Day 12

18 December 2008

What a bummer. The ForEx Rate has gotten worse since the US Fed cut a key interest rate to almost 0%. Instead of 48-50PHP per dollar, we're now getting 46. Ay na ko!

After changing money at the Robinson's near the hotel, we walked to the National Art Museum where I took some contraband photos of the interior. Hey, at least I didn't touch any of the paintings, unlike one of the other museum patrons! Mom thinks the guy was trying to scratch the eyes from the painting because he thought the subject of the painting was watching him. Crazy dude. We saw Juan Luna's great masterpiece, "Spoliarium", and Felix Hidalgo's "Assassination of Gov. Bustamante and His Son."

We had lunch at the SM City Hall Mall. Mom and I had a great merrienda meal for 50PHP. What an awesome deal! I had a bowl of arroz caldo, a lumpia shanghai, turon, and a bottle of water for a little over a $1. Leah splurged a bit, but still spent less than $4 on her larger meal. We also had to buy another pair of shoes for me, since my shoes became too uncomfortable to wear. *Darn!*

By the time we walked to the Intramuros ("Walled City"), most of the exhibits had closed. However, we were still able to see San Agustin and the Manila Cathedral, the Church of the Immaculate Conception. San Agustin is the oldest church in the Philippines, having first been built in 1571. The current structure is actually the third church built on the site and was completed in 1607. There was a wedding about to start there, so we didn't linger long. The Cathedral is where my cousin Anselmo Ferdinand got married. While it was also grand, San Agustin felt more ornate and had a greater sense of history.

We had a really excellent dinner at Philippine Classic Cuisine (C2) that consisted of laing (a Bicolano dish of gabi leaves in coconut milk), crispy tilapia with pineapple salsa and coconut emulsion, aligue rice (rice with crabfat...yummmm), garlicky pinakbet, and pancit malabon. It was a lot of food, but we had earned it with all the walking we'd done! I also had a fantastic drink made from lime soda and salabat (brown sugar and ginger syrup that were frozen into ice cubes). We thanked the chef for the wonderful meal and walked back to the hotel, during which mom sprained her ankle. :(

We'll see more of the Intramuros tomorrow if her ankle feels better.

Day 11

17 December 2008

My cousin, Maria Louisa (Marilou or Lou) took me and her daughter, Nicole, to Tiendesitas, an outdoor market about a 5-10 minute ride from BRB. It's a pretty neat place with a lot of Filipina Kultura items. Among the items that I bought there was an original oil painting by a local artist of a church in Laguna. It was a steal, at $30USD. Mostly, I ogled at the furniture they were selling there and wished that I could afford the shipping costs to bring them home with me. Lou says that Brad Pitt orders a lot of his furniture from Cebu. I don't know if that's true, but the Cebuano furniture I've seen have been really cool. Lou bought me some fruit to try - star apple and lonzanes. They were so good and brought back memories from my childhood. But apparently, I'd forgotten how to eat lonzanes because my fingers were covered in latex half-way through my first berry! We also made the unfortunate mistake of sitting near a fruit stand that was selling durian. Yuck!

Leah's been researching hotels in Manila for the past day. She thought it would be nice to spend a couple of days in Manila proper in order to make sight seeing a little easier. After what seemed like hours of exhaustive searching, she made reservations at the G Hotel on Roxas Blvd for the next two days, including tonight. Sonny was really kind to drive us all the way to the hotel, considering it was almost a 2 hour drive, with all the traffic.

Looking forward to seeing Manila tomorrow!

Day 10

16 December 2008

Since we're not doing much today, I thought I'd share some words and phrases that I've learned so far:

Saang si CR? (Where's the bathroom?)
Doon (over there)
Dito (here)
Meron pa ba ____ ? (Is there more ____ ?)
Dito bayad po (to the Jeepney driver - "Here's my fare")
Bawal mag cigarillio dito (smoking is not allowed here)
Ay na ko! (Oh my! OMG, WTF)
Ayo ko na (I don't like that)
Masarap (delicious)
Mainit (hot - temperature)
Maasim (really sour)
Itlog (egg)
Tubig (water)
Lalake (man)
Babae (woman)
Anak (child)
Dahan, dahan (slowly!)
Mabilis (quickly)

And my stand-by response -
Hindi ko alam Tagalog. English, please? (I don't know/understand Tagalog. Could you please speak in English?)

