Christmas in Manila

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Day 73 - December 22, 2008
Traffic in Manila

HE SAID: (GIM'S PERSPECTIVE)

Judy, Momoy and Trushi are our tour guides for today. Judy took us to Bonifacio High Street, a new mall in Taguig. They showed us around Quiapo, the stalls under the Quiapo bridge, the Quiapo church, Chinatown (“Ongpin”), the electronics area (“Raon”) and the narrow, dirty, and crowded streets of Manila. Traffic jams are part everyday life in Manila. We got a Chinese ham, flipflops, and chestnuts. Because of the economy, Christmas is disappointingly lackluster this year, so we went to Policarpio Street in Mandaluyong, famous for its Christmas display. Maria’s cousin, Trushi, told us that even this street is not as colorful this year compared to the previous years.

Day 74 - December 23, 2008
Carlos Celdran Tour

Today is our Manila tour. We went early to the meeting place, Manila Cathedral. It was a tour group led by Carlos Celdran (we got his name from Lonely Planet). He showed the group around Intramuros, inside San Agustin Church and the museum, Plaza San Luis, then we went to see Casa Manila museum on our own. We highly recommend this tour. Maria said that she learned more from this tour than her classes in Philippine history. Carlos Celdran is so funny and entertaining, and highly informative. We give him a 10. After this Momoy and Judy showed us around Rizal Park and Jose Rizal’s monument, the Philippine’s national hero who has proven that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. He has written two books about the Spaniard friar rule in the Philippines in the 1500-1800s and his execution by a firing squad in December 1896 sparked the Philippine revolution against the Spaniards.

After the tour, we had a drive-thru lunch at Jollibee, the Filipino counterpart of McDonalds where everything is sweet - sweet spaghetti, sweet burgers - but are amazingly good. Then we went home, rested a bit, and went to SM Mall in Taytay for Christmas dinner grocery shopping. I finally got my haircut after 2 ½ months. They used vacuum cleaner to clean up cut hair from my head, which is kinda weird, but makes sense, since my head felt clean afterwards - no itch from tiny cut hairs.

Day 75 - December 24, 2008
Christmas Dinner

We went to SM again this morning and had a facial. We got some gifts for Maria’s cousins (actually for just one cousin and we decided to just give money as gifts since we didn’t have enough time). We had but a small lunch, as we are preparing our bellies for the gastronomic Christmas buffet. We went back home at around 3 pm, and at around 5 pm, the guests started coming, mostly Maria’s extended family.

Dinner started early. The star of the buffet was the lechon - this is a whole pig that’s roasted until the skin is reddish brown and very crispy. It’s served with sauce that’s made of ground liver and breadcrumbs. It’s really good, but it’s way too fatty for me. They have also have spring rolls (both fried and fresh), chicken curry made especially for me by Maria’s dad, different kinds of noodles, grilled fish, a pork dish with red sauce, a chicken dish, rice cakes, sweets. It was a loooot of food. Filipino food for me is fatty or oily, either super salty or super sour, seldom spicy, a lot of rice, and their sweets are really very, very sweet.

After dinner, we all went to the church and heard mass, which I couldn’t understand one word because it was all in Tagalog, so I just played with the kids seated in front of me. After church we ate some more and gave away money as gifts.

Day 76 - December 25, 2008
SM Mall of Asia

We went to Robinson’s Galleria Mall in Pasig and had Maria’s tattoo revised. She said it was so “freaking painful”. Then we went to Greenhills Mall but it was closed so we proceeded to the biggest mall in the city, the SM Mall of Asia, the 3rd largest shopping mall in the world according to Forbes ☺. Unfortunately we only went to the skating rink and left right away as it was full of people. We briefly saw a Christmas parade while we were there. Then we drove back home.

Day 77 - December 26, 2008
Oldies Tour

The “oldies but goodies” (this is what Maria and her sister call their Mom and Dad) are our tour guides for today. We went to Chinatown and ate lunch at President’s Tea House. They serve huge portions of great-tasting Chinese dishes. We had the whole “entourage” with us - Maria’s mom and dad, 3 aunts, 2 cousins, and a driver. We walked along the streets of Chinatown. It’s not really much different from the rest of Manila. Then we went to Divisoria, which is according to Maria’s dad, “the cheapest place to shop in the whole Philippines”. I think this is the cheapest place in the rest of the world, and yet I didn’t see any tourist there, just locals. I understand why, since it was a heck of a trip just going there. It wasn’t even organized chaos like MBK, it was just chaos. This is more like Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok. No cops around. It seemed like the people just go the streets and sell whatever it is they want to sell and takeover the whole road. It took us about and 1 ½ hour to cross 2 blocks, or 100 feet! We bought a bunch of stuff, shirts, shorts, slippers, PJs. We wanted to shop more but unfortunately, the stores were closing. Reluctantly, we went home.

Day 78 - December 27, 2008
Corregidor Trip

Woke up early in the morning to catch the 1st boat to Corregidor. The boat ride was an hour long. When we got there, the tour group was divided into 2 trolleys. The trolleys took us around the important sites in the island. We learned a lot about the Philippine involvement in World War II when the Americans were here and colonized the archipelago after they bought the Philippine Islands from Spain in 1898. Corregidor is only 48 km west of Manila and served as an important fortress to protect Manila Bay from potential invaders during both the Spanish and American rule. The island played an important role in the early defeat of American troops from Japanese invaders. We saw cannons, huge guns, collapsed and bombed buildings, bomb craters, and other war memorabilia. We also saw Japanese, American, and Philippine Memorial. We had a buffet lunch of Filipino dishes at a rooftop restaurant overlooking Bataan, Maria’s hometown. We climbed the top of a lighthouse built during the Spanish era. Then we went through the dark Malinta tunnel and watched a “Light and Sound Show” depicting the plight of the Filipino and American troops in Corregidor during Japanese invasion. Then we went back to Manila.

We went back to Divisoria after Corregidor and shopped and shopped some more. At night, we stopped by Maria’s best friend’s place (Portia’s) for dinner. We stayed there until midnight and went home tired but happy.

Day 79 - December 28, 2008
Tagaytay City

The “entourage” went with us to Tagaytay. We used Daddy’s air-conditioned jeepney that’s so big it looked like a bus. We saw the Taal Volcano, a small but deadly volcano that lies within Taal Lake. Then we went to the public market, where we had a lunch of Filipino dishes like “bulalo” (beef knuckle and marrow soup), tawilis (a kind of a sardine), papaitan (too exotic for me, I couldn’t stomach it - cows stomach cooked in its own contents - get the pun?), ukoy (fried shrimp cake) and, of course, rice.

After lunch we walked around the market where I saw butchered cows and its parts hanging in stalls (no refrigeration system) of which Daddy bought a whole chunk. We also got longan, pineapples, different trees for planting. Daddy even bought a buffalo horn. On our way back home, we bought more food - coconut (we drank a lot of coconut milk and ate a lot of coconut flesh), and a lot of corn (they have white corn instead of the sweet yellow ones).

We eventually reached home and started packing.

Day 80 - December 29, 2008
Travel day

Today is the day we had to leave. Our 3-month journey is about to end. But we are not going home yet. We are going to….. Disneyworld!

21 hours later, we arrived in Disneyworld (it was still December 29th, what a long day, huh). We stayed at Buena Vista Palace. We rented a car, checked in, and slept.

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