Our last days in the Philippines were spent back in Manila. It was busy and slightly chaotic trying to spend time with family, last bit of shopping and packing. We had a great trip back in the motherland but it was also time to go back home after a few weeks away. I’ve also never been so grateful to be back home after a frustrating airport/flight experience with Qantas!

As we only had a few days back in Manila, I thought it would be good to be around SM Mall of Asia again because of its proximity to the airport, family can visit us and we can still do our last bits of shopping/pasalubong.

We stayed at Microtel by Wyndham, which is the same group of hotels as TRYP, the other hotel we stayed at by Mall of Asia. This is on the other side. The hotel itself is smaller and has less amenities and TRYP’s restaurant is better BUT it was more walkable to SM Mall of Asia and is right across Conrad/S’Maison Manila which has nice restaurants and shops too.

We arrived back in Manila at night so we just had dinner then went back to the hotel. The next morning our plan was to go to SM Mall of Asia to do our last bits of shopping. Our first agenda for the day was to find coffee. Thankfully we saw Yardstick and they had good coffee. We went back here the next day too.

I honestly didn’t have many photos from this time. We only had 2 full days in Manila so it was a bit hectic. We spent it mostly within SM Mall of Asia, especially at Uniqlo haha. Our family loves Uniqlo and we wanted to get everything we wanted as we don’t have Uniqlo in NZ and they don’t ship here either.

As for food, we ate at the hotel restaurant one night then had a huge family feast at Texas Roadhouse. That place was crazy. So much food and their staff perform too.

We got to spend more time with family too. I remember our last few days helping dad figure out how to get his sports watch he bought from SM to work lol.

We also lost Dad within SM Mall of Asia which was hilarious now but not at the time! Dad bought a jacket from Uniqlo but realised it had a stain. He wouldn’t return/exchange it himself so I said I’ll do it for him so us two went back to Uniqlo. He left his bag back at the cafe which had his phone. After we got his jacket exchanged in Uniqlo, I had to go to the loo so he said he’ll make his way back to the cafe where our family was. I got back to the cafe and dad wasn’t there. There was no way we can contact him and SM Mall of Asia is big! I was panicking we lost dad but eventually he found his way back before I contemplated getting him paged over the mall intercom hahahaha. What a time. He said he knew his way back! Lol

I’m so grateful I got to spend time with family especially our cousins. We got to know them more and we had some good bonding times but of course it still felt short. I hope some of my cousins can eventually visit us here in New Zealand. I’d love to tour them here and show them my favourite places.

Overall, our Philippines trip was a success. My family got through it without any major fights or dramas (except Joan’s back) but we got through 3 weeks together! There were some testing times but all in all, it was good. I initially didn’t expect to be going on this trip since it’s the same year as my big Europe/Singapore trip but when I thought about it, this was a good time for our family to go back. I don’t know when we’ll get this opportunity again either. I’m glad I said yes to this trip and we now have so many good memories from it.

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Now onto our Qantas experience flying back home….

I really don’t understand why but Qantas in the Philippines airport is so annoying and pedantic. I don’t understand why there are so many bag checks! Firstly, they open all your bags including boxes that are properly taped up/tied before you check-in / do bag drop off. Why would they not use scanners instead? This would’ve made the process a lot quicker. Also, their bag checks are stupid because they don’t really see anything. They just poke their stick on the luggage and that’s it. No swabbing etc.

So after check-in luggage drop off, we get through security and then we’re able to get to our gate for boarding. Our flight was delayed. I know that’s beyond our control and all we can do is wait. The weird part is at the gate, everyone were told to go outside the gate only to line up again so our hand carry luggage/bags can be checked AGAIN. Scanners would’ve been more useful. The line was long and all they did was open our bag and didn’t really peek/rummage through. They did that for everyone and it was so painstakingly slow.

I don’t understand why Philippines airport security are so adamant at checking bags while leaving the country. NZ has such strict biosecurity measures but it wasn’t as annoying as this process when you leave NZ. They only care what you bring into the country. It’s the opposite in the Philippines.

Apparently this is Qantas process/protocols as we’re going through Australia. They also have strict biosecurity laws but then again, the bag checks were useless, no x-ray scanners were used and was just a tick-box exercise that wasted a lot of passengers time.

Anyway, after that debacle, we eventually got onto our flight to Sydney and we were delayed getting there and had to rush through for our connecting flight which was of course, also delayed. We also waited inside the airport buses right outside our plane for some reason.

Once we landed in NZ, there was traffic at the terminal and no gates were available so we sat in the plane at the tarmac for around 30-45mins and all I wanted was to get off that plane and go home.

I have never been so glad to be home. I’ve missed my bf and our cats so much! After our long journey home, I never want to fly Qantas through the Philippines again. I don’t recommend going through all those airport checks.

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Anyway, I want to end this post on a better note so here’s a preview of my Philippines haul…

I did a LOT of shopping. I knew this would happen too but I really outdid myself. I went a bit overboard but I also don’t regret any of my purchases. Most of the clothes were from Uniqlo and the bags and shoes were either from SM and Charles & Keith. I basically got things we can’t buy/find in NZ.

As for beauty products, that’s where I went crazy. I bought so much Filipino beauty products. I have gifted a lot of them already but I did keep a decent amount. I love Sunnies, BLK, Happy Skin, Issy and Squad Cosmetics and I still love and use their products almost a year on. Maybe I’ll do my favourite Filipino beauty products in another post. They have amazing brands and quality for a good price. I’m so impressed with what I’ve tried so far.

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That’s all for my Philippines trip. It’s been almost a year since we went on this trip and it feels like forever ago now. I’m so glad to have the 3 weeks in our motherland and to have spent it with family. I hope for my next Philippines trip, I get to visit somewhere new too and maybe bring Max along as well. He loves Filipino food as much as I do.

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If you’ve missed my other Philippines post, here they are

Philippines 2023 Trip blog links:

• Makati and Manila
• Davao
• Boracay
• Manila