My vacation trip to the Philippines in the past few weeks went pretty well. I went with my dad & brother on the Sunday before Christmas, so the sights were already quite festive. The plane ride from Hawaii to the Philippines was about 10 hours long. Long flights are interesting, especially when passing through the International Date Line... it's like a time warp. We left Hawaii at about 1 pm, and arrived at about 5 pm... yet the flight was 10 hours, so it was like time moved super slowly inside the plane (with a looooong afternoon). Not to mention that when the plane landed, it was the next day.


Start of the Trip: Manila


Upon arriving at the airport in Manila (the capital city of the Philippines), as usual I got the uneasy alienation of not knowing Tagalog language. (I just know a very few basic words here and there. ) But at least everyone there knows at least basic English phrases, since they learn English in elementary & high school. (And extensively in college, if they go college.) And nearly everything written (signs, menus, notices, etc) are in English. Most of the time we just let our dad handle the Tagalog speaking.

Anyways, we spent our first two nights in Manila, at the Kabayan Hotel closest to SM Mall of Asia. Yup, we went to Mall of Asia! It's the biggest mall in Asia (and 4th biggest mall in the world), made of up 4 huge buildings as well as a line of shops/cafes (Entertainment Mall) next to an esplanade/seawall beside Manila Bay. [link] The place was so huge we cruised it for a few hours and barely covered a fraction of the place. I liked how it's Entertainment Mall section has a lot walkways, a giant fountain, and playground. And security officers there were fully armed with shotguns or assault rifles... usually with their finger already at the trigger. Not to mention customers are checked for weapons before entering the indoor areas. Anyways, we bought some clothes at the SM Department Store (nicely priced compared to American prices) , and had lunch at the Congo Cafe. The workers there
were dressed up in various safari outfits and there were jungle decorations inside. They served a variety of meat & seafood.

I love how nearly all workers in the mall stores, restaurants, supermarkets, fast food places, hotels, and other modern service stores are young people in their late teens & early 20's. It's great cuz as a group, their English is better than older people (good for non-Tagalog-speakers like me), and they're more pleasing to my roving eyes.


Ground Transportation


Our ground transportation from the airport to the hotel was a taxicab. I think all ground transportation drivers charge flat rates rather than using a meter (to charge by the distance). Thus, we always paid up front... or during the ride. It's cool watching drivers collect money & make change with the passengers while driving in fast