Manila

Despite all of its flaws, Manila’s evening skyline, just like any metropolitan city, glistens with excitement and beauty when the moon rises and darkness falls.  I stood on top of the thirty plus floor by the pool, watching the cars clogging the Manila streets with bright headlights and brake lights.  How I appreciate arriving home early and having had a chance to dip in the pool.  It has been my 11^th month living in Manila and avoiding traffic has been the determinant of all of my schedules.  For example, there will be no social events for me on Saturday afternoons or evenings while the Filipino socialites roam the city hotspots to see and be seen.  The best day of the week to zoom and buzz around town for heathens like me is Sundays while the Filipinos spend their time with families or repent at churches.  The point is, abiding by the navigation schedule makes Manila an extremely exciting and attractive city, especially from the pool-side on the thirty plus floor on a weekday traffic jammed evening.

Just as the navigation schedules, my lifestyle is adjusted to suit Manila but it does not evolve around my agenda or means.  This reality may be difficult for someone to adjust to coming from the States, after all, AT&T and Sprint are the only oligopolists that dare to challenge the patience of their customers.  Living in Manila, patience and gratitude are the virtues that I had amassed.  These days, with great indebtedness, I thank the cable guy, the security guard, my helper, my driver, building maintenance engineer, internet representative, bank receptionist, and grocery store cashier, from the bottom of my heart, for doing their jobs with some sort of competency.  “Mam, for a while” translates into your next few hours will be spent here dealing with this issue.  “Mam, you cannot avail…” means no matter how much money you have or how much time you care to spend on this issue, the rule book says DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU even though it defies your Western logic. 

Manila rules my life, I concede. 

The peculiarities of being presided over by Manila and its culture make living in this city a wild, cultivating, and novel experience for a foreigner like me.

Whale sharks

Donsol is situated on the Northwest of Sorsogon Bay.  The municipality developed its tourism industry based off of whale shark sightings in the Philippine Sea.  The migration pattern of the sharks attracts visitors from all over the world from October through May to Donsol.  As many travel magazines and tour guides will tell you, it’s not whether you see a whale shark, it is how many of these gentle giants you will see when you go on the whale shark spotting boat ride.  Iris, Lucy, and I rented snorkeling gears, haggled to form a 6 party boat, and watched a whale shark sighting training video, and patiently waited until the next morning for the world renowned whale shark interaction.  We woke up early, gobbled down our breakfast, put on our swimming suits, lathered on sunscreen, and headed to the boat dock for the spotting trip.

The municipality whale shark awareness video warns the tourists that only 30 boats are allowed in the sea at any given time, each boat has three hours on the ocean to spot whale sharks, and there are only three boats permitted per one whale shark to minimize disturbance of the whale sharks habitat.  We boarded the whale shark spotting boat with our spotters and the first thing that I noticed was how loud the boat was.  Can we really spot a whale shark with this kind of noise?  Aren’t we supposed to be covert?  The 30 plus boats fanned out into the sea with sun-burnt spotters hanging on top of the boats searching for shadows in the water.  The breeze of the ocean, the dark tan of the guides, the calm water, and the enthusiastic tourists, all pointed to seeing the amazing creature.  “This is too easy”, I thought to myself, “they must have cornered to whale sharks to be this confident about the sighting”

 There was a buzz over the walkie-talkie, something was said, then our boat sped up.  Far away, a circle of boats was forming and our boat headed to that direction.  Tourists in snorkeling gears from a couple of boats were in the ocean when we got there.  Our whale shark guide told us “get ready NOW!” We put on our masks and fins, followed the guide’s instruction, and formed a line on one side of the boat, awaited his signal to slide in the water.  It was a frenzy as the boats gathered.  The 30 some boats formed a large circle, the tourists in the water were looking for the whale sharks, the people on board were geared up on the side of the boat waiting to slip into the ocean, the non-swimmers were taking pictures of the tourists in their fins and masks.  Even though the spotters, guides, and boat captains were yelling in a different language, I was focused, breathing under my mask, waiting for the whale shark moment. 

“False alarm, there’s no whale shark.” The tourists that were in the water got fished out.  We took off our snorkeling equipment and returned to our seats in disappointment.  Three hours went by quickly and it was time to turn back to shore.

