Berjaya.2

Last week a short note was left on my email by a girlfriend (based overseas), saying she was in the country for  a short visit and would I please call her in the hotel. Which hotel?, she missed to specify. Four months ago, she was also here for a short visit. I called-up Berjaya Hotel where she stayed last time and bingo she was there!

Needless to say_ she had a satisfying stay the last time that she didn't think twice to book here again for another 5 day stay. In fairness, this Berjaya in Makati Ave. might come so quirky (cos of it's ridiculously slim structure) from the outside, but inside_ the rooms are actually a lot better than some old 5 star hotels'  rooms in the metro. In size and  in neatness.

I just thought the room was actually in many ways useless to my friend. Except for me_ chilling there, the room had only been used as 3 hours sleep bed per day and for freshening-up.




If not out for shopping and dining, my girlfriend was busy in the internet. The complimentary LAN connection inside the room was unused cos she forgot her laptop and iPad at home. Neither she missed to mention to me to bring along a laptop for her when I came out of my suburban cave to accompany her stay.




This business nook in the lobby of the hotel became her temp. office. haha.




For a price ofcourse.




When the weekend came, the lobby was always full of luggage with a lot of guests checking-in. Couldn't believe how popular this hotel to the whites.

Berjaya Manila Hotel

Needless to say_ summer 2011 in Ph. has ended. Last week, rains started to occur daily and seemingly here to stay for the next 9 months. Yet, my family is a little still in denial, cos this week as the last leg of vacation, we still have scheduled out of town trips and one of these is a beach trip. So brave to beach in a rainy first week of June!!

How about a staycation ( just so I could use the word myself , which is flooding over blogs now a days:))), here's one of my in-towns this summer.




Berjaya Manila Hotel is in the middle of the bustling Makati Avenue. Oh don't look out to search which building it is among those. I swear you can't find it, cos I was inside the hotel, on the 21st floor when I took this photo, haha.
You know how Makati Avenue is lined- up by quirky tall and slim hotels. Berjaya, Manila is one them, but I think it's one of the newer ones if not the newest by the time of my visit this summer.
I've seen better versions of this hotel in Singapore and Malaysia branches. I think this one here in Manila is the smallest one and modest indeed compared to its sisters.

A friend who is based abroad came home to visit Manila this summer and her first choice to stay at was Berjaya Manila Hotel. It was simply because once in her lifetime, she was an employee of this company which has series of hotels and resorts around the globe. Ofcourse, she did score a great deal of discounts and yes I was invited to stay with her.

Nothing to rave about the room of the hotel. Everything there_ was generic. I've seen the same bed, floor and the rest of it in other hotels around. But the freshness and neatness of a brand new hotel was very imminent and made me forgot it's not a mainstream hotel.

Internet connection was greatest. It's not the usual low signal wi-fied , but has LAN!

The indoor pool at the 5th floor was a simple dipping pool but because there was no single soul other than the three of us ( me and my 2 girls) using the facility. .




. . we got to enjoy the sunny-less pool freely. It was by the way in the midst of the hottest summer and the roof preventing us from burning our skin was totally great.




My daughters had a good time chilling at the small jacuzzi beside the pool.

There was no dining outlet at the poolside, but you could call their in-house restaurant located at the ground floor to bring you food at the pool area.




Going back to the room, we did take a glimpse of the lobby and realized why the bareness of crowd that day.




It was a Maunday Thursday. A biblical film clip was showing at the lobby but no audience was around. My country is prominently Catholic religious, during Holy Week, people here are either in the church or in this modern time, in the beaches which we got a lot to be proud of. Exactly, why I choose to staycation instead of taking a tedious out of town trip and squeezing in the uberly crowded beach scenes at that time of the year. The following day, it was Good Friday, we checked out and spent the whole day in the church observing the holy day.




Rainy season is up. Staycation in a hotel nearby is I guess a practical choice to unwind this season of rain and typhoon.