It was enough to make you forget irrational fears of being stranded in a crazy killer earthquake on the upper floors of the Shangri-la with the elevator shafts jammed --- the view from our room. Julian and I loved sitting on the ledge as we went through our summer reading lists.
There were times when we'd cheat and just play "I Spy" as we looked at the cityscape before us.
The view from the Horizon Club, where those free sumptuous buffets and drink-all-you-can cocktail hours reminded me of the stark contrasts of home. To have and to have not. Blows the mind to think that a plush hotel would mushroom in the middle of what may well be Makati slums! To leave the hotel in S-class Benz taxis and make our way to an equally ostentatious mall. Snaking our way through congested 'eskinitas' by polluted creeks. It was absurd that the Shangri-la shared the same general address with squatters. It made one think all guests were the Indonesian counterpart of the Gucci Gang. Opulence and poverty sitting side by site, it was almost funny. Were we really in Jakarta? Hahaha! This might as well have been Pinas.
This was our breakfast view from the Horizon Club. It wasn't that great as these bay windows faced another side of the city
Our view from the room was definitely better. Our 'next door neighbors' were these clusters of uppity scale white tower residences. We'd walk through a temple that had these worship chanting practically round-o-clock to make our way to a mini-mall behind these white towers. The weird thing was that, the mall was beside shanty clusters as well!
That's the temple right next to the pool. We watched kids fly their fighting kites in this open lot and wait for the losing kites (those which were cut by the bladed strings) to make their way to the Shangri-la pool area. One day we actually collected five. Othertimes, they'd fly so high we could see them up close from our hotel window.
