Philippines Travel Portal

My third day in Manila I decided to check out the Greenbelt area, after reading up on the place in Lonely Planet. Greenbelt consists of 4 parts, just referred to as greenbelt 1, 2, 3 and 4. It’s an area with several exclusive shops, good restaurants and several bars and nightclubs. I went there in the evening to check out the nightlife scene there.

I actually spent all my time here in just one nightclub called Absinth. I chose to visit this place first as I’d heard there was a Norwegian girl working there, and thought it would be interesting finding out what it was like for a girl from my country to live and work in the Philippines.

It was true that there was a Norwegian girl working there, and I spent a bit of time talking with her, something that was very interesting as I was totally new to the Philippines at this time. I was also invited over to drink with a group of Filippino guys there, and I spend quite a few hours drinking in this bar. I also tried out their water pipe, the Arabian style shisha pipe, which I really enjoyed and have smoked several times since.

The guys had to leave eventually as they had to work the next day, but I stayed a little longer, and ended up meeting three cute Filippina girls who invited me to go with them to the Embassy nightclub. This nightclub was real cool, and I believe it’s the best and the most popular one in Manila. It was on a thursday I went there, and the place was packed with people.

There are two large rooms in the club, one with mainly techno and the other one with hip hop and R&B, at least it was like this the night I was there. There is also a VIP area where you can reserve your own table for the whole evening, which is a good option if you’re a large group of people. I had a lot of fun here, drinking and dancing with the girls I went here with, and we stayed here into the early morning. I believe the closing time was 4 am.

The taxi trip back home to my hotel was a little expensive, nobody wanted to take me for less than 400 peso, but I had had such a great night that I didn’t really care. I’ve been to this nightclub many times since, and I always end up having a good time, so it’s definitely a good place to check out. If you got any stories about Greenbelt, Embassy or maybe other nightlife spots in Manila I’d be happy to know.