Photo courtesy of The HouseKeeper (Creative Commons)
Fall is just around the corner, which means that we are finally working out the details of our long-awaited winter getaway to the Philippines. Although I was born in Manila, I was primarily raised in Vancouver, and it’s been over 20 years since I’ve been back to visit the homeland. Can’t wait to introduce my husband to a tropical experience and to rediscover my heritage!
My husband has been doing most of the travel planning thus far. I’ve been more focussed on teaching him rudimentary Filipino than figuring out how to pass the time (since my fall-back response would be “eating”). However, we have gotten this far with our travel agenda:
- Christmas - Jan 2: Family quality time in Metro Manila
- Jan 3 - 7: Hiking about in Northern Luzon
- Jan 8 - 12: Splashing about in the Visayas
- Jan 13 - 14: Gambling about in Macau
- Jan 15 - 19: Touring about in Hong Kong
Throughout all this, of course, we expect to be indulging in as much of the local cuisine as we can possibly digest. There are culinary tours and food festivals in some of the regions that we’ll be visiting, but we’ll probably peruse the tour packages as a guideline and rely upon our eyes, our noses, and your recommendations instead.
What should we see and eat?
We’ll be booking our round trip flights this week but are still in the process of cementing just what we’ll do in the Philippines and Hong Kong. If you have any recommendations for accommodations, places to eat, and places to see that are off the beaten path, please leave me a comment!
As we figure out these logistics with your help, I’ll leave you with a taste of Asia from my last trip to Hong Kong and Macau.
Rice Paper
The Hong Kong Thai fusion restaurant that ruined me for Thai food in Vancouver. It’s a beautifully laid out venue with an entire wall face of glass that looked out over the harbour. My culinary planner for the week had arranged a 7:30pm reservation so that we could catch the breathtaking light show during our meal.
The food was one of the most memorable of that week. My colleagues had favourite dishes so they ordered plate after plate of Thai food that I had never before encountered (at home, we usually don’t veer far from the pad thai and curries that one normally sees on North American menus). Faves: a crab noodle dish that came highly recommended; the pomelo salad; the beef with red rice; the experience of rolling up my own rice paper roll of roasted duck and guava.
EOD Cafe
Small Makanese restaurant near my relative’s flat in Macau. Simple, homestyle stuff, but I’d take my husband here in a heartbeat.
Tin Hau
Food stalls along Electric Road wink at you from every corner. The best vegetarian dim sum and congee I’ve ever had to date was found in this vibrant Hong Kong neighbourhood.
More about this trip:
- Hong Kong travel diary: Day 1
- Hong Kong travel diary: Day 2
- Hong Kong travel diary: Day 3
- Hong Kong travel diary: Day 4
- Hong Kong travel diary: Day 5
- Hong Kong travel diary: Day 6
- Hong Kong travel diary: Day 7