Easy peasy at Injap Tower Hotel

Whenever I go on a trip, I always look up several inns/hotels and make a spreadsheet to compare the pricing, facilities, other notes about the place (i.e. room can fit four, whether or not breakfast is included, etc).

Such was the case when my sister and I went to Iloilo. Injap Tower Hotel was actually our primary choice after my sister ruled out staying at a small resort where the pool could only fit one person...standing.

The main selling point of Injap for us was the cost. At P1,750/night/2 people, with a plated breakfast - that was a steal, considering that we went there during the Dinagyang Festival. Note: Injap Tower Hotel is far from the route of the parade. You will have to take a jeepney/taxi to get to where the festival actually takes place.

Another reason we chose Injap Tower Hotel (and yes, I do have to keep repeating the name because there are apparently several Injap buildings in the city) is its proximity to SM City Mandurriao, which is where the shuttle vans from the airport drop off and pick up passengers. Plus, SM City Mandurriao has a traveler's lounge terminal, which was perfect for us because we had to check out at 12nn and wait for our flight at 8pm.

Our flight was delayed by 2 hours, so our 6am ETA was moved to 8am. When we arrived at Injap, they had no room available for us yet, but they stored our bags so we didn't carry our luggage as we traveled around Iloilo.

Each Happy Room can fit up to 3 people

We went back to the hotel around 4pm, at which time we decided not to leave anymore because we were just so tired. We decided to have an early dinner, bought some snacks from the 7-11 conveniently located on the ground floor of the hotel, and settled in our room.

Cable TV with small dresser for one

Each room, called a Happy Room, has a microwave, a mini refrigerator, and a kitchen sink. The bed was so comfortable and warm. There is also a closet with several hangers, but they only provided one bathrobe, which my sister and I took turns using. They also only gave two towels, which was sufficient for us, but I wonder if they provide an extra towel if three persons checked-in.

I'm happy to note that they had a bidet because it is such a pain to do one's business without a tabo or the handy-dandy bidet. They also provided toiletries in a cute pouch; it contained a toothbrush, a razor, ear buds, soap, lotion, shampoo, and conditioner. Sad to say, my sister's pouch did not contain soap or ear buds. Uniformity and equal benefits would have been nice.

Some more pictures of our Happy Room:

Sufficiently spacious corridor

Sufficiently clean bathroom

The throne

View outside our window

I don't have any complaints about the cleanliness of the bathroom, which is one of my sister's pet peeves. It is also one of the places I first check when I look up reviews/website and upon entering the room.

They also provided a flimsy in-room slippers. I was grateful for that because the room didn't have carpeting and the floor was cold, and I didn't bring slippers.

Injap Tower Hotel's pool on the 5th

We actually brought our bathing suits with us but the weather was too cold, and I was already coughing my lungs out, so we just went for a massage.

This is what my sister had to say for the spa: best. spa. ever. My sister, who doesn't like to get full body naked massages became so relaxed that she actually fell asleep. I also had a full body scrub (my birthday treat to myself) aside from the full body massage. The body scrub left me feeling so smooth afterwards. I actually don't know how good the massage was because I drifted off to sleep immediately. In fact, the masseuse had to shake my shoulder afterwards to tell me we were done. Hehehe! But judging from the laziness and sound sleep I had afterwards, I'm guessing it was pretty good. Oh, did I mention that the massage only cost P400, and I only paid P750 for my two treatments? That's pretty cheap, considering its location and service.

Guimaras yonder - so near yet so far

The keycard envelope also contained our breakfast coupon. The restaurant on the 21st floor served a mix of Asian cuisines. The food serving was good enough for one. They also had four different choices of coffee and tea, but some of those coffee/tea choices had additional cost.

And since Injap Tower Hotel is the highest tower in Iloilo, the view at the top was quite nice. The weather was just really gloomy when we were there so it felt so dreary.

There are two elevators and one service elevator. It was annoying that there wasn't any display that will tell you on which the floor the elevator was already, so we had to press all three buttons and rode the one that arrived first. Don't forget to bring your key card with you whenever you have to use the elevator because you will need to tap your key card against the elevator's security panel. Also, some doors in the fire exit don't have handles from inside the stairwell, so taking the stairs wasn't really an option. Ate Mako and I walked from the 14th to the 5th floor and had to go back up to the 11th floor just so we can take the elevator.

Also, when we tried to check-out, they tried to charge us P50 for consuming this sweet treat thing that we didn't even know we had in our refrigerator but we did not eat it. They kept insisting we did, but we swore we didn't, and I told them to check the trash. They finally voided the charge. To me, that was fishy. If it was the previous occupant who ate it, why were we being charged and not them? Since they didn't clean our room, all our trash was there. They said they had a unique code etc etc, but who cares about a unique code when we didn't consume any such product from the mini bar? Sheesh. That really soured my experience of Injap Tower Hotel. I was at the point of just paying the P50 just to get the heck out of there when they suddenly voided it. Well thank you, but that still miffed me.

Lesson learned: If I'm going to stay at Injap Tower Hotel, I'm going to keep stock of their minibar! I'll probably apply to this to other hotels, but then again I've never been through this before.

Injap Tower Hotel
West Diversion Road, Mandurriao District
Iloilo City, Iloilo
Email: stay-injaptowerhotel@hotel101.com.ph
Tel: +63333307111
Mob: +639223821635
Injap Tower Hotel website
Injap Tower Hotel Facebook page 
Injap Tower Hotel Twitter page
Injap Tower Hotel Instagram page

Commuting galore: Hello Iloilo!

Iloilo!

Here is how ate Mako and I ended up going to the Dinagyang festival in Iloilo...

