Friday, 5 June 2026

Manila II Day 1: Makati Shangri-la Hotel & Ayala Malls

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The Eldest had supplementary classes for O-level preparation in the first week of June but the Hubby was not able to take leave after 10 June. That left us with a very short window for our annual mid-year trip so we decided on Manila since the price for our whole family was reasonable. We booked our Singapore Airlines tickets at $322 per adult/child. 

We travelled to Changi Airport Terminal 2 via our usual Jumbo cab and arrived at 6am.

Super excited for our trip!
Our plane departed on time at 7.50am
Having our breakfast on the plane
My meal choice

After a relatively short flight of about 3.5 hours, we arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 at 11.35am (no time difference between Singapore & Philippines).

Glimpse of the airport from our plane

After we had cleared immigration, we walked to the private hire pick point and boarded our 6-seater Grab (cost ₱333) to Makati Shangri-La Hotel. The Hubby and I wanted to stay there again since we liked it previously. 

We checked in at the Horizon Club Lounge and were pleased to discover that our rooms were ready!

Having drinks at the lounge while checking in

We had booked the Horizon Club Deluxe King Rooms again because we found a good deal on Agoda. One room for 2 adults and one for 3 adults cost us S$253 and S$309 per night respectively. This is inclusive of breakfast (details in the next post), afternoon tea, evening cocktails and canapés, all-day lounge access and other Horizon Club benefits. 

The bedroom with an added bed to accommodate 3 adults
The spacious bathroom
Bathtub and other amenities
Left: We managed to get connecting rooms;
Right: I requested for a contour pillow and managed to get one from the housekeeping staff! For a side sleeper like me, this is a necessity!

After checking out our rooms, we returned to the Club Lounge for afternoon tea.

Simple spread of pastries
Yummy bites to go with coffee or tea

We walked to the nearby Ayala Shopping Belt for some shopping. The shopping district was basically made up of many malls connected to each other so that you could keep walking from one end to the other! You can easily clock 10-20k steps without even realising it 😄

As we didn't want to exhaust ourselves on our first day, we decided to only explore the Glorietta Malls.

The Boy found his favourite Kirby at the Nintendo store!
I was surprised none of them caught his eye 😅
We also made mini keyboard fidget keychains as souvenirs

The Hubby bought AquaFlask water bottles during our last trip and has raved about them ever since! It was much cheaper in Manila (about 1/3 the price!), so we bought at least one bottle for each of us! We loved that we could personalise them with our names! 

Engraving our colourful bottles
The Son got his favourite green while the Littlest chose pink

We walked over to The Landmark and grabbed a quick meal at the Jollibee at the food court.

The basement food court was very crowded that day!

We returned to our hotel and dropped off our shopping loot in our rooms before heading to the Horizon Club Lounge for evening canapes.

The variety of food is usually a lot more during evening canapes than afternoon tea
Mocktail and other little bites
Food from the buffet line
(The Son was a big fan of the cheese)

The kids begged to go swimming at the pool but it was drizzling so we told them we'd go the next day. Instead, we went back to our rooms and enjoyed a nice warm bath in the bathtub! 🛀🏻

What a great start to a relaxing trip! 

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P.S: We're proud Shangri-la Circle members; read about our Shangri-La experiences around the world:
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Continue to >> Manila II Day 2-3: SM Mall of Asia & SM by the Bay

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Manila, Philippines
as well as other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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Saturday, 23 May 2026

Capybara Farm & Sheraton JB

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DAY 1

The Hubby decided on an impromptu staycation at JB in May so off we went. The Son decided to go for cell group instead so it was just our 2 girls. 

The Littlest loves capybaras so the Dad brought her to the newly opened Capybara Pet Farm in JB. Despite the name, the farm actually housed many other animals as well.

We paid for the entrance tickets and a bucket of animal feed (left);
Photo with a huge capybara balloon (right)
Feeding the very cute alpaca
The animal that the Littlest came to see!
She fed the capybaras most than half of the animal feed! Very biased! 😅
We were allowed inside to pet the capybaras! The girls were ecstatic!
Feeding the ostriches
And very greedy camel!
Feeding the ducks and the miniature horses

When we were done feeding the animals, we popped by Yvonne Sweet Bakery and bought adorable capybara macarons at MYR 52 for 4 pieces!

Various capybara-themed desserts
Our box of super cute capybara macarons!

Our next stop was Sheraton Hotel Johor Bahru, our accommodation for our short staycation.

Sheraton Hotel was the shorter brown building on the extreme left

After checking in, we explored our Deluxe Twin Room, which we booked via Agoda at S$179 per room per night, inclusive of breakfast.

Beautiful room with two double beds
Nice sofa area
TV displayed their pillow menu! (left);
 Ample space for luggage (right)
Wardrobe and usual amenities (left); small kitchenette (right)
Good size bathroom but no bathtub (sadly)
Mirror selfie in the bathroom

It felt like I had won the lottery when I had managed to secure the last available contour pillow! For a side sleeper, this was incredibly important for a good sleep! 🤩

The Littlest clamoured for us to change into our swim wear and head to the pool!

The pool was next to a relatively big and well-equipped gym
Beautiful swimming pool
My family really loves swimming
Kids pool with a playground!
Splash! 💦

While I was doing laps in the pool, the Hubby ordered Grab Food so that we had something to eat once we were done washing up! It arrived faster than expected! 😅

Yummy food for the kids

The nice thing about our hotel is its direct link to SKS Mall, located just downstairs! It was new so many stores were not even opened yet.

There's a Ming Ang and Village Grocer at SKS Mall!

We walked through the mall level by level and finally decided on Tea Garden at Basement 1.

Tea Garden serves primarily Malaysian food, which we love!
Their signature curry laksa (left), various dim sum (top right),
and noodles (bottom right)

If you love teh (tea), you must try their Hainanese Milk Tea! I loved it so much that I had 2 cups of it! 😋

After dinner, we spent time shopping at my favourite shop KKV! I've visited many outlets all over the world, including Batam, Melaka, Manila and of course Singapore! 

We found the Boy's favourite Kirby and Waddle Dee plushies that we had never seen in other KKVs! After deliberating for a long time, the Boy finally chose the Chef Kirby (MYR 129), which I bought for him since he couldn't come.

I can't resist visiting a KKV, Miniso or Flying Tiger whenever I travel! They selling slightly different things in different countries 😀 Need to see them all!!! 😂

We returned to our hotel and had a good night's rest! 😴


DAY 2

The next morning, we ordered Grab Food and had our breakfast in the room before heading to the pool for a swim!

We also ate bagels from the famous Palates and Bagels as we were famished after our swim!

Palates and Bagels at the ground floor
We ordered different flavours to try!

After we had checked out of our hotel, we had lunch at Souper Tang before we left.

Souper Tang is everywhere in Malaysia
There were hits and misses for their soups, it really depends on the outlet.
This one wasn't great...
Dessert was ok

After our meal, I brought the Eldest to get our nails done at Holiday Plaza. 

Decided to splurge on nail art this time! I miss doing my nails!

We ended our staycation with a final stop at Sutera Mall as I wanted to get my favourite Four Beans dessert! We had dinner at one of the nearby restaurants before having dessert of course! 😅

Lalapot and other Chinese dishes

It was short staycation but very fruitful! Always a fan of Malaysian road trips! 💖


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P.S: Read about our experiences with Marriott Bonvoy around the world:
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P.S: Here're our experiences with accommodations in JB:

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for other travel itineraries!


Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!
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