Venturing Into The Great Unknown

Thursday morning we woke early, again, and headed down for our last breakfast at the hotel. The head waiter knew that it was our last morning at the hotel and he went above and beyond to make us feel pampered. I absolutely recommend Hotel H2O to anyone visiting Manila that wants to stay in the heart of Luneta. The employees made us feel like family and it was so hard to say goodbye. The only thing that made it easier was knowing that we were going to stay with F’s family in Imus.

My sister-in-law, Ate N, and her driver, J, came to pick us up and we headed to Imus with a quick stop at Mall of Asia (MOA). I was unable to visit that mall on our last visit as the APEC Summit was being held right next to MOA and the traffic was insane. This time, the traffic was still bad, but not as bad as it had been before. We found a parking spot without too much trouble and headed inside. I have been on a mission to find a pair of dress boots to wear to work for over a year and I was hoping that I would be able to find some here. We started at ShoeMart, but were unsuccessful. As we walked along, Ate N stuck her head in each shoe store and asked if they had boots; however, most stores either didn’t or they were way out of my price range. We then found a souvenir store and I was able to find a Christmas decorations made out of shells for my sister. Then, when I was ready to throw in the towel, Ate N suggested that we try Forever 21. Not only did I find one pair of boots, but I was able to find two pairs, one in beige and one in red. I was over the moon. By this time we decided it was time to head towards “home”, stopping first at the Robinson’s Mall in Imus where we grabbed some groceries and I also got my nails done with Ate N. I realized that it was about time that I got a manicure as several people had commented on how long my nails were. Ate N got a pedicure instead of a manicure. While we were having “girl time”, F and J hung out and chatted about basketball.

After our pampering, we heading to the house. I am so glad that J was driving as I’m sure I would have gotten lost if we had to make our way here by ourselves. Kuya M, F’s brother, was still at work but the kids were at home and I was introduced to them. Nanay was also there and was glad to see us. While we waited for Kuya M to come home, we sat around and chatted. We also gave Ate N and Nanay the T-shirts that we picked up for them in Tofino before we left Canada – I was so glad that I picked the correct sizes. Then F and I went for a walk around the area. As we walked, we greeted people on the street – I am sure that there were a few that were surprised I was able to say hello and such in Tagalog.

Once Kuya M came home from work, we had dinner, which included bangus (milkfish). This was my first experience with having fish that was still attached to the skin and although I normally don’t like fish, I quite enjoyed it. We then went outside to chat. Although it had cooled down, it was still in the high 20’s and quite muggy. I am trying to get used to the heat, but my body is still not sure about it. Luckily, there is aircon in the bedroom which helped greatly with sleeping.
 

Friday morning we had champorado for breakfast. It is basically a warm chocolate rice porridge that you put salted, dried fish on top of. I enjoyed it quite a bit, however, I opted out of the fish on top.

We then headed to the palengke (outdoor market) on two tricycles – Ate N and Nanay rode inside of one and I rode on the back of it and F rode on the back of the other, while Kuya M rode inside. It was my first tricycle ride and it was a blast – the drivers swerve in and out of traffic and I don’t know how I stayed on, but I did. When we reached the palengke, Kuya M headed off to work and we explored we market. We bought pakwan (watermelon), mangga (mango), saging (bananas), sampalok (fresh tamarind) and also longganisa (sausages). F also picked himself up a pair of flip flops.

When we returned from the palengke, we had lunch. Nanay made a salad with pomelo, called ambrosia, and we also rice, soup and some of the fruit. The afternoon was spent relaxing at the house as well as another walk around the neighbourhood. On our walk, we saw papaya, mango and tamarind trees. It is definitely different from back home where it’s currently hovering just above freezing.

When Kuya M returned home from work we had dinner. It was a combination of longganisa, lechon (roast pork), rice and some more fruit. Nanay also prepared a dish that was ground beef and cooked cucumbers which tasted great on top of the rice. For a snack, we had some fried bananas – I can’t believe I never had them before – man they were tasty.

We also planned the next day’s adventure which was a drive to Batangas, via Laurel. I know it sounds silly, but when I found out that there was a place called Laurel (my first name) in the Philippines, I knew I had to visit it. We also planned to visit Eagle Point, a resort in Mabini, that has diving and snorkelling, so we could decide if that was where we wanted to stay for a couple of days next week.

We turned in earlier than usual as it had been a busy couple of days and the outing to Batangas would be a full day adventure.

I have included some pictures of the palengke as well as ones of us on the tricycles.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

L

For the last few months, I have been planning a trip with my wonderful husband, F, to the Philippines. F was originally born there but came to Canada in 1989. Two years ago, I surprised him with his first trip back to Manila. I had quite a bit of trepidation about that trip as I am not comfortable in large crowds or unfamiliar situations. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed myself and immediately started planning our next trip I had been hoping to come over Christmas to be able to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday, however the flights turned out to be cost-prohibitive and I had to plan for November instead.
The time seemed to pass so slowly as I waited for the time to come for us to leave. Finally, on Thursday evening around six, we headed to the airport in Victoria to catch the first of three planes that would take us to Manila. Our first flight was supposed to leave at 8:40 and ended up getting delayed until 9:15, but luckily we made it to Vancouver with plenty of time. While we were waiting for our flight to Taipei, we enjoyed the last of our high-speed internet and I grabbed a quick bite at Subway.
The flight to Taipei was quite full and boarding seemed to take forever, but eventually we were seated and settled in for our almost 13-hour flight. We left at 12:50 in the morning, which messed with us as we ended up having our “dinner” at around 2 am. After dinner we tried to nap. For anyone that has flown economy on a transoceanic flight, you will understand how difficult it can be to get comfortable. Luckily, I was exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before and I was able to get a few hours of fitful sleep before I gave it up as a bad joke and decided to watch a movie. We watched 127 Hours and Argo before grabbing another nap before our second meal. The food was not too bad for airline food and most importantly it was free, as were the drinks.
We arrived in Taipei around 5:30 in the morning (local time) and walked around the airport before F wanted to grab some food. Since we were in Taiwan, he had a beef brisket noodle soup. I wasn’t hungry so I just had some cold green tea. I did try some of his soup broth and thoroughly enjoyed it – I am just not conditioned to have soup for breakfast and found it too much for a morning meal. I did, however, have a free shot of single-malt at one of the numerous whiskey shops in the airport. I also grabbed a bottle of Kavalan, Taiwanese whiskey to bring back with me to Canada. Due to flight restrictions with liquids, I would be unable to pick it up on my return trip as I would need to have it in my checked baggage.