Iris and I figured it must just be our luck that we didn’t see the whale shark on our first try.  Given the video and accounts of our colleagues, we headed out to the sea that very afternoon.  The boats fanned out from the dock, the spotters got in position, the enthusiasm of the tourists were not dampened.  This time, there was no false alarm, we rode for another three hours without seeing anything, not even wet tourists!

Do you know what Iris and I want to do after not seeing the whale sharks after two trips?  We want to return to Donsol with more people, our own hired boat, and spend a day on the sea until we see the elusive gentle giant! 

Road Trip

Easter week is one of the busiest travel weeks in the Philippines.  People flock out of Manila and return to their “provinces” to observe the holy week with their families.  If planning in advance isn’t your forte, it is most likely you’d be left behind in Manila or you’d have to venture the provincial highways. 

The last minute nature of Lucy’s trip and our desire to see the whale sharks in Donsol left us only with the driving option.  Iris and I briefly researched our destinations, tapped into our local travel connections, booked a few hotels, and we were set for the trip.  Against the advice of our Filipino colleagues of hiring a driver, we got a hold of a GPS and left for our destination.  The road trip rules were simple: 1) we will not stop in Quezon Province and 2) we will not drive after nightfall.

We left Iris’ at 6:40am.  Not counting the time that we got lost in Manila (yes, with a GPS) and stopping in Jolibee (Philippines' national fast food chain) it took us about 9 hours to arrive in Naga City.  Even though google map suggested that the trip to our final destination was 6 hours, checking with our local friends with ‘provincial’ knowledge paid off.  We were still about 4 hours away from Donsol after arriving Naga.

Naga Cathedral in the dusk was strangely beautiful.  The facade of the building was old, historical, detailed, as if it has stood in Naga City for centuries.  Yet, on top of the Cathedral, there was a cheap-looking electric cross beaming blue neon light into the night sky.  That evening, because of Easter, a mass was in session and the church was filled with followers.  The peaceful ceremony was a stark contrast to the buzzing Naga City traffic surrounding the Cathedral’s courtyard.

Lucy, Iris, and I took a trike to the San Francisco church, wondered around town on foot after the two church visits, and eventually arrived at the Chinese restaurant for a small feast before heading to bed.  The next morning, we'd find a flat tire but fortunately it only took P60 to patch up.  (There was surprisingly no foreigner price premium)  We were on schedule off to our whale shark encounter in no time!

OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker)

There is always a long line of Filipinos standing outside of terminal 1 of the international departure building.  The OFWs are very easy to spot at the airport.  They always hand-carry some sort of an envelope with their travel and work documents secured in it and a lot of times they travel in groups with the same type and color envelopes.  In the airport, the OFW signs are everywhere to guide these workers through the right lines, the right gates, and the correct immigration check points.  I have always wondered if the OFWs view themselves as expats abroad of if they perceive themselves as cheap labor working overseas…  For the Filipinos that go through these designated lines and check points, are they happy to be reporting to their jobs overseas or are they uncomfortable being viewed as a cheap labor source in neighboring countries?

Her name escapes my memory but I remember our conversation as we waited for the flight to Taiwan that early Saturday morning.  She is an OFW who has worked in Taiwan for two years and she returned to the Philippines to see family and was on her way back to Taipei to work.  She shared with me that her job is to take care of a 80 plus year old lady.  She calls the lady ah-ma (grandma) in Taiwanese.  “I have only been back for three weeks to see my family but I miss my ah-ma so much.  My ah-ma texted me and told me that she misses me a lot and wanted me to return as soon as I can.  I am so lucky to have a good ah-ma, she’s so nice to me and I really love her.”  She really loves her job, I thought to myself.  She is probably one of the most enthusiastic employees that I know!  “Do ah-ma’s grandchildren love their grandma as much as this overseas Filipino worker?” “Will the grandchildren take care or pay for their ah-ma to have a helper in this day and age?” I can’t help but wonder…  We chatted and I helped her set up her mileage program assuming that she will be traveling from and to Taiwan every so often.

