Binondo Food Crawl with the Baguettes

After yesterday's funny ordeal, I got into a call with my friends and they were just streaming their gameplay of AC: Odyssey. They had fought off the minotaur and eventually got into Atlantis. I also told them that I was surprised to learn recently that Batao owned a restaurant franchise, but they seemed entirely uninterested and even told me that they didn't care. It just rubbed me the wrong way and I decided on just meeting new people to befriend. For whatever reason, they asked me to tell them a story, which made me feel better because it at least showed that they give a shit about what I have to say. I told them about what happened to me and Jaze moments earlier and they seemed pretty interested in hearing it, so that was nice.

Our call continued and we just discussed random topics. But at some point, it got emotional and very deep. I told them about my ideology on it:

things that aren't meant to happen, won't happen; consequently, things that are meant to happen, will happen no matter what.

There is no such thing as “missing the right person” in my belief, as missing out on the “right” person just means that they're not the real, right person for you. They argued that it was boring and that it means that I believe that everything is predetermined, which I wholly believe that it is. If it isn't meant to work out, no matter what, it would never happen. I saw this first-hand in many of my romantic pursuits, I tried so hard and putting in effort for the girls I liked, and yet I never ended up with any of them. And to this day, I have been single and never found the one for me because the ones that did like me aren't the people for me, and the ones I liked, aren't for me. After this whole thing, they seemed to be in a cheery mood after that and our night continued. I also got them food again, this time it was tocilog from Sinangag Express. I didn't get myself food and instead just ate some candies. They played some AC: Odyssey in their free time and I got so sleepy in the morning. I was trying my best to watch through their gameplay and stay up, and they even asked me if I wanted to sleep, which was super thoughtful and sweet of them, but then I told them of my plans to stay up as I was going to leave for my Binondo food crawl with the Baguettes after this. We eventually reach 7 a.m. and I got my sister to prepare some coffee for me and then I left for Binondo.

I was super late to get to the meetup as the planned time was 8 a.m., and I eventually arrived at 9:40 a.m. I had extremely miscalculated things and the trip took longer than expected, even though traffic wasn't that bad. I still saw them, it's just that they all had a catching up and breakfast already. We eventually met up and grabbed some hopia, and I got a dice one with munggo and cashew, which was nice, even though hopia isn't really my thing. Walked around after that and we wanted to try this restaurant, but it was full so we walked around some more. We tried some tanghulu and it had this weird, wax-like flavor to it, which was interesting but also weird. I took a picture of the Binondo signage and even got some sugarcane drink. I told them that it tasted like palay, which it kind of was, as it was just raw sugarcane extract. Meryll, funny enough, laughed at me for it but eventually believed in me as she didn't like the taste much. I took a picture of us as I was the 5th wheel in this. I was in between 2 couples: Max with her boyfriend, and Meryll with her boyfriend.

We eventually moved to try out Estero Fastfood and I saw a few cats that were chilling, which was cute. We ate some fried frog legs, which was super weird, but I got used to the taste. A cat came up under our table and it seemed that one of its eyes had gone blind. This broke my heart so much and I was on the verge of crying because I feel so sorry for them and that I didn't give them that much food. I thought on ordering some more food to feed the cat but the menu was so damn expensive, there wasn't a single item worth less than 100 Pesos that I couldn't give to this poor, starving cat. I had to give it some leftovers which I still feel guilty about because I wanted to give this poor cat some food. I was super close to crying but thankfully the cat ate some of the food and we left the table. That cat stuck to my mind and I thought about visiting it some other time to properly give it food.

After that, we walked around a bit more, eventually ending up at Café Mezzanine. We waited for a bit to get a table and we eventually got a table for us 5. We talked for a while amongst ourselves while waiting for our food and we planned to go to El Nido, Palawan, in the future once Ben returns to the Philippines again. We had our food and we had a bit of confusion amongst us because we got a lot of food. Thankfully, the bill wasn't that much and I didn't pay much for the amount and quality of food served, which was totally worth because the food was so delicious. We also talked about going to Poblacion later because Ben talked about this bar that had this “midget boxing” thing going on. We were all curious so we agreed to meet later at Poblacion. After paying for the bill and dividing it equally, we parted ways and I went home.

The trip home was so long, but it was peaceful once we got near our place. Binondo and Manila in general were super crowded, messy, and just filled with people. Our place seemed so calm and peaceful, there was greenery everywhere. And it made me feel like home. I eventually arrived home safe and gave some of the take-out to my sister, which she liked because she was a fan of the custard bun now. I used the hours to get whatever sleep I can.

In the evening, I got prepared to go to Poblacion in the evening. I only got around 5 hours of sleep or so, and I didn't continue with that hotel booking since I didn't want to spend money so soon and I also had a hangout tomorrow. I eventually got there and I was a few minutes late and just missed Max and Meryll. I eventually got to meet them by going inside the bar where the midget boxing thing was going on. Apparently, they had already watched 1 round of it, and I had just missed it. But we stuck around for 1 more round. I kept my AirPods in and turned on this “Loudness Reduction” thing so that my eardrums wouldn't burst as the music in there was so loud. It also reeked of cigarette smell, which I haven't smelled in a long time and even made me gag a bit because I don't smoke at all. We eventually watch the show, eat some calamares and potato chips, which took a while because they were apparently cooked at Filling Station, but we enjoyed it and had a bit of laughs at how silly all this was. It was fun regardless and I enjoyed it as I got to spend time with my friends.

I joked to Ben how we were exactly 5 people as this seat wouldn't fit 6 people. They told me that I should really get a girlfriend soon so that we're 6 people but I dismissed them as I have been single my whole life. We continue to watch the show and eventually leave once everyone was okay enough. We then went to The Spirits Library and I showed them the way because they were taking the wrong route. I showed them and they wondered how I was already familiar with the place, I told them that I did go here with my former coworkers last year and they teased me a bit, but it was fine. We got inside but stood as the bar's seats were already full. I got a drink, although I don't know what it was. I just got a “cheap” drink of hard liquor worth 250 Pesos, even though I kind of regret getting it as I'm not a drinker at all. It was hard to finish, too, as it burned my throat. Meryll and her boyfriend eventually left first and I accompanied Max and her boyfriend for a bit more through the evening. I eventually got home as Max and her bf were leaving too and I passed by them one more time before ultimately saying goodbye to them. I got home safe and I eventually got some well-deserved rest.