This is the 3rd part of a series covering Carlos Celdran’s Viva Manila tour. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. There are, sad to say, only a few hotels from the prewar years that have managed to survive and serve as living monuments to a bygone glorious era that we had. One of them was part of the itinerary of the recent Carlos Celdran Viva Manila tour. Meet the Miramar Hotel, a hotel built in the Art Deco style of architecture built in the 1930s. As one can see, the hotel has done a good job preserving many of its original elements to be appreciated by…
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A Farewell To Mandarin Oriental
Truth be told, this has been originally an entry long overdue of a write-up on this site since last year. For some reason, I never got around it for that long. While I have now gotten around doing this entry, I feel bad that I am writing about this storied hotel in the most unfortunate of circumstances as the news broke out recently that Mandarin Oriental is closing down its operations later this year. This puts an end to the hotel’s 38 years or so of operation in the city that began with the opening of its iconic hotel building in 1976, housed in a uniquely-designed concrete edifice courtesy of no less…
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At the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila
Of all the hotels in the metropolis, only a few can boast of having such a history and prominence as the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila in the reclaimed Cultural Center of the Philippines complex near the Manila Bay. It was one of the hotels built at the height of the Marcos era to showcase the Philippines to the world in the midst of the events going on at the time. To be specific, the hotel, which was first known as the Philippine Plaza Hotel, was built to house the delegates of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting which was to be held in Manila in 1976. (an event Marcos successfully…