Binondo Escapade

Binondo, here we come!

I’ve been hearing and reading a lot of good things about Binondo lately. I know I’ve been there before, either for a business meeting of some sort or I simply passed by it on my way to Quiapo or Divisoria. But I haven’t really explored the place for its “lifestyle” quality that I see in magazines. So one day, I asked some of my girlfriends (Michelle, Peachie and Vina) if they would like to take a walking tour of Binondo. Luckily, they indulged me. Of course Peter was with us (coz who would drive us there, right? Hehehehe). We originally planned to take the LRT but it posed so much of a hassle (yeah, right! more like we were being brats that’s why…spoiled little brats…hehehe) so Peter drove us there and parked in one of their parking areas near Ongpin. And our escapade began… 

we thought of riding the kalesa but we weren’t sure where to go…

We thought it would be like Quiapo or Divisoria where trash litters the roads but we were totally surprised to find them spotless, like someone took real effort to sweep off dirt on their roads. I also had the impression that “squatters” and “jologs” would populate the place but amazingly, expensive cars are parked on each and every corner and in front of the stores. This is because Binondo is populated  mostly by RICH Chinese people and it was obvious they made their little busy town up to their standards — clean, orderly and safe.    

Notice how clean the street is?

It was their Mooncake Festival when we went there last sunday and there were a lot of decorations hanging around. As expected, almost each store was selling assorted types of mooncakes. I thought of buying some but stopped myself. I’m not really into them and I might just use them as table decors at home and they would end up rotting. Eeeewwww! So, moving on…
 

everything is for sale except the little child

We were so amazed at how nice Binondo was. I was already contemplating on buying this and that…you know, cutesy little stuff only to find out I didn’t bring enough money with me and I was too scared to withdraw from one of their ATMs. Oh well! I might find cheap borloloys and I could be lucky. We were really enjoying sightseeing that we didn’t notice how time passed. It was then almost 2 o’oclock and we haven’t had breakfast nor lunch so you could imagine just how famished we were! We scraped Ongpin street with their available food places. We wanted to have authentic Chinese food in an authentic Chinese restaurant. And boy, we really did! We  immediately ordered Shanghai fried rice, soft bean curd, seafood veggies, and pork spare ribs. Tea was free and refillable. And because we were first timers in LAI-LAI restaurant, they gave us 25% discount! Darn, if we only knew, we would’ve ordered some more!!! Hehehe!

Buchi and Bean Curd

enjoying my Pillows dessert

We were sooo full that we couldn’t stand up! We’ll definitely go back there again one of these days! Hopefully they don’t recognize us and give us another discount. Haha! I wish! Anyway, to burn what we ate, we walked some more and looked for bargain buys. Peachie, Michelle and Vina were able to buy sweet-smelling incenses while I opted to just window shop. 30 sticks of incense for P70.00 is too expensive for me! Maybe, next time. When I’m ready burn not just extra calories but extra moolah as well.

interested in buying one?

Manong, what’s your last price for these?

At around 4:30, we were already very tired and decided to head back the parking lot. We almost got lost. After 30 more minutes of walking, we finally found where we parked the car.

Parsimon fruits

But before we did, we saw these tomato-like fruits being sold for P100/kilo. We didn’t know what it was so we asked the vendor if we could only buy one. He gave in, for P20. Each of us took a bite. It was juicy and gooey and tasted like chesa/camote…weird! At least we tried something new. We weren’t able to finish the whole fruit coz it had an odd after taste and feel. We just threw it afterwards. Whew!  That afternoon, we went home tired but happy.

We know we’re lost at this point, but heck, photo ops first!