Day 9

15 December 2008

We survived our first trip on public transit today! Leah and I both expressed an interest in seeing Metro Manila and to see some sights that have importance to our family history. So today, mom took us to the University of Santo Tomas (St. Thomas), her alma mater.

Although getting there was easier than I thought, I think I probably lost a couples of years from my lifespan by riding in Jeepneys. The traffic is so bad sometimes that you're sitting in stand-still traffic for 10 minutes and inhaling engine exhaust. We took a Jeepney to Cubao and then hopped on the LRT (Light Rail Transit) to go to Manila. The LRT itself was very comfortable and quite pleasant, much like the train system in Bangkok. If I thought traffic in Manila was already really bad, I can't imagine what it must have been like before the LRT! From Recto station, we got on another Jeepney to Santo Tomas. Door to door, the trip took about 1.5 hours. Good thing we didn't have to stick to a schedule!

We walked around campus and noticed that everyone was in uniform. Mom explained that each college has its own uniform and dress code, so you could easily identify which student was studying what. UST is also one of the oldest universities in the world, at 400 years old. And, while we didn't get to tour their museum (it's closed on Mondays), we did buy some quadricentennial commemorative items.

Day 8

14 December 2008

Attended mass at the church just outside of the barangay gates with Lola for Gaudete Sunday (third Sunday in Advent). There was a mix up on the time and we arrived an hour earlier than when the mass began. It was nice to follow along with the mass, even though I didn’t understand the language.

Auntie and Uncle took us to Tagaytay in Cavite for lunch and a day trip. We stopped at Trobado for lunch and were serenaded by troubadours (hence the name of the restaurant). I had a great time singing along with them, but I don’t think my younger cousins appreciated the experience as much as I did. Trobado also had a fantastic view of Lake Taal and Taal Volcano.

After lunch we went to Canyon Woods and toured the golf course community there. The Adrianos are members at several golf clubs in the area and they own a lot at Canyon Woods. They haven’t built their house yet, but they plan to do that in a couple of years. We had coffee at the club house and while we were there, I spied a castle looking structure in the distance. They told me that it was called “Fantasy World,” a really exclusive club at which they were also members.

I have mixed feelings about this place. The place was empty, almost deserted. But the grounds were still maintained and secured with guards. We had the place all to ourselves, but none of the buildings were finished on the inside, except for the bowling alley and the swimming pool. It was like they put the structure up and then didn’t bother to finish the rest of it. Uncle says it’s because ever since the owner suffered a stroke, they stopped construction. It’s a shame really, since the place could be a wonderful attraction for visitors to the area. But, because it's an exclusive resort, they won't open it up to the paying public. We ended up bowling at their bowling alley, with Leah scoring the highest at 83. I finished with a 78. I think everyone else was in the 50s.

Day 7

13 December 2008

We took our Lola (grandmother) on a walk around the neighborhood today and ended up at the Barangay Hall (community center). I think we even met the bgy president, Ellen Reyes. We talked, shared photos and got Lola to walk around the patio for a few minutes. For those of you who don't know, my grandma suffered a stroke in August which left her left side severely weakened. She loses her balance easily if she's walking unassisted, so her caregiver is with her almost all day. While it's difficult to see, I'm grateful that she's alive and still has the same firecracker spirit that I remember from my childhood. She misses her home in Naga City and constantly says that she would like to return to there rather than stay in Blue Ridge. I can sympathize with her, but for her safety, it's probably best for her to stay here.

The afternoon was spent walking around Cubao. We took a Jeepney ride from BRB to Cubao and, boy, was it an adventure! A Jeepney is a converted Jeep (or something like it - I'm pretty sure that's the way it started but now I think they probably make Jeepney bodies) that's like a private taxi, decorated to suit the driver's personality. Mom set a few ground rules for us to follow in the vehicle, to ensure our safety - no jewelry, no purses, keep everything in your pockets at all times including your hands, and don't speak unless you absolutely need to (since speaking would identify us as Americans and thus increase our chances of getting mugged). However, *someone* decided to hand the driver 250 pesos ($5USD) when our total fare should have been only 32PHP ($0.90). It was a good thing we were riding with such nice people and that the driver handed back the money right away. And, no, that someone was not me. I'll let you guess who it was. Leah also had to sit like a contortionist for half of the ride because a teenage schoolboy decided that the three inches of seat between her and the next passenger was enough to sit on. May there were three inches of seat left because I wasn't actually sitting on the bench myself! I spent most of the ride to Cubao hanging on to the overhead bar and doing a wall-sit! Had I known I was going to do a work out, I would have worn more comfortable clothes. :)

