A Crazy and Unexpected Encounter with Famous Vloggers in Binondo!

Shoutout to one of my peeps Veronica Eunice Francisco for this video. (Which is on her channel btw. Subscribe to her guys! ❤)

When my friends and I were assigned to vlog our trip to Binondo for our Mandarin Class, we never expected what would happen or who'd we meet. Venturing on this trip, it never felt like an assigned task because we had so much fun! It was my first time in Binondo ever since I moved back here in the Philippines and I was so excited especially since I was also going with my friends. So let me tell you about our experiences for that day.

We decided to meet up at 10 AM inside the Binondo Church. But of course, the time schedule wasn't followed. My friend Joanna was the first to arrive. She was there at about 9:30 AM. Then, I came next at about 10:05 AM. The others came flocking in around 11 AM (As I vaguely remember LOL).

While waiting for the others, my friend and I browsed a selection of jewelry just outside the basilica. I hesitated to buy one since I have an acidic nature and fake jewelry tarnishes easily on me. However, since it was only Php 180 and was charmed by the simplicity of the cross design, I decided to buy it. Lo and behold, a year passes and it still hasn't tarnished on me (I kid you not). Unfortunately, I lost the pendant but the chain is still with me though (You can see me wearing the necklace in the vlog).

We then proceeded to visit Eng Bee Tin to try their famous hopia and tikoy. There were a variety of selections of hopia available. But best of all, they offered free taste! (Yaaaay!) Of course, all of us tried what they offered us; my favorite out of all the free tastes they gave us was their Sun Cake. According to the saleslady, it's simply made out of milk and butter but the flavor was very rich. I ended up buying some Sun Cakes for my family because I didn't want them to go on with life without tasting it (Lol 😂). Btw the Sun Cakes were about Php 300 per pack (I think? hahaha).

During class, our subject professor, Ma'am Dee (if you're reading this, Hi ma'am! 💖), urged us to try Binondo's fried siopao. We did and we were not disappointed. I didn't know if it was because we were already hungry but fried siopao hits differently than the steamed one. Although people might not feel the same way (That's okay though! We all have different tastes 😉).

Out of the many, MANY Chinese food establishments there, we opted to eat at Ying Ying Tea House. We chose to eat there not only because we heard that most of their ingredients are coming in from Hong Kong itself but also because it is very budget-friendly. They have solo meals for just Php 130 with rice! We shared orders of dumplings for us to taste them all. The dumplings' price ranged from Php 80 - Php 90 and each serving came in three pieces (My personal favorite was their spareribs 'cause it was really tender and flavorful). I ordered their white chicken rice which I think was Php 130 (I loved the meal! The chicken rice reminds me of the ones I used to buy in the street markets in Malaysia).

After eating, we made our way to Chinatown Mall but on our way there, our friend Elaine (who is a very big fan of the vloggers btw), spots vloggers Benedict Cua, Mica Pineda, and Justin Quirino! To our surprise, she immediately goes running after them yelling "Benedict! BENEDICT!" (In her defense, we encouraged her to go after them LOL). After a few tries to get their attention, we ran to meet them (they couldn't hear us at first 'cause we were far away but they stopped when they saw us). I personally didn't know them before but I took a picture with them anyway 'cause they were all beautiful people 😂. I cannot stress how NICE and PLEASANT they were considering we were literally yelling their names and chasing after them LOL. Mica even featured us in her vlog (Like whattttt?! 😮). When I got home later that night, I looked them up on Instagram and Youtube and ended up becoming a fan as well. ❤ (Here's the link to Mica's vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfKhY7gbtYA)

Nothing happened much when we reached the mall; we just strolled inside. Nothing much out of the ordinary there. It was like every other mall except for the Chinese decorations. After this, we were already tired and decided to go home.

This day wasn't much but hey, it's not every day you get to bump into vloggers who amassed almost 1.6M (combined) subscribers, right? Also, I apologize for the low-quality photos. Unfortunately, none of us had a copy of our photos anymore so I had to screenshot the vlog itself.

After this pandemic, I'm hoping we get to do this again soon and I'm also hoping to visit places in Manila that I've never been to before. You don't necessarily need a big budget to have fun. You only need the right company to make the best memories 💕. Tune in to our future posts for more budget-friendly 'galaans'.

Sending much love,

-Anne 💋