Hostels. Walls covered in scribbles. Lounges teeming with rough backpackers. Fridges filled with beer. Rooms overflowing with used clothes. Toilets, messy and dirty. Last week, we booked a stay at a new one that opened right in the heart of Manila, and it is nothing of the sort.

JAPANESE-INSPIRED CAPSULE BEDS AT TAMBAYAN HOSTEL

Tambayan Capsule Hostel & Bar. The name evokes a place where friends meet, tambayan being a colloquial term for a place to hang out. But you'd be surprised if you're expecting a ramshackle space converted into sleeping quarters. What you'd find here instead is swank.

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Sweaty, muscled guys pumping iron at the gym on the ground floor greeted us as we got off the cab. We were quite confused, isn’t this supposed to be a hostel? An elevator graffiti exclaiming that there are no strangers at Pink Hostel confirmed that we were indeed at the right place. We squeezed our boozed-up selves (we started drinking quite early, like before sunset) on a tight elevator more fitting for old seedy malls in Cubao, punched number 5 and opened up to a floor resounding with clinks of beer bottles, laughter, and travel stories. Welcome to Pink Hostel Manila, my friends.

PINK MANILA HOSTEL’S BAR

From our weekend staycation at Hotel H2O, not wanting to go home just yet, we searched high and low across the interweb for a place to extend our weekend ramblings. Since we were in the Manila area, Malate was our intended target. With most places too expensive for us and the affordable ones already fully booked, we ended up at Pink Manila Hostel. It’s still in Malate but is situated on the Vito Cruz area, quite a long ways away from Silya, our watering hole of choice.

Coming from an afternoon drinking session at Makati City’s El Chupacabra, the weekend gang decided that we didn’t really want to go home just yet. We looked for a lodging that can accommodate our group in a single room and found a hostel that fits the bill—Z Hostel Makati. And it’s just a few steps away from our current watering hole too.

Z HOSTEL’S SWANKY LOBBY

Z Hostel is one of the newest hostels to mushroom along Makati’s backpacker district, Poblacion (same street as Junction Hostel Makati). It packages itself as a luxury hostel—something quite new to my ears, really, as the attraction of most hostels is its budget-friendly prices, which more often than not, translates to mediocre sleeping quarters.

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It was early evening when we alighted from our cab. Slowly trudging our way through the horrendous Friday night Manila traffic, we eventually reached a quiet side street near Poblacion—Makati City’s flamboyant party and backpacking district. Our rendezvous, the newest hostel this side of the metro—Junction Hostel Makati.

JUNCTION HOSTEL’S SECURED ROOM ENTRANCE

It was Junction Hostels’ soft opening and we were their first guests. With the usual weekend gang, we entered the hostels’ chic lobby and were warmly greeted by their staff. A few minutes of checking in and we were handed our funky electronic key cards. We’re off to the third floor of the hostel for our room.

Sunday time is mooching time after a weekend of mischief and debauchery takes its toll.

I was nodding my head, agreeing with the handwritten note posted on one of Red Carabao’s wall. It cannot be more true, I said to myself as I lay sprawled on the hostel’s bean bag, chugging a cold bottle of Red Horse while swapping travel tales and opinions with kindred souls from around the globe.

What I was doing inside a hostel in the heart of Manila was beyond me.

I live in Malabon City, which is just three jeepney rides away from Red Carabao Manila. I mean, a hostel isn’t even something one will consider for a staycation, but there I was with a couple of other travel bloggers, mingling with an international crowd of backpackers.

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