It might sound crazy, but I am happy to be rid of the Thai cuisine, at least for a while. Those coconut milk based curries and endless $1 Pad Thai are unbelievably good, but I needed a rest after three months. In traveling to the Philippines we get a break from everything but the rice. You can't escape the rice. It's everywhere.
Our first Philippine destination was the capital, Manila. It is a city with a lot of history, but even more signs of the future to come. Going to Intramuros, the old section, one can find forts, Catholic cathedrals, and Spanish villas all left over from colonial times. There are expansive parks honoring the martyr Jose Rizal and other colonial era fighters. But then there are tons of malls. The Robinson is a four story behemoth. In Philippine malls there are as many sit down restaurants as clothing stores and as many stores selling cell phones as either of those. You have at least ten choices of the same kind of food, and there are many kinds a food to choose from. These malls take cuisines from around the world: pizza, burgers, rotisserie chicken, French baking, you name it. We walked into the Robinson to buy a new SIM card for our phone so that it would work in the Philippines but we were completely overstimulated. We couldn't imagine a larger example of consumption. Then the next night, Lizzie's cousin Cleah took us to MOA (Mall of Asia) which is the third largest mall in the world. You couldn't fully explore the place if you had a week. There was an ice skating rink inside. It was big, very big. But it is interesting, They have found ways to make these malls, I hesitate to use the word but, beautiful places. MOA has a veranda that overlooks the bay. The mall in Baguio (which is where I am typing this now) has a veranda that gives possibly the best view in the entire city. The mall is on top of a huge hill from where you can watch the clouds drift through the building-covered hills of Baguio. You are literally inside the first cloud layer and you can feel their moisture as they float past you.
Anyways, we haven't spent that much time in the malls, they are just crazy and of note to mention I think. But Manila was a special place for Lizzie. In Manila, we visited St Paul's College where her mother attended nursing school before she came to the U.S. More importantly though, about 45 minutes outside of the city is the town of Imus in the province of Cavite. It was, for so long, the fabled birthplace of her mother and her other family that is now in the states. Cleah drove us to Mascardo Street and Lizzie met her Aunt Heidi for the first time. There were tears. We saw the neighborhood where Lizzie's mother grew up, a place she had only heard about in stories but was now real, concrete, streets full of houses and shops. From my perspective, it was amazing to watch someone connect with a part of themself. Just being there for it was special.
We left Manila and headed for Baguio, a beautiful town in the Mountains. It is not a small quiet town. In fact, it is large bustling town. It is hard to escape the smog of Jeepneys, even here where it mingles with the crisp mountain air. But here, unlike in Manila, we have found pockets of peace, at least for a few minutes at a time. Reading in Burnham Park is relaxing, that is until the vendors swarm you. Note to all you future travelers, don't buy anything from wandering vendors, or if you do be so quick that the other vendors don't see the transaction. I could read maybe a paragraph before a huge plate of empanadas were dropped in front of me, or oranges, or wooden flutes, or chicharonnes. And when I finally caved and bought an empanada all of the vendors converged, like sharks to a drop of blood in the water. But Baguio has been the perfect place to relax and watch the clouds.
Tomorrow we leave Baguio for Bohol. Adventures that are tentatively planned are seeing Tarsiers, dolphin and whale watching, and viewing the chocolate hills. Our last few days in the Philippines we plan to swim with whale sharks in Donsol, the only place in the world where the beasties come that close to the shore and surface and are comfortable with people swimming alongside them. Well, I hope the flowers are blooming back home.
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