In Cubao, we went to yet another mall (the Gateway). I don't know why we're going to so many shopping malls, especially since they're so crowded. But I guess shopping is the main thing to do in the cities. Anyway, I picked up some books on Philippine reef fishes and dive guides to help me with choosing a dive operator and dive sites in either Batangas or Bohol. Planning a dive trip is usually pretty easy if everyone has a C card and wants to dive. but since I'm the only certified diver in my group, it's been challenging to nail down a resort that offers other activities and accommodations that works for our schedule.

We went to the night market in Green Hills to finish our day. I've been to night markets before and this one was so packed with shoppers I couldn't really see anything close up. The highlight of the outing, though, was seeing the puppet show on top of one of the neighboring buildings. I remember watching this show as a child and it was neat to see that it hadn't changed much.

Day 6

12 December 2008

I'm typing this post from my room, courtesy of the wireless router I set up today at my aunt's house in Blue Ridge. I never thought I was much of a technical wizard, but I surprised myself by being able to get it working. Living with Toby must be rubbing off on me now. The tech support part, that is. :)

We visited the Lopez museum and saw paintings by the great Filipino master, Felix Hidalgo. We also toured an art exhibit called "Keeping the Faith," which was a reflection of the political hardships and struggles of the Filipino people. I think we'll try to visit the National Art Museum at some point during this trip and try to see paintings by Juan Luna and Jose Rizal.

Next, we walked to the Mega Mall and had lunch at Goldilocks cafe and bakery. This is the second time we've been to a really big mall this week and I think I'm going to need to wear more sturdy shoes if we're going to do more shopping. I thought the SM Marikina was big... you could easily fit 10 of those malls in the MegaMall. Yikes. The crazy thing is, we were there at around 2:30pm and the place was PACKED. Don't these people have to work?

Oh, one more thing. It rained today and guess who didn't have an umbrella.

Day 5

11 December 2008

Again, breakfast was ready and waiting for us in the dining room. I could get used to this kind of living. We started our day with a grammar lesson in Tagalog. So, ok, my sister and I speak like 2 year olds, but at least we get our points across without offending anyone. My mom has a good laugh every time we speak, but at least we are trying. My aunt was having printing problems and asked if I could take a look at her computer. To make a long story short, don’t use Windows Vista if you don’t have at least 2GB of RAM.

We drove back to QC in the evening and I had a great time talking with my cousin’s kids – Nik, who is graduating next year from high school, Sage and Cian who chatted with me about sports and astrophysics. And now it’s late and I think I’m about caught up with my journal entries. If we can get internet access regularly, I’ll have all of this posted on blogger by tomorrow!

Day 4

10 December 2008

It’s the first Wednesday of the month and we decided to be good Catholics and went to morning mass with my aunt and uncle at the Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baclaran. I can’t say that we’ll do that again, considering we left the house at 5:00am – yes, A. M. - and stood for nearly an hour because there was standing room only at the church at 5:30. The church at Baclaran is one of the biggest in the area and is known for being the birthplace of the People Power movement that deposed the Marcos regime. The attendance at that mass was staggering… there’s nothing like it in Seattle, not even at the midnight mass at St. James Cathedral. There were easily well over a thousand people at Baclaran.

The one thing that surprised me was the amount of foot traffic present there from all the vendors and shoppers who began their business a few hours before the mass began. My uncle says that the majority of the street vendors are displaced Muslims from Mindanao and that they live on the streets. It’s been difficult for me to see the level of abject poverty here and how widespread it is, especially when we’re staying in a gated community and there are four vehicles in the driveway. I’m not saying that I hold any of that against my family. They are hard working people who don’t show off their wealth, and indeed, who also contribute to a lot of welfare programs. But it is quite hard to reconcile their lifestyle with the immense poverty that surrounds them. We tried solving the country’s unemployment problem while we were driving to breakfast and, needless to say, I’m glad that other, much smarter people are working on it than I.