After roaming the airport for a while it was time to board our final leg. What was supposed to be a two and a half hour flight ended up being just shy of 2 hours. Before we knew it, we were landing in Manila under sunny skies. It was then that I realized that I had forgotten to pack my sunglasses.
We got through customs without incident and our shuttle was there waiting for us. Thirty minutes later, we were at our hotel, 8 km away – for Manila, that is amazing time considering the traffic at that time of day.
We dropped our bags off at our room and headed out to Robinson’s Mall, a couple of kilometres away. When we were here two years ago, Robinson’s was a daily trip as we could get tons of walking in, while enjoying the aircon in the mall. This trip, however, we had a purpose – sunglasses and a SIM card for my phone.
We grabbed a SIM card, topped my phone with 8gb of data for a mere $25 CAD, and also found a couple of pair of sunglasses – red of course. We also grabbed a couple of sandwiched to go as I knew we’d be hungry before too long. By this time, jet lag was starting to set in and we were ready for a nap (even though it was only 5 pm). We headed back to the hotel, stopping at a 7-Eleven to grab a couple of San Miguel beer.
Back at the hotel we turned on the television, cracked open our beer and before we were halfway through them, fell asleep on the couch in our room. Luckily, I was able to grab a couple of pictures of the sunset from our room before that happened.

Three hours later, we woke up and decided to go for a walk in Rizal Park which is a block from our hotel. Even at that late at night, the park was packed with people enjoying the cooler weather. By cooler, I mean it had dropped down to 30°C. We wandered around for a bit before heading back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, we finished off our sandwiches and promptly fell asleep.
Around 4 in the morning we were awoken by very loud banging. We were concerned enough to call the front desk, but were told that it was a deaf couple having an argument and that they were dealing with it. I was awake by this point so we turned on the television and watched for a bit before we were able to drift back to sleep.
We were up again around 7:30 and discussed what we wanted to do for the day. We decided to have an easy day and just wander around close to the hotel. F asked what I wanted to do for breakfast and almost on queue I got a Facebook message from the manager, reminding us that we had breakfast included with our room. To be honest, I had totally forgotten. I am so glad that he reminded us. (We befriended the manager two years ago when we stayed here and have chatted via Facebook for the last two years – it was a given that we would stay at this hotel again due to the high level of service that we got here on our last visit.)
We went down to the breakfast buffet and I, again, encountered culture shock. Although there were a couple of “breakfast” items, there was also congee, spicy fish filets and a salad bar. I ended up having some ham, a salad and a couple of fruit salad “shooter cups”. F had two bowls of congee, some fish and some hot dogs. All in all a good start to the day.
After breakfast, we headed back to Robinson’s, with the usual stop at 7-Eleven to grab a juice for the walk. Even though it wasn’t quite noon, the temperature was already 30° with a humidex of 44°. We had both finished our drinks long before we made it to the mall. We wandered around the mall for a while when I decided to check on how much a power bank would be – yet another thing I forget to bring with me. Since F wanted to sit for a bit, I left him at the food court with a mango juice and I went to the ‘techie hall’ as I call it. There are a bunch of stalls that all sell phone and tablet accessories at ridiculously good prices. At the second stall I visited, I was able to find a power bank in red. I also looked for a red Apple Watch band, but was out of luck.

A side note about window-shopping in Manila…you can’t walk into a store and just browse. In fact it is hard to even look through the window at the merchandise without being greeted by a salesperson. I love the attention to customer service that they provide, but sometimes I would just like to look without assistance. It is next to impossible to do that here and it is definitely something that I have trouble getting used to.
By this time we were getting tired and decided to head back to the hotel. We, of course, stopped at 7-Eleven and grabbed a couple of San Miguels on our way. We were diverted by a group of protesters, so we weren’t able to walk through Rizal Park, so instead we headed down to Roxas Blvd and watched as several groups of delegates made their way from the airport to the ASEAN Summit, which is in Manila this week.
Once the sun went down, we decided to head out for dinner…planning to go to Jolibee. When we got there, the lineups were out the door so we decided to go to Max’s instead. Max’s is known as The House That Chicken Built and is like a Swiss Chalet but with more selection. F had the Fiesta Chicken Plate which came with a quarter chicken, lumpiang ubod (spring roll) and rice. I had a potato salad and club house sandwich with a freshly squeezed mango juice. Both meals were delicious and very affordable – the total meal came to around $15 CAD.

After dinner, we meandered back to the hotel, totally forgetting to walk through Rizal Park to get pictures. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
Once we were back at the hotel, we enjoyed our jacuzzi tub and San Miguels before turning in for the night. Tomorrow we are hoping to go to Quiapo Church and F is going to introduce me to some Filipino street food. I can’t wait!
Thank you for sharing our journey and I will talk to you soon.
L