The OFWs are scattered around Asia and they fill such an important role for so many people in this very modern society.  The young woman that I met was a caretaker and a grandchild for the 80 plus year old Taiwan lady.  Meiling is my mom’s helper and the 3^rd daughter that my mom occasionally exercises her nagging rights.  Ahyuan is grandma’s companion and cook during grandma’s very sick days.  There are also so many OFWs who are building the roads and raising the children of Asia.  I am still not sure how the OFWs view themselves, but I hope they know that they have very important roles in this very busy, industrialized, and fast-growing part of the world.

Sonya's Garden

Ms Sonya doesn’t look like who I pictured her to be.  I thought she must be an older lady in her 70s or 80s who wears a farming hat and plastic boots that trot in the soil of the gardens.  Maybe she’s not very social and maybe she is extremely finicky about her organic garden and vegetable farm.  The picture that I painted of Sonya was not even close to who she is in person.  Ms. Sonya was in white with a colorful beaded belt wrapped around her waist when she visited her guests at the open-air restaurant.  Her shinny pearl earrings brought all the attention to her confident and friendly face.  She must be in her late 50s or early 60s.  She’s fashionable, sociable, and she has great taste not just in building her cottages, selecting items for her collections, but also a specialty in enjoying life!  I was impressed with her presence, she seems peaceful, down-to-earth, and relaxed which definitely echoes with the décor of the cottages, the taste of the food, and ambience of the entire property.

Sonya’s Garden is approximately 30 minutes by car from Taal Volcano.   As soon as I stepped foot onto the property, I was relaxed, less anxious about this Tagaytay trip, and ready to settle down for the rest of the weekend.  The garden Ms Sonya planted is filled with colorful flowers, leafy green trees, and European garden sculptures and fountains.  If I had to describe the style of the property, it is English country meets Asian crafts.  The elements are not easy to pull together but Sonya’s property weaved the decors together seamlessly.

We began our stay at Sonya’s Garden with a fresh farm salad, an effortless pasta, three types of deserts, and refreshing Tarragon tea.  We rested and recouped from our Taal adventure before we headed out for our massage treatments.  It was a few meals and few spa treatments later that we packed up to return to Manila.  Sonya’s garden was incredibly relaxing, beautiful, and peaceful, I would definitely recommend it!

(Tr)Ashy Volcano

Out of desperation to get out of our hotel from the night before, I called Sonya’s B&B for a room viewing the very next day.  However, the transportation was still a problem to get around Tagaytay, the hotel arranged a 3 hour “tour” for P1,800.  As soon as we got in the sedan, the driver suggested that we head to Taal Volcano for a very beautiful scenery.  The best in Tagaytay, he said.  I agreed happily.  Afterall, that was the purpose of the trip!  The road from the hotel to the volcano was windy and it wasn’t until we started descending that I realized that we were so far up in the highlands.  About 30 minutes later, we stopped at a “resort”.  “Why are we here?” I asked.  “This is where you take the boat to the Volcano! Mam, you have to go on the boat, then the horse, then you will see the volcano.”  The driver replied.  “Seriously?” I thought to myself.  I have to transport my senior citizen parents on a boat and then a horse to see the volcano? 

After a short bargaining with the owner of the boats, we agreed to pay another P1,800 for a motor-powered long-tail boat to the bottom of the volcano.  The long-tail boat chopped through the lake while the lake water occasionally splashed onto us, we arrived the destination about 20 minutes later.

base of Taal

You can imagine my astonishment when we reached the bottom of the volcano that there was nothing but horse feces, horses for rent, and bus loads (or boat loads) of Korean tourists.  Each tourist saddled over a tiny Filipino horse guided by a skinny Filipino guide.  Off they went to see the volcano up close and personal.  By this time, I already feel like a silly tourist after the car and boat ride.   “Mam, each horse is fitted with a personal guide, go see the volcano where it shot up steam, you have to go on the horse to see!”  “How long is the horse ride?” I asked.  “Thirty minutes going up Mam”.  Thirty minutes up and thirty minutes down the volcano will murder my folks, I thought.  “Too long, we will look from here” I replied.  The salesman looked at me as if I was from another planet.  He must be thinking, “what is there to see here?” We bought a few coconuts and sipped the juice while we sat and watched the tourists line up one after the other and took off with their horses and handlers. 

