Greenbelt Mall & Ace Water Spa

Saturday, Dec. 28

After our trip to Subic, it was nice to have a morning to sleep in a little (yes, the kids are finally doing this more) and relax.  We miscommunicated a little over what time we were supposed to leave for our lunch engagement, so I actually wasn't ready when it was time to go.  Thankfully we traffic wasn't too bad (although I'm pretty sure it still took us over an hour) and we met up with our extended family at the Greenbelt Mall in Makati for lunch.

Greenbelt mall is divided into 5 different buildings (I think) that are on adjacent corners.  Not sure exactly, but it's definitely the South Coast Plaza or Fashion Island of Manila.  A very upscale mall with several higher-end stores.  Not a place to look for bargains!

Apparently my daughter has a thing for umbrellas!
She kept being drawn towards them...

But the shopping was not the reason for us coming to Greenbelt.  It was to enjoy a wonderful meal at Fely J's, hosted by our sweet sister-in-law's family.  Even though this sis-in-law was not even in the Philippines on this trip, her parents and siblings live here, and they wanted to take us out.  This was probably the best meal we had during our stay.  They were so generous and gracious to us, we really appreciated it!  As you can see from the photos, we were a large group, and we had lots of mango shakes, and other yummy Filipino dishes and desserts.  Mmmmm!

The Go Kiao and Co Hao clans together!

We were even able to connect to Wifi long enough to FaceTime with my sis-in-law back in California so she could see both sides of her family together!  We really missed you & your family, Wens!

Playing around outside by the wire sculptures

After lunch and hanging out at the mall for awhile, we headed home to rest and play.  Well, the kids played.  The new Christmas gifts got tested out, especially the Stomp Rocket.  My nephew did the stomping, and my daughter did the retrieving.  She didn't seem to mind, however!

This little corner was by far the favorite spot for our
littlest one to hang out.  We often found her here, playing with the
nativity set or pushing the buttons on a phone or the house alarm.

Our siblings who had arrived in the Philippines only had a couple of nights left before they were heading back to the States, and they requested to go back to the Ace Water Spa before they left.  Apparently they all went before we arrived and liked it so much, they wanted to go again with us!

Since cameras were not allowed in the actual spa, I don't have any photos to post from inside.  Above is an advertisement (I Love Ace Water Spa, with the model sporting their signature red swim cap that everyone has to wear...) It was a very unique experience at the Water Spa.  There was a lap pool on one side, and on the other a large pool with a lazy river around it, and in the middle were all sorts of water chairs with massage features: jets to target different body parts, showers with different pressure levels, a water bed you could lay on while water poured from above, massaging you.  Kind of like a huge jacuzzi/water park. The really unique part was the herbal pools, 3 of them were heated to different temperatures, and there was a cold pool.  I guess the idea behind the therapy is to soak in the lowest temp "hot pool" first, then dunk into the cold pool, then onto the next hotter pool then dunk in the cold pool, going all the way up to the hottest herbal pool, then cooling off in the cold pool.  YIKES!  I'm not sure what the health benefit of that was supposed to be, but we all tried it.  The men watched the kids first so the ladies could try it, then we took over with the little ones so they could be manly and do it too.

This is a photo of us afterwards.  After our relaxing spa experience, the men & women had separate showering facilities, so my hubby and I had to divide our kids up then have the not-so-relaxing experience of bathing them all in a gym-like facility.  It was about 10pm when we took this picture, before going home & everyone was showered up and ready for bed (well, I was at least!).  It was a fun evening and not something I think we can experience here in the States, so definitely worth going!