Sunday 19th Dec - our 10th Wedding Anniversary

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It was another day of shopping for the girls to prep for the wedding. Met the family of Arthur (our driver and Squish's brother) and so with a car load (seats 8 people) we were off again. Fortunately it was only a morning and after lunch Arthur asked what i wanted to do.

Show me some 'local flavour'

He took us for a drive to where he's purchased and building his new home.

To get a flavour of the lives locals lead over here I simply took snaps as we drove along. you can probably break the snaps into 3 main groups - 1 basic street scapes, 2 the contrasts between the locals' accom and govt/institutional building s in the same area (including a Scientology like cult church), 3 a typical new estate. House and land packages here range from 800,000PHP (divide by 40) to 1.5 mill (two storey and larger block) - the average house block in an estate like this is ca 65sqm.

I wanted to take a shot of what Arthur is UPGRADING from (viz his current abode) but out of deference to his wife's embarrassment - I have chosen not to. I was going to include a shot or two of getting to their home (from the street scape shown down a lane to their home) but pics are blurred. Arthur has promised to take a couple of shots for me and I'll include them later.

I have also included a few shots of Old Smokey or Smokey Mountain as the local refer to it. Believe it or not, this 'mountain' is Manila's rubbish dump.

Finally - I guess it's worth pointing out that all these shots are well within 30km from Metro Manila and where we're staying in the Hotel.

I believe that today is to be yet another day of shopping for the girls so Arthur and I are off for a massage.

Doubt there will be another entry on a day of shopping.

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Photos

Streetscape 1
Tried to avoid taking a cliched shot of Jeepnies - but you can't get a streetscape shot without them

Streetscape 2
They're everywhere - reminds me a little of the Monty Python Sketch about Venice and the Gondolas

Igleso Ni Cristo
Cult Church similar to the Scientologists

House of reps
This place is literally around the corner from this group of streetscape shots

Member's Choice Potential????
In house MPL joke

Another view from Arthur's Block
Little boxes
Little Boxes
Little boxes made of tikki tacky

Panorama from Arthur's place
That's Arthur's back there

Comments

[Eric]

Thanks
Looks like shopping is high on the agenda - massage sounds good, photos are great, thanks for sending - have a great christmas - going to be 28 and fine here. Last one in Melbourne for us.

[squishNjohn]

Weather here
Weather here is almost constantly between 29 and 32. Mornings start out fine, but then the smog sets in - by mid mrning it's all hazy to the point of looking overcast - I believe the provinces will be a little better