coconut seller

The smell of animal waste permeated the air and the horse-riding vendors were a little too enthusiastic, so we decided to head back onto the boat after about thirty minutes.  I asked Winston, our motor-powered long-tail boat driver, to take us further away from the base of the volcano so we can have a complete view of the sleeping beauty.  Winston maneuvered the boat through the Tilapia farm that’s set up by the local fishermen and headed to one of the dead volcanoes that’s connected to the sleeping one. Birds were flying all over the bamboo structures that are floating on water, waiting to catch their lunch in the Tilapia farm.  The lake water splashed and splattered and my parents were delivered safely onshore after another thirty minutes has gone by.  Taal is definitely not the place to visit for older folks! 

Tilapia farm 

Our hotel car driver said to me “Mam, we have forty minutes left, where do you want to go?”  By the time we got into the vehicle, I was already “sea”-sick from the long-tailed boat ride.  “Take us to Sonyas’s garden for lunch,” I groaned.  I secretly hoped that Sonya’s would be a more suitable and relaxing place for this short weekend trip…  

Tagaytay Trike

Ever since I moved to Manila, I wanted to visit Tagaytay.  I heard so much about the Taal volcano close by, the restaurants that are worth 2 hour-ride from Manila to have a meal, and the nature and landscape that are vastly different than that of Manila’s.  When I got the chance to use dad’s birthday as an excuse, I booked our rooms with One Tagaytay Place Hotel and rented a van and driver to head out Manila on a Friday afternoon.

It was my fault that I didn’t check the Tagaytay weather before leaving Manila .  It was hot and humid in Manila but the Tagaytay highland was chilly and very windy.  I brought shorts, tank tops, and sandals and I knew that I had made a mistake as soon as the driver opened the door of the van.  To top it off, we found out from the hotel at eight at night that Tagaytay doesn’t have taxis to take us to the restaurants.   Hotel recommended that we take the only local transportation in the evening, a trike, to a restaurant that is 15 minutes away.  A trike is a motorcycle that is converted into a passenger ‘vehicle’ with one side of the bike attached to a cart.  Theoretically, the trike “comfortably” transports three passengers.  Mom and dad got into the trike’s passenger “seats” and I sat behind the ‘triker’.  The trike took off into the night with its loud engine and earth-shaking vibrations.  I was cold sitting behind the driver at first, but later on, I was warmed up by either the heat produced by the trike’s engine, vibration of the trike, or the adrenaline rushing through me as the trike climbed up the Tagaytay ‘highway’. 

trike

As soon as we got off the trike, mom lost it!  “Never ride this again, do you hear me?  It’s so dangerous; you’ll be tipped over if a car passes this thing with a bad angle.”  I protested, “How are we going to get here if not the trike? Besides, you learn how the locals get transported!”  “We could eat at the hotel!” mom said.  I guess she does have a point but the trike not only warmed me up, the excitement of an adventure also made me forget that parents are senior citizens these days and dad is approaching 80!  Afterall, maybe trike wasn’t such a smart idea to transport precious cargo!

trike "passenger" compartment

One of the employees at Fire Lake Grill helped us and arranged a P300 ride through another employee’s van to return to our hotel.  This morning when we were heading out for a tour of Taal volcano, we paid up for the hotel ride (P1,800).  Even though the trike ride was mom’s first, I have a feeling that we won’t be doing that again, EVER!

Taxi!!

I know I have written a few posts about taxis but here's why...

Andrew told me that he was jet lagged, trapped in a taxi that has a broken door.  After struggling to open the door for ten minutes and the driver trying to open the passenger door from the outside, Andrew pushed down the window (the glass fell into the door) and he climbed out through the window of the taxi.  The taxi driver yelled as Andrew climbed out the window.  Andrew was in his work clothes and it was 8 in the morning! 

Taxi!

I caught his stare from his open bus window into my fully air-conditioned taxi, I quickly looked away with guilt.  The Manila pollution that he was breathing in on that hot summer day still haunts me to this day.   I try not to look at the buses and not to be too curious of the passengers in the Jeepneys so that I don’t offend them by peeking into their lives from my luxuriously air-conditioned taxi.

