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.