The Peninsula Hotel in Manila – An 11-year-old’s experience

What do you do when the kid wants to join the family business? You celebrate! As an addition to our weekly posts, Bailey will provide her take on how our travel has been for her. We’ve always said, that if you really want to experience something for the first time, see it through the eyes of a child. Here’s Bailey’s first post:

The Peninsula Manila

It was a HOT, HUMID DAY. My parents and I had just landed on a plane in Manila from Boracay. As we were riding the escalator down to the front of the airport, I spotted a man holding up a sign that read Peninsula Hotel Manila I knew right away, that he was there for us. My parents had previously told me where we were staying. In just 5 minutes, a nice car came to pick us up and drive us over to the hotel.

From the very start, I was reluctant about visiting the Philippines. Our first stop, Boracay left a good impression but wait ’til you hear my story HERE…

It took about an hour to get to where the hotel is located. I just chilled in the [what I like to call] “Aircon-ed”* car. I saw the front entrance of the place as we got close, and even from afar it was obviously clean. It took another 10 minutes to actually get THERE. That’s how bad the traffic was.

Yeah Aircon!

I was relieved when we finally got there. Immediately, 2 nice ladies welcomed us and escorted us from the car to the hotel entrance. I felt like a Hollywood superstar! I was getting slightly more excited… As the doormen opened the doors, I felt the aircon IN MY FACE. I was in HEAVEN.

So Fancy!

There was a model of the sun on the ceiling, a great looking restaurant, beautiful plants and trees, all up front in the lobby. We never had to do all the things we usually do when we arrive at a hotel because the ladies checked us in!! The bellhops took our luggage without us having to ask whatsoever. There’s an Hermes, Bvlgari, and lots of other jewelry shops… SO FANCY! There are also 5 other restaurants and a live orchestra. Did I mention that?

We headed upstairs with the ladies, whose names were Claire and Grace. I entered the room and saw A HUGE COUCH AND TV RIGHT AWAY. There were actually 2 TV’s, a fruit bowl, BEAUTIFUL custom-made chocolates, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a king size bed, a single bed for me, and OSCAR DE LA RENTA SOAP … CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! The room was bigger than my NYC APARTMENT!!

My brain told me to “TAKE PICTURES!”, so I did. When I finished, I took a big chunk off one of the chocolates, laid down on the bed, and searched for my favorite channel in the Philippines, DIVA. The Million Dollar Critic was on, YAY! I just relaxed. I WAS JUST SOOOO HAPPY!!!!! When I tried to walk, I started skipping! I couldn’t help myself. It was nonstop hyper-ness.

Soon, my parents and I went to dinner. I was also anticipating seeing my cousin and his mom that night. I used to see them every day and I hadn’t seen them for a month! My parents and I ate at the restaurant in the lobby with my dad’s friend. I had a pasta, and my parents and their friend got Kare-Kare and a bunch of other Filipino food. I did NOT feel like Filipino food after Boracay. I knew this was the right place to get a good pasta… At about 10:30 pm, I was just chilling [again] watching tv, and I got a call that my cousin was there!!! 🙂 I was so happy! He came up the elevator and we immediately started playing crazy games…

My cousin was SUPER jet lagged.

We also went down for an hour, so he could eat. He was SUPER jet lagged because he came from New York, but we stayed playing in my room until midnight anyway. All summer, I’ve been going to sleep way too late… I’m pretty sure all you kids do that too when you’re not in school. I would fall asleep at 2 am or something. I loved watching Elmo’s World and all those baby shows before I went to sleep. They were still quite funny!

My cousins, nieces, and aunts [that live in Manila] came over the next day. I had PLENTY of fun with my cousins in the pool! We were first in there for about an hour. Next, we went to my room and had a feast! The big room was very helpful for all the visitors! We played an extremely intense game of UNO. It was so fun! The loser got no ice cream… 😛 Then, we went back to the pool to play for another 4 hours. In the middle of it all, my older cousin and her kids [my nieces] came along to play with us. After, we went upstairs to wash up, play more intense games of UNO, Hide and Seek, and Charades; they were absolutely the MOST FUN GAMES I’VE EVER PLAYED!

Yet another thing I LOVED about the Peninsula was Escolta… One of the other five restaurants that are in the Peninsula. We had breakfast there everyday!! They had all my favorite foods… From Filipino to Italian… It seemed unlimited! I had ICE CREAM every morning, which was EPIC, and I got many refills!! ;D [I even made ice cream sandwiches using waffles and syrup!]

ALL CHOCOLATE AND OREO FLAVORED STUFF

And on top of ALL THAT, we got invited to a Sunday Brunch one day! I woke up, all excited that we were going to have even more epic food… We skipped breakfast that day, so we could be as hungry as possible to fill ourselves up with all the deliciousness! I had about 4 PLATES of different kinds of food! I got some lamb, rice, pork, ravioli, cold cuts, pizza, and MUCH MORE!! The whole entire dessert table was basically full of cookies-and-cream flavored treats! I COULDN’T WAITTT! I had cheesecake, mousse, and even Panna Cotta! ALL CHOCOLATE AND OREO FLAVORED STUFF, OF COURSE! Abile (my stuffed moose that I travel everywhere with) really enjoyed the Panna Cotta!

On our last day, my parents and my cousin’s parents [the ones from nyc] decided to try out Halo-Halo at the Peninsula Cafe in the lobby, because they’re famous for it! My cousin and I weren’t so big on that idea, so we had Cookies and Cream ice cream. We got 2 scoops each with WHIPPED CREAM ON TOP, because it sounded AMAZING, plus we could use a treat of one extra scoop because it was our last day… Had we known that 2 scoops in the lobby is equivalent to 10 SCOOPS DURING BREAKFAST, we wouldn’t have gotten 2 scoops!!! IT WAS SOOO TASTY!!! 😀 I LOVED IT! I couldn’t finish, neither could he, but for next time, we know the size of scoops in the lobby! ;P

Staying at The Peninsula Manila truly made my Manila experience 100x better than it would’ve been…well…if I didn’t stay there. I love the location and all the amenities. So, if you ever get the chance to go to Manila, I say you should stay for at least a night or two there. It’s great for kids and their parents! I hope you enjoyed my first post and I hope you travel at least every summer, because, without travel, life can get tiring..! 🙂

Enjoy life,
Bailey ;D.

P. S. for more details on travel in Manila please visit my mom’s travel guide: Brenda’s short travel guide to Manila