“Paalam” Philippines

I was surprised to find that the Tagbilaran airport was not much bigger than the Busuanga airport, despite the town being quite a bit larger and more modern. We boarded the flight with no issues, and were on our way back to Manila. The weather forecasted over Manila was stormy and grim, so Christina was a bit worried about turbulence. We were sharing our trio of seats with Robert, a German gentleman, with whom I struck up a conversation that lasted from taxi for takeoff to taxi after landing. He has lived in the Philippines for twelve years, and owns a small business designing and exporting pearl jewellery to Germany. We chatted about the Philippines, Europe, and travelling for the entire flight, which kept Christina sufficiently entertained to disregard the (very minor) bumps encountered during our flight. We parted ways with exchanged email addresses, and a promise from him to follow up with an email to us with all sorts of tips about making the most of travelling in Europe.

In Manila, we had decided to set up in the somewhat touristy area of Malate, which is well located between local attractions, as well as its own options for shopping and dining. The taxi driver had the Pacquiao fight on the radio, and we listened to rounds 5 through 9, then were dropped off at the door of the Pearl Garden Hotel. The reception desk had no record of us, so we showed them our receipt with its confirmation of our names, the date, room selection, and full payment. They had us wait for half an hour, then delivered the “good news” that their sales office had agreed to “give us a room”. Darn right. We were then required to wait for a further two hours before we could check in, while they cleaned the room. We were both exhausted and frustrated, and at the time it felt like they could have built the room faster, so we impatiently passed the time in the adjascent cafe watching the earlier rounds of the fight on a delayed television broadcast. At last we were in a room, on a bed (well, two beds pushed together, in fact) and could rest. I had been hoping for a smooth check-in, then head to a pub to watch the fight amidst a crowd of foaming-mouthed fans. I had also hoped for an exciting fight with a knockout finish, so it didn’t really work out on a couple of levels. We snoozed for a few hours and woke hungry, having not yet eaten, so headed to the Robinson Mall to find some dinner.

The next few days were spent relaxing, and casually exploring a few other areas of the downtown Manila areas. Most of our time has been spent either in malls or in the hotel, which does feel like a bit of a waste, but we’ll be in India soon, and this recharge time is probably well spent. Christina has been very much enjoying the cable TV, and I’ve been reading Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, which is much better than I expected, and has replaced Ringworld, which I was only halfway through, but had left on the airplane by accident.

We were going to do a walk down Roxas Boulevard, but high winds were throwing huge waves at the boardwalk, casting spray over the walk and right into the street. In addition to the Robinson Mall we also browsed around the Greenbelt, Glorietta, and Mall of Asia shopping centers. Not much purchasing went on, but we did a lot of looking around.

Dad E mentioned the Divisoria Markets as a spot to check out, and it was certainly different than the malls. When looking up the address we read a LOT about how dangerous it was. Crawling with pickpockets, muggers, and thugs. You’ll lose everything you take in, so don’t wear the new shirt or shoes. I was curious to see a real market. I was a little skeptical about this fierce reputation, but it definitely seemed prudent to take caution. Divirsoria is a dense community that contains a number of different markets all jammed together, but most of it inside, most of it well lit, and most of it still air conditioned. We did take a walk through some of the exterior parts, and it was definately a bit crowded, and the stall keepers did a lot of pushy sales, but nothing unusual for a market of that type. We only spent about two hours wandering through the markets, but it felt like long enough to get a general feel for it. Not having any specific purchases in mind allowed a pretty rapid pace cruising from stall to stall. I didn’t see anything worth buying, unfortunately, since I would have loved to try out the few haggling phrases I had learned. We walked out of the market area to do a little more exploring of the congested streets. It’s pretty much impossible to feel threatened by any neighbourhood sporting a Starbucks, so I had a big of a laugh with myself about all the precautions we had taken. Then we went in and had a frappuccino.

We had taken a taxi from the hotel to Divisoria, but for the way back we chose a tricycle, with a pruney old guy at the wheel. Though not quite as cool as the A/C in a taxi, and a little smellier, it’s much more fun, and even a little faster. He zigged and zagged through the slow-moving cars and jeepneys, and dropped us back off in our familiar turf in Malate.

We had dinner with Tito Lito and Tita Ludy, and Ate Rashel and Kuya Roy, at a restaurant very near our hotel. It was great to see them again, and to share our respective travel experiences – ours in Palawan, Cebu, and Bohol; theirs at a workshop in Mindanao.

I had my first small taste of Ox tongue (ordered by Ate Rashel), and found it surprisingly tasty. Tito Lito had offered us a ride home, but Christina and I were confident in our ability to walk the same few blocks we had covered on our own numerous times. On that walk we were accosted by a few street urchins who provided the first opportunity to block pickpockets. They stuck to us for a block until Christina yelled “tama na!” at them (“enough now!”, a phrase I’m sure she recalls from her childhood shenanigans). Christina was restless during the night, so we slept in past breakfast. We spent the morning booking the required hotels and flights to take us the seven hundred or so kilometers north of Mumbai to Udaipur. I had hoped to do this first leg overland via the train, but we decided that it might be a little ambitious. We’ll have lots of chances for train trips in India, and will spend our first few days trying to set up a positive first impression, which sixteen hours on a train might not support. Reading through the hotel reviews for what was available near the Mumbai airport read like a laundry list of complaints about service quality and standards of cleanliness, at prices even worse than we had seen in Australia. Not an encouraging start, but we’re looking to Udaipur to appreciate India in a more tangible way.

Our last day took us to the fashion gallery in Robinson’s Mall since Christina was hankering for a ‘nice blouse’ to wear for dinner later on. Here, I finally had the chance to try out my tagalog and haggling skills, which was amusing and successful, since I managed to get Christina’s outfit (blouse, tank & belt) for 260 pesos = $5.81 CDN. But it was not as amusing as the vendor’s assumption that Christina and I had met over the internet. The vendor quickly realized that we were both Canadian once Christina opened her mouth to speak.

In the evening we took a taxi over to Resorts World which was like a minature vegas with a small mall, theatre, cinema, casino and several high-end hotels. We met up with Ate Rashel and Kuya Roy one last time and to take them out as an appreciation for lending out their condo to us. It was a great dinner with really fun conversation. Our table was killing ourselves laughing at each other’s stories, a nice final good-bye to the Philippines and to our cousins.

Visiting the Philippines this time around gave me a better taste of what the country had to offer. We’ve had pretty diverse experiences during our stay here. On the one hand, we saw absolute paradises, chilled out beaches and all that the urban jungle has to offer. But on the other hand, we saw some of the poorer areas and were exposed to the social fallout. While it was really fun poking around at the natural wonders around this island country, probably the highlight of this leg will be our brief visit to the orphanage in Cordova. I would have loved to explore the towns that Christina’s parents werefrom and ride the motorbike around Panglao island some more. But that will have to be another time – it’s off to India!