The response to the little kids who knock on the taxi windows selling flowers and begging for money is tapping on the window and look away.  Some of the kids on the streets are so small that I can only see their little arms reaching up the windows but not their faces.  Some kids will say that they are hungry and stare at my designer bag and suggests that I should “just” buy some flowers.  I pretend that it doesn’t bother me when I see little children begging and I pretend that it doesn’t make me want to adopt Filipino kids so that they don’t have to be on the street when I hear them pleading.  Again, the response is tapping back on the window and look away…  Many of these kids are controlled by the gangsters, I was told, and that’s what I would rather believe…

Politely insist on the taxi drivers starting the meter and returning the right amount of change can be tricky.  These seemingly inconsequential events have tested my patience and my supposedly proper manners.  A taxi ride that costs P100 can easily be P300 or P600 depending on the driver, the mood that they are in, distance from the destination (the drivers can tell you to get out) and of course, the weather.  After being overcharged several times and just plainly and simply ripped off as a foreigner, staying polite and patient can be challenging!  I was told that it is culturally unacceptable for a female to tell a man off or to exhibit forcefulness under any circumstances.  Without exhibiting my American gender prerogative, navigating the wild-wild west of the Manila taxi landscape definitely presented unexpected challenges!

Feeling guilty and sympathetic on the taxi ride, zero pesos.  Contain my anger and frustration from being taken advantage of, 600 pesos.  Having experienced all of these emotions and contemplating adopting a child because of a taxi ride, priceless!

Plenty happening

So much has happened in the past few months, I haven’t even had the time to sit down and write (or type).   The promised Christmas blog never took place and before I haven’t had the chance to blog about my travels, 2012 already sneaked up on me.  Whoever said that time passes by faster as we age is a very wise man! Oh, and I forgot to mention, I passed my mid-thirties, which means I will have the big four O to look forward to…

The last update was about taxi rides in the rain in Manila.  If I had the slightest idea of what Christmas means to the Filipinos, I would have waited to post that blog.  In this tropical country, Christmas decorations started going up in October.  The malls transform into a decorated gift box welcoming shoppers of all budgets.  The buying, spending, shopping, wasting, and giving addictions kick into high gear as if it is on steroid.  For those who make more, there is an expectation that wealth will “trickle-down” to those who make less or to those who make less AND need to have a Christmas party!  Even though I didn’t buy much of anything for anyone, I must have dished out a couple of hundred dollars after receiving email solicitations for “recommended” donations.  In a nut shell, Christmas in the Philippines is not only a time for family gatherings but it is also a time to show personal appreciation through gifts and parties.  

After surviving the Christmas traffic and the endless Christmas parties, Marly and I traveled to Taipei for her big four O.  Marly and I visited Grand Hotel, Longshang Temple, Snake alley, and visited a fortune teller.  Yes, I did the translation for Marly’s readings and it was fun and interesting!  After the Taipei trip, I returned to Sacramento quietly and spent a peaceful holiday week before returning to Manila to adjust my recently adjusted jetlag.  (I spent Thanksgiving in Sacramento too) 

A six month review notice popped up on my work email account a week ago.  It’s hard to believe that I have lived in Manila alone for six months already.  I have flown at least a dozen times to Taipei, Hong Kong, Boracay, and Sacramento, I tried new food, wines (Portuguese, New Zealand, Chillan, and French) and move to new neighborhoods, I have met and became close to several independent, smart, and well-travelled individuals, and I have gained amazing insights into my own life (to be continued) and a new culture.  Did I mention a new job?  The past six months have not been the easiest six months of my life but it has definitely been the most rewarding.  No risk, no reward right?  Tell me how you want your 2012 to be and let me know what kind of risk you are prepared to take!

Life after FB

As I mentioned earlier on my facebook page, I am going to stop updating information there and find another way of keep you posted on my journey in the Philippines.  I came up with the name Noodling Noodles so that it's easier to remember versus my previous page and I hope each one of these posts (the labor of noodling my noodles) will give you something to think about, contemplate, or just bring a smile to your day!  So, please leave comments (I added a comment section) or add your email address so the updates will be sent to you electronically.  Thank you for checking in time and time again for an often delinquent blogger!