Backpacker Bars: Hobbit House

When I said in an earlier post that there were no backpacker bars in Manila, I was much mistaken, I just hadn’t been to THE backpacker bar of Manila, the famous Hobbit House. Staffed by little people, Hobbit House is not politically incorrect, in fact it provides employment for them.

Door leading to Hobbit House

According to their website, hobbithousemanila.com, it was founded in 1973 by Jim Turner, a Peace Corps volunteer, and was inspired by The Lord of the Rings. The whole bar is dripping with Lord of the Rings paraphenalia in a tasteful way. Most of it are the classic drawings, which makes it even cooler. And on Mondays and Fridays (accdg. to their website), Filipino rock legend Freddie Aguilar plays (ask him to play “Anak”), but even on other nights, other bands play most probably 70’s or 60’s golden oldies (but still damn good). And to make this bar even greater they serve 150 kinds of beer from all over the world (including my favorite, Trappistes Rochefort 10).

I was going over their website, and seems like they have a library on a side bar room, that is opened to the public. Probably mostly Lord of the Rings books, but I have to try to check it out, when I go back.

As their website says, they’re a hard Hobbit to break.