Back to Manila!--Typhoon!

There's still more to document with the trip to Manila.
I'll skip ahead; I transferred hotels.

Try living in a hotel room, making it your home for a month, and packing it up in 30 minutes.
That's what happened to me on a weekend when I fell asleep. I had mostly packed everything but I was dozing off and my doze turned into a 2 hour nap. When I woke up, I had to stuff everything into a bag and I left a few things behind.

Like an envelope carrying $100 for a coworker's friend as a wedding gift
Like a bottle of wine (no big deal)

Well, it was a good effort. The taxi took me on the 40 minute ride across Manila and I ended up in Makati, the expensive, rich district of the city. I checked into "The New World Hotel", which was a fancier place. Every guest was searched. Dogs guard the hotel. The lobby was 3x the size and full of businessmen in suits.

http://www.hoteltravel.com/philippines/manila/new_world_makati.htm#gclid=CO3H9Lmf1LQCFe5FMgodGTIAQQ

Blessedly, this time, my room was at the end of the hallway, with no neighbors. Even if I had neighbors, it was very quiet and the noise did not travel. This was a huge bonus from Richmonde Hotel.  My minibar had American Pringles (yum!) and way more TV channels.
I guess when you're living out of a hotel room, sometimes American TV is all that can sustain you.

The breakfast there was phenomenal, I developed a love for Congee, got to read some more English-Asian newspapers and stare at the business travelers in our section. There was an American volleyball team in the lobby, also, which was sort of wild. I didn't talk to them--though I'm not sure why. 

The first thing I did was check out the gym there, since we'd been on a big fitness kick. TV TREADMILLS! With HBO! A beautiful outdoor pool!
So I jumped on the treadmill and made it my goal to walk/run for an entire HBO film.  It was pretty nice outside, but I knew I had to sleep during the day, so I sent myself upstairs instead of into the sun, which would naturally awaken me.