LAST HURRAH AT SOFITEL


We spent the eve of father’s day at Sofitel… yup that swanky five-star hotel with the breathtaking sunset view of Manila bay. In fact, this is not our first time to spend special occasions at the hotel… not because we’re ultra-rich folks who frequent such places… no, we don’t have that much money to throw away. It was only because my step-mom (yes my dad’s second wife) ‘worked’ as a personnel manager of the hotel and often our overnight stays were discounted(??? by how much I really have no idea) I highlighted ‘worked’ because this is now a thing of the past --- she’s leaving for Dubai at the end of the month so this weekend here at the hotel would be our last – hence this piece’s title…

We arrived at around 4 pm on Saturday via a taxicab… we had to wait a bit for our rooms to be ready. In less than an hour we already went up to our room on the 6th floor… it had a huge queen-sized bed and they added 2 single beds for my 2 other boys. The huge bed was for me, the hubby and our little princess. My dad and his wife stayed in another suite with a receiving room – it had two plasma screens, one in the bedroom and another in the receiving room/sala. The sofa in the sala converts into a bed and this is where my half-sister and her family spent the night. My dad’s bathroom had a bathtub while ours didn’t have one, but it was still quite cool with all those glass doors and amazing shower spray that my kid and I just went crazy over and wished we had something like that in our own bathroom.


We were a bit hungry so the hubby and I went over to Star City to buy some grub. By the time we got back the kids have already grown tired of watching TV and being cooped inside the room so they checked out the pool with my half-sister’s husband, Jon. I followed them down to the pool in a little while and brought them some food to snack on. I would have wanted to take a dip in the pool but the sky was overcast and I didn’t want to get wet in such cool weather so I contented myself watching the kids frolic in the pool and gazed at the other guests swimming.




And as luck would have it, who should we run into swimming at the hotel pool but Ms. Claudine Barretto, her adopted daughter Sabrina, her son Santino and husband Raymart (whom I almost didn’t recognize though I was already standing beside him as I waited to take a pic of the sunset)… she was truly very pretty even without much make-up on and was quite accommodating because she relented to have a pic taken with my daughter and my half-niece. I told her, my daughter’s a fan because she watched her in her latest soap “Maligno” and she smiled and told the kids not to be afraid because that was just an on-screen role. The kids would have played longer with her daughter Sabina in the pool but the rain suddenly fell in such huge drops that they all left in a fluff – yayas, kids and all with a brief promise to meet up and play again at the poolside tomorrow morning.















My hubby took his own sweet time going down from the room so by the time he got to where I was lazily lounging, it was already raining and so he failed to get a glimpse of Claudine… too bad for him, huh? After a while, we all went up to the room so the kids can take their baths and get ready for dinner. We had dinner at past seven at the Spiral restaurant of Sofitel and I was literally overwhelmed by the buffet spread that the resto offered. So much so that I was totally unable to get any pictures at all of all the good things I savored…there was Filipino cuisine with the usual fiesta fare like lechon, kaldereta, etc; they had Japanese food like sashimi, tempura and sushi (my favorite!); Italian fare like pasta and pizza; American food like salads (with so many dressings to choose from), hams, steaks which they cook according to your wishes, and different kinds of bread/rolls. But the real winner was their dessert table ---- I have never seen so many cakes (even mini ones) laid out on a buffet, there were even candies, ice cream, and different flavored crepes wherein you can choose any filling and topping you want ( I had mango with chocolate syrup). I was so full that it was only after I was through eating that I realized I haven’t taken any pictures at all… too bad! This may be the first and last time I would have eaten here at Spiral…oh well…at least I’ll have sweet memories of this dinner that could last me a lifetime.


























The next day, we had breakfast served in our room (talk about having all the indulgences!!!) Well, after all this may be the last day we spend here at Sofitel so we might as well take advantage of it huh!?! This time I took pictures of everything we ordered and it was all so delicious... and the prices quite steep - but what the heck we're not paying for it anyway!!! I ordered a healthy breakfast and was quite surprised that the breakfast was big enough for two people – it had a fruit bowl, oatmeal, egg-white-only omelette, hashbrowns and some yogurt. Good thing I shared my breakfast with my daughter. My husband and other son had the Filipino style breakfast with sinangag, eggs, tapa and longganisa. My eldest son had his favorite food (even if it was still breakfast and too early for it, but thankfully the hotel already served it) - carbonara.

After eating, we all took our bath, got dressed and checked out of the room to leave. We dropped by Papa’s suite and learned that he has already left so we also took our leave after a brief kiss to and a thank you to my stepmom for our peaceful overnight stay at Sofitel (although my husband said he wasn’t at all able to sleep very well because he could hear our two sons snoring loudly)Well anyway, it was a brief and welcome respite from our normal weekends at home and truly an unforgettable experience for our family, especially for the kids... one which I hope I would be able to replicate with them --- at a place truly far away - like Bohol or Palawan - a true blue vacation for our entire family... well, it's not too bad to dream huh??? who knows, one of these days, it may just come true...