Miscellaneous Manila

To say that Manila, and the Philippines in general, continues to amaze me would be an understatement.  Now, I'm not going to pretend that all the sights I see are amusing or to deny that some actually horrify me, but I will say that I spend much of my time here with my jaw-dropped and eyes wide-opened.  Although we are often laughing and saying, "Only in the Philippines", I do realize that these observations can be made through most of Asia.

There are the frequent and always amusing, at least to me, sights of random farm animals on the roadside or in someone's yard.  Robert's neighbours have chickens that Cock-a-doodle-doo at the crack of dawn and I saw 4 goats at the side of the road during our travels for some Philippine snacks today.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a chuckle at the sight of construction-type hardhats being used in place of motorcycle helmets or at men working on road construction wearing a shirt on their heads and flipflops on their feet.  Yesterday we saw a man riding atop cases and cases of pop and beer bottles in the back of a truck.  The people walking down the middle of the roads barefoot trying to sell flowers, water bottles, dusting cloths and other random bits and baubles continue to leave me frightened for their lives, especially when some of them are young children or elderly blind folk.  The one sight that continues to haunt me, however, is the smiling face of young boys not much, if at all, older than Duncan with cigarettes in hand and smoke escaping from their smiles.

I should probably update everyone on the happenings of the last few days too.  On Monday, Robert, Duncan, Danica, Robert's Mom and I went into Manila for a few days.  We started with a trip to Quiapo market to pick up some souvenirs and Philippine handicrafts.  I saw a gorgeous baby bassinet I would have loved to pick up for a good friend's granddaughter (who is to be born this summer), but unfortunately, it would not have fit into our suitcases for the flight home!  Afterwards, Vher and Marissa dropped us off at  the H2O Hotel.  The aquarium walls were a sight to behold but luckily the lights got turned out from 9 pm until 6 am every day or else I'm sure the kids wouldn't have had any sleep!  Once the kids were in bed, Robert and I headed to the Spa where we partook in a full body fish spa (very weird - not sure that having little piranhas nibbling on my feet and elsewhere was quite as relaxing as I'd hoped), a massage (my first ever unless you count the Thai massage I had in Bangkok which turned me into a human pretzel), and a hot bed treatment.  It should be noted, too, that although they allowed us both to use the fish spa in the mens' change room since we were the only customers, typically, women and men are separated.  I don't think I would've enjoyed it at all if Robert wasn't there with me and vice versa.  Robert also couldn't imagine getting the guys together for a trip to the fish spa instead of wings and beer.

 A small section of Quiapo

Part of the Aquarium Wall

The Fish Spa

Tuesday morning, the kids and I had a quick swim in the pool before we ventured into all the Manila Ocean Park shows and exhibits for the day.  Duncan loved taking his picture with a sea lion but I think a highlight for me, and likely for Danica too, was having a chance to feed the penguins.  Poor Danica had a fever that day though so wasn't really enjoying the day the way we'd expected her to.  Although she has asked a couple of times now if it's time to go back to Canada, she wasn't too impressed with Snow Village, crying about being cold and "freezing to death".

Before Robert and I had a chance to figure out what we wanted to do for the evening (ie., a walk along Manila Bay, drinks on the patio), I fell asleep so it was an early night for the lot of us.

 Duncan, Robert and Cora

 Duncan with a Brahminy Kite

 Robert almost has the wingspan of the Philippine Eagle

 Duncan's wingspan is the equivalent to the Brahminy Kite

 Feeding the Humboldt Penguins

Wearing flipflops in the snow

On Wednesday, after another swim, we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Mall of Asia where we spent too much money buying each of the kids and Robert new Filipino formal wear (now if only one of my engaged cousins would set a date within the next year or two, they would have an occasion to wear it!).  I would hazard a guess that there were probably the equivalent number of people at the mall as the population of my hometown, even though it never actually seemed that busy, except at Jollibee.  There is a skating rink, bowling alley, multiple theatres, an amusement park complete with giant air-conditioned ferris wheel and a trolley that takes you to various places within the mall.

 The kids and I in the pool

Duncan and Danica in the pool

Robert and the kids doing Kiyomi in the pool

The Mall of Asia globe 

 Danica and Duncan trying on their Filipino clothes

 One of the mall's promenades

Riding the trolley

From there, we headed to Star City, which is an amusement park that may have seen better days.  Although not expensive by Canadian standards, Robert was quite upset that we'd spent as much as we'd had for entrance fees and "Ride All You Can" bracelets for everyone to find out that Duncan and Sam were barely too big for most of the kiddie rides but Danica, Chessie and Aira were a smidge too small for a lot of them too.  It was quite frustrating, particularly when the rides were not at all busy.  Robert and Rowena swiftly complained though and requested permission for the kids to ride the rides they wanted to ride or refund all our money.  Their original response was that Duncan and Sam could ride the adult rides but after a tear-filled fiasco with each of them on separate rides, it was obvious that just because they were a couple of inches over the 4 feet minimum height requirement, they were clearly not ready for most of the "adult" rides.

 Star City

 Danica in the mouth of the Anaconda

The Peter Pan Adventure

Today has been a rather lazy day on the one hand with us attempting, unsuccessfully, to go for a late afternoon swim since we were all still in our pj's and we hadn't yet showered.  Robert and I were productive though in organizing all our suitcases, preparing one for Bataan for the 4 of us and one for our last night in Manila before we fly home Tuesday morning and gathering together the clothes we will need for the other days.  It also involved trying some more fun treats for merienda...

 Sapin-sapin

Pinipig

Tonight, we are headed over to Robert's Tita Celing's for dinner and a visit.  We have our fingers crossed that she's had a chance to cook the cashews we brought back from Palawan (as my Dad says, "You haven't had a cashew until you've had Tita Celing's cashews").  Tomorrow, we head to Bataan for a couple of beach days; I think Robert has some family bonding activities, such as Tug of War and Volleyball, planned too.  We will be staying at the Pawikan Conservation Center, which is dedicated to saving the pawikans, or sea turtles. I'm very excited - hopefully some of the eggs they have hatch so that we can participate in their release into the sea.