MANILA, PHILIPPINES

Manila, we've arrived!!


So we have finally arrived at the latest destination of our travels.  18 months in the Philippines :)  The last three weeks have been pretty crazy, getting the kids adjusted to the time zone (it's 12 hours ahead of New York, so they were completely topsy turvy).  The kids are finally settled in their new school, CPC (Creative Play Corner) and loving it, and enjoying the afternoons at the hotel pool.  Life is good!

Random thoughts ......

* It's hot hot hot here!!!  The Philippines have two seasons.  Hot and Hot & Wet.  We are currently in the hot and wet season, so we've had a thunderstorm pretty much every day.  They only last an hour or so though, so swimming has not really been impacted.  The storms here are very impressive.

* Jeepneys are the local form of transport.  They are were initially made from the old WWII jeeps brightly decorated.  Now that the originals are no longer available, they are made from scratch keeping the original designs.  They are brightly decorated, usually with a reference to God somewhere on them.  They have no windows and no back door, so when you follow one, you can see everyone scrunched up on the two bench seats along the sides. I always worry that someone will fall out and land on our car!


The cost to ride is about 3 pesos (roughly 6 cents).  They are one of the main modes of transportation for the locals, although I've not yet seen an expat on one.  If there is no room on the jeepney, no worries!! Just hang on the back, or hop on top!!!



(photos courtesy of bing.com)

* Poverty is all around us.  It's sometimes hard to see.  Every morning, we leave our lovely air conditioned hotel, after having a lovely buffet breakfast in their restaurant.  We are met by our driver downstairs, who drives us to Fort Bonafacio to the kids school.  Along the way we see houses that are missing walls, roofs, floors, yet are fully occupied with families all huddling together.  A man sleeps on his tricycle (a motorbike with a covered sidecar, another mode of transportation for the locals). How he does not fall off the seat is a mystery to me.  Most mornings, we see a man and his son, sitting on the central divide of the road.  The son looks to be about M's age, and is completely naked with a protruding belly.  He just squats down and plays with the small rocks on the divide.  Every morning we drive past, every morning I just want to take him home with us and feed him.  It breaks my heart.  We are so lucky, yet alot of the time, we don't realize it.

* Men with guns!  Security is another thing to get used to here.  Every entrance to the mall involves going through a metal detectors and sometimes the guard (with a gun in his holster) will wave his wand over our bags.  Our car is checked every time we enter the underground parking to the hotel.  A sniffer dog is routinely waiting in the lobby.  Banks are guarded with men with machine guns ... don't know about you, but I feel pretty safe!

* Mam.  Yup, that's my new name!  I send Willie, our driver, a text to let him know we are on our way down.  He replies GUD MRNING MAM. THNX MAM ... he calls me Mam all the time. Ken is Sir Ken!  When I take the kids to school, there are loads of yayas there (the filipino carers who look after the kids ... kinda like a nanny).  They all sit in the entryway of the school and as I walk past, they all chorus "morning Mam!" Will anyone ever call me Priscille again!?!?

* The kids are stars!  Every member of staff in the hotel knows R & M.  If I dare walk through the lobby without them, I'm inundated with people asking where they are .. needless to say, the kids are loving the attention.

* The service here is amazing but takes getting used to.  The filipinos seem to have an amazing memory. I went to Rustans, a local grocery store, with Ken.  We did some shopping, Ken told the bagger we were at the Ascott and the bagger proceeded to push our groceries all the way back to the hotel.  I went to Rustans myself a few times and carried my groceries back myself (I'm independent!!  That and it never occurs to me to ask them!).  Well the last time, the bagger must have recognized me, because he bagged my groceries and while I was paying, he walked off with them!!!  Of course, I was flustered and thought he was running off with my groceries (enough people warn you about theft and you start to get paranoid). I caught up with him and he just smiled and said "Ascott Mam?" ... ummmm, yes, sure, why not!  Of course, now I'm wondering about tip .. I didn't pay attention to how much Ken had tipped last time.  I had a quick look in my wallet and saw two 20 peso notes, so I pulled them out and handed them to him.  He looked ever so grateful and off he went.  I hustled upstairs, checked my converter and was mortified that I'd tipped him less than a dollar, actually, less than 50 cents!  Well, I later learned that I had OVER tipped him!  I gave the guy an hours wages!  Well, I'm just going to keep on over tipping then, because if that's all the poor fella gets paid, then he needs the money.  I'll also have to remember to ask for them to push my groceries to the hotel!!!

* Massage is very big over here.  For a mere $6, you can have an hour massage, and they actually come to you.  Nice!!  Of course, they are not nearly as body conscious here as us Westerners.  Here, they are not shy and don't wait for you to discreetly get onto the table/bed.  They just stand there and yank your robe away while you dive face first onto the bed, as fast as humanly possible, while hoping they didn't see too much!!  First massage I had, I got a big shock when they massaged my bum!!!  My bum needed a massage? Really?  This is going to take some getting used to ... come to think of it, i've been sitting for awhile, better go get a massage ;o)

* Food is a tough one to get used to.  While they have some great mangos, everything else is taking getting used to.  At first glance, the grocery store looks quite familiar, like A&P or Stop & Shop, but then you realize that you can't understand the labels and have no idea what you are buying.  Ok, so off to the fish department.  Fish is fish right?  Shocked to find the fish department is actually swimming!!  People stand next to the fish tank with nets, you tell them what you want and they catch it for you ... ok, skip that one.  Go around another corner and walk into a giant sized bucket full of legs, wings, thighs, heads, feet ... thankfully no feathers ... ok, maybe vegetarian is the way to go ... found a jar of peanut butter and some bread ... ok, we won't starve!

Ok, so that was a little drastic, we can find some food that we recognize.  There is a european section and a small US section that we find food, and some food is pretty similar to ours.  I mean, I'm pretty sure it's spaghetti R was twirling around her fork earlier .....

Well that's all for now.  Gotta get some sleep .... will post some real pics soon .. just working up the courage to whip out my camera in public .. till the next time ....