Philippines

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PHILIPPINES - OCTOBER 20-25

Three friends, my cousin Katy, and myself went to Philippines for our October Break. We arrived in Manilla, the capital city, after a 3 hour flight from Bangkok on Saturday afternoon. A family friend of Allyson’s (Dolly) picked us up at the airport in her van and drove us to our hotel. Manilla is a busy place, with loads of cars/motos/vans/trucks/ buses/song-taows/tricycles/etc. You name it, it’s there. People came up to our van selling cigarettes, food, dishcloths, anything. There were kids playing on the street corners and dancing and people walking around - it was nice to see. I imagine it was quite an impoverished area, though everyone was super happy. That evening we went to a comedy club - with drag queens and a lot of singing. It was a new experience for all of us! Crystal, Allyson, and Katy all got up at some point to sing with the performers.

On Sunday (our only full day in Manilla) we walked down the street to ABS Studios - where Dolly does some part time acting on a Filipino soap opera. After using our excellent people skills and with much persistence we were allowed to sit in on the live taping of a variety show - ASAP Supah Dance 2007. First, we had a tour of the studio where we saw the studios for Filipino “Deal or No Deal” (It’s a lot smaller than you think and we got to see where the banker sits and the Deal or No Deal button!), Filipino “1 VS. 100” (which is the most expensive to use because of all the lights/electricity and with every episode taped, they must send it to the States to get their approval), and the News Room (the cameras are so cool!). After lunch we were put in line for the show and given balloons to cheer with. We watched as Filipino top celebrities came on the stage, did choreographed dances, celebrated birthdays, sang and danced some more. It was AWESOME! We cheered and fell in love.

After this excitement we went to the mall, had McDonalds (where they have something called a McDo which was a hamburger that tastes like uncooked meat I thought), did some shopping and went back to the hotel, then searched for a place to go dancing, but opted for late night pizza when we found nowhere.

Monday morning we woke up, went to the airport and flew on Cebu Pacific - a 45 minute flight to ??? Looking out the window during the lfight was so beautiful seeing all the islands. From the airport, we got in a van which drove us an hour, with beautiful farm-like/mountains/villages scenery to Boracay Island. From the van, we got on a boat, then a tricycle to the hotel on White Beach. The hotel “La Carmela de Boracay” was really nice with a pool out front, then the beach. We went for a swim in the blue, clear water, BUT then it rained. The beach was nice - not too touristy because it was low season. There are the most beautiful sandcastles all along the island. After dinner we went to watch a live band sing. Katy joined them singing, while the rest of us danced the night away.

Tuesday we did the beach thing for most of the day, had lunch at a little beach bar where I watched the lady make my fresh watermelon shake - from literally half a watermelon (it was delicious). That night we went to a nice Greek restaurant for supper, walked around Da Mall - a complex on the beach with all little shops, had ice cream and went to bed early. Wednesday our last full day we went sailing around the island for 3 hours - just the 5 of us and 2 sailors on a boat called “Why Knot”. But not on a sailboat like at home - you’ll have to see the picture because I’m no good at describing it, but it was beautiful and relaxing - not a lot of wind, so I think we all fell asleep at one point. The afternoon it rained again, but we were determined to lie out on the beach. We went to a fancy place for dinner where the staff were dressed up for Halloween and there were live acoustic bands playing. The food was delicious and the entertainment acknowledged us as “the 5 beautiful ladies” as they played our requests. We went back to Wave where we started the dance party and saw the band (our friends). We danced till 4am at an after hours spot and had so much fun. (I even got to play DJ for a song or two).

The next day, Katy, Rose and I left the island. Dolly picked us up at the airport and we went to the largest mall in Asia - the Mall of Asia, (which has a skating rink inside) where we did some shopping and looking around. There was Christmas music and décor everywhere! For dinner we ate a real Filipino meal @ Congo Grille- squid rice (it was black and made our teeth black), meat, soup, etc. And of course of favourite drink of choice - Cali (sparkling apple drink). We got into Bangkok at around 2am, thoroughly content. The people in the Philippines were genuinely so nice.

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