Ate Mako: Ja, I want to go to the Dinagyang festival. I hear they also have an ati-atihan festival, but the crowd isn't as big as the one in Cebu.

Me: Okay!

And then we booked.

We went the day after my 27th birthday, sort of a birthday celebration/gift for myself as well. We decided to limit our spending to P10,000, including the expensive air fare. We ended up booking when there was no sale because we were afraid the seats would run out.

Since we were only in Iloilo for the weekend, we had to narrow down the places we were going to visit. Ate Mako did not want to ride a boat after our trip to El Nido, so we were limited to land-based attractions. We ended up going to all four towns of Iloilo City, and to Miagao, in the southern part of Iloilo.

The trip to Miagao took us two hours, one-way.

Church of Sto. Tomas de Villanueva in Miagao, Iloilo

Close-up view

Since the jeep we rode from Miagao was only up to the terminal at Arevalo, and it was past lunch time by then, we decided to go to Tatoy's (in Arevalo), because we just kept hearing about it. We asked the locals and they directed us towards the next street to take a pedicab. It was marvelous that we managed to get around Iloilo just by asking the local drivers/policemen/guards.

We didn't realize Tatoy's was just across the beach, which was a happy coincidence since the beach was in one of my original itinerary. My sister and I ordered their roasted chicken, which was supposedly very popular, but was too dry for our taste. It cost us P320. Make sure that if you order rice, you specify if it's by cup or by platter, because they automatically serve you by platter.

Since we weren't planning to go to Guimaras, I had given up hope of tasting the famous Guimaras mangoes, but lo and behold, Tatoy's had them, both in green and ripe varieties. I was about to order a kilo, but I decided to taste it first. Luckily, they serve by piece too.

The beach in Arevalo, Iloilo

Unfortunately, it fell flat of my expectations. I was expecting the sweetest mangoes ever, but not every bite of it was sweet, and was slightly sour. The only exception is that it was ripened naturally. As an avid eater of mangoes, I can detect if it's naturally ripe or ripened by chemicals. It was the former, and that made me glad. I guess having tasted ripe mangoes plucked straight off a naturally-fertilized tree will make you have high standards when it comes to mango. Oh Kiblawan, how I miss your mangoes.

Before leaving, we decided to take a peek at the beach. It was ordinary, and we didn't see anyone swimming. I'm not sure if people actually swim there because it didn't look developed. But I've been told that the islands off the coast of Iloilo (i.e. Guimaras, Isla de Gigantes) are much better. They are actually part of the reason why I'm planning to go back to Iloilo.

We rode a jeepney that was passing through, since it was going to our next stop: St. Anne's Church in Molo.

We disembarked in front of this beautiful old house, but I don't know what landmark it is. I'm also not sure if you can go it, since it was gated and there were guards, but they were nice enough to let me slide my hands through the gates and take a picture. Iloilo City has a lot of beautiful heritage houses.

St. Anne's Church is known as the Feminist Church because of the 16 nearly life-sized images of female saints inside.

St. Anne's Church, Molo, Iloilo

Interestingly enough, right outside the Church is a grecian temple with life-sized statues of greek goddesses Hera, Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis and another goddess I am unable to identify. I have no idea why they have it, but it's a stark contrast (from this angle, at least) the the dark and forbidding façade brought about by the fusion of Romanesque and Baroque design elements.

This was our last stop because we were so tired. Our flight was supposed to be at 4:30am but was moved to 6:20am because of some slight delay with PAL. Talk about getting no sleep. I'm just thankful that we didn't get migraines even with the lack of sleep, constant traveling, and delayed eating times.

The next day, we didn't have any tour planned anymore because we thought the Dinagyang parade was going to take all day. But I scheduled us to have mass at The Metropolitan Cathedral in Jaro because I wanted to see and pray with the Lady of Candles.

The Metropolitan Cathedral, Jaro, Iloilo City

Set against the azure sky that Sunday morning, the Cathedral just seemed so magnificent. The very high ceiling and the beautiful interior made me feel so small and left me in awe (and wondering if I can get married there someday).

Afterwards, we went straight to the parade and dances of Dinagyang. There was a lot of people and henna artists. Plenty of little trinkets were sold on the side, and there were booths giving away free wine and free Emperador light. I was amazed by the freebies. I think it's the first time I went to a place that offered free alcoholic drinks!


The carriage of the Miss Dinagyang (I think) also passed, which caused quite a stir. A lot of people wanted to take pictures with the escort, but I don't know who he is. All I know is that I wanted to ride the freaking Cinderella-inspired carriage. Lucky people.


Ate Mako and I were about to go back to the hotel because we had to check out of our room when one of the competitors passed us by. Since we were right on the street, we started taking photos with the dancers in the background. We didn't know they were actually posing behind us, which really delighted us. We were right in on the action, and it felt so fantastic. We thought we weren't going to actually see the parade since we didn't buy a ticket to the platform. But we found ourselves right there, so we took advantage of the moment and took pictures of them and with them. It was so spur-of-the-moment, it kinda took my breath away.

Some other photos I took during Dinagyang...

Hala bira, Dinagyang!

One of my favorite shots

Our trip to Iloilo is one of my favorite memories so far this 2015. Iloilo was surprisingly modern and the people were generally friendly. It was fairly easy for us to explore the town, considering that we didn't know how to actually go from one place to another, but we managed to get to our destinations anyway.

The food is one of the things I didn't enjoy, but maybe I just ate at the wrong places. I feel there's so much more to Iloilo that I can explore, so I'm hoping that one day, I'll get to visit again.

Thanks for the memories, you lovely city.