic and disorganized. Moreso than the other cities I'd recently visited.