We drove to Bulacan later today and toured my aunt and uncle’s property where they have a dairy farm training center, mango and mahogany groves, papaya plantation, rice paddies, and a small resort. My mother, the queen of misinformation as we lovingly call her, informed us that there would be internet access and a swimming pool there, and that we could go home that evening with our cousin, Marilou. Well, we discovered that the internet access was only available at my aunt’s computer – which was being used by her, the swimming pool hadn’t covered nor in use for the past month and had algae growing on top of it, and Marilou wouldn’t be at the property that day. Even though neither of us was prepared to spend the night, we took it in stride and enjoyed the rest of the day there by taking a walking tour with our uncle around the property. The day ended with a delicious sample of the yogurt that was made at the farm. Yum!! All's well that ends well.

Day 3

9 December 2008

The morning started with a short trip down memory lane, courtesy of my cousin Cecile. We drove through the University of the Philippines (UP) and saw my sister’s school where she attended the 1st grade. I myself didn’t go there, as I was too young, but I remember going there when we picked her up and dropped her off to school.

Cecile took us to her work place since Leah needed to check in at work. We thought that maybe we’d catch a taping of Wowowee at the ABS-CBN studios, but it turns out that they weren’t taping until Thursday. I wasn’t too disappointed since I wouldn’t be able to understand anything. We spent the next couple hours holed up at the Starbucks in Cecile’s building, enjoying the AC and the WiFi. They charge about $2/hr to use their WiFi, but it was money well spent. After Leah was finished working, we had lunch at Dencio’s and had waaaay too much food.

A word about food here… we LOVE the food here, especially breakfast. My aunt employs several people at her house and there’s always food out. In fact, there’s food on the table before we even go downstairs to eat…there’s goes any idea I had of losing weight while we’re here.

The rest of the day was spent at the SM Marikina – a huge (and that’s an understatement) mall. Apparently there’s an even bigger mall in Manila called the Mall of Asia. Cecile’s husband, Sonny, offered to take us there later, but I politely refused, saying that I could only take in one mega mall per week. Four long hours later, we were ready to fall asleep on our feet.

Day 1 and 2

7-8 December 2008

The beginning of our trip. We checked into the airport and were a little dismayed at finding that our flight was delayed by almost an hour, which meant that our connecting flight would have left 30 minutes prior to when we would land in Honolulu. We were faced with the possibility of having to stay overnight in Hawaii and lose a day of vacation, but we really couldn’t complain. It’s Hawaii, after all, so there was no need to get worked up. It turns out that we had nothing to worry about anyway because we started boarding at 8:00am. We arrived in HNL with plenty of time to spare – we even had time to order smelly take-out food from Gordon Biersch (garlic fries that I’m sure our neighbors *loved*). The 11 hour flight was uneventful. Leah passed the time finishing up the Twilight saga as I watched several movies (Meet Dave, Mama Mia, Wall-E, Baby Mama) and more than my fair share of bad music videos on the digE console. How anyone takes Britney Spears seriously as a musician is beyond me.

When we arrived in Manila, we were greeted by Rusty, who helped us get our luggage and expedited our passage through customs. It felt a bit awkward to have someone helping us like that, but in the end, I was thankful because it would have been near impossible to find my cousin’s car after we left the baggage terminal.

The drive to Blue Ridge (a barangay or “village”) in Quezon City, where my maternal aunt and her family live, was what I expected street traffic in Asia to be – extremely congested with the road lines being treated as mere guidelines rather than hard and fast rules. Needless to say, it was a harrowing experience for my sister, who hadn’t been to Asia in 25 years. Having been to Thailand two years ago, I knew to expect that kind of thing and let go of my fear of colliding vehicles more quickly. I’m going to have to get back that healthy sense of fear before I return to the States.

The first thing we did was visit our Lola (grandmother). She was resting in her room with my aunt Milette by her side. My mom reminded us that we were still in grade school the last time she saw us and we all got a little teary eyed when we greeted her. She looks healthy and is still the same fire-cracker, independent spirit she was before her stroke. If anything, seeing her smile made this trip worthwhile.

Hi y'all

The women in my family (mom, sister and me) are taking a 3 week trip to visit family in the Philippines this December. My sister and I haven't been back to PI since we left in the early 80s and haven't seen most of our cousins in over 20 years. Mom's already packed, and well, Leah and I are frantically trying to wrap up work in the next few days to get ready. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited to go. My response? "I'll be excited once I'm on the plane!" 3 days and counting!