Sunday, August 28, 2011

Firsts

As I stood in my hotel room and stared out the floor to ceiling window, I see the black cloud that's rising up, getting ready to engulf the high-rises in front of mine.  This is the first typhoon that I am experiencing in Manila.  Since my new friend, Andrew, suggested that the rain will be on and off for the most day as the typhoon swirled around Manila, Marly and I stuck with our plan and headed out to the Organic Farmer's Market anyway.

Most people taxi around town since the weather is either really hot and humid or it is pouring down rain.  In the name of adventure, Marly and I bought our 'first' one hundred peso (about $2.5) ten rides MRT pass.  We figured out the direction of the train and arrived in Mikati in precisely eleven minutes.  Compared to being stuck in a taxi, the MRT was so much more relaxing.  Arriving in Mikati wasn't the problem, finding the Organic Farmer's Market was the issue.  None of the locals that we asked for directions knew where the market was.  It must be a foreigner's thing, I thought.  We finally stopped at a hotel lobby for directions, the receptionist managed to give us the wrong directions after about ten minutes.  Marly must have done this a lot and suggested that we check online to confirm.  Sure enough, the direction was off but this also meant that we had to walk further.  We chatted, we walked through Greenbelt 5 to Greenbelt 1, and eventually arrived at the Lagaspi Organic Market where some locals and foreigners gathered.  I had my first fresh coconut juice from Manila, bought some cheap vegetables and fruits, and checked out some interesting arts and crafts from the market.  The walk was long and the market was hot, so we headed out to find Marly's future apartment and to survey the neighborhood.  

I have no idea how far we have walked but I haven't sweat this much in so long!  We ended up at a coffee shop in Marly's future neighborhood (she doesn't know that it's her neighborhood yet, but I can tell) for drinks and to cool down. The sun and the occasional drops of rain made us decide to take the taxi home instead of the MRT.  After our adventure, I headed to the indoor poor at the hotel to relax so I am ready for another week of work at the office.

Marly, after doing her nails, will be bringing the pictures of her potential new home to show me and we will be sharing our first bottle of wine together in celebration of our first Manila adventure.

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