Between the time the Urban Roamer uploaded his first video to relaunch his video content and this particular post, a lot of things have happened in the COVID-19 situation in Metro Manila.
Just shortly after the upload, Metro Manila and surrounding provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, and Laguna (which the Urban Roamer calls Greater Manila Region though others would say NCR+) was placed under a general quarantine bubble, then two weeks under extreme quarantine, then four weeks under modified extreme quarantine, then to the current (at this time of writing) status of general quarantine. It was enough to drive anyone a bit mad as this roller-coaster was going on.
The COVID situation in other parts of the country had changed as well as some areas experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases, thus authorities had to restrict tourism and non-essential travel to those place. One of those places was Coron in Palawan, the place this roamer originally planned to go to this year. In fact, it was a plan originally made last year before COVID hit and brought long-distance travel to its knees.
After having spent a birthday last year at home, albeit it was not that bad, the thought of spending another birthday at home was something I didn’t want to do again, if possible. There was an itch to go on some adventure, whatever that is available at this time of a pandemic. If anything, an adventure at this time will probably the most interesting one to date considering the current situations, and this roamer is keen on experiencing that for the books.
Fortunately, the Department of Tourism has allowed 13 hotels in Metro Manila to be opened to local tourists as certified staycation hotels. One of those hotels is EDSA Shangri-La in Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City. This would not be the first time as I have eaten at their buffet restaurants and attended some events held there. But I was intrigued of the idea of actually staying there, so it was a good opportunity.
I figured that documenting my stay at EDSA Shangri-La could not be done justice by words, so I’ve decided to document it in a new YouTube video which you can view here. Enjoy!
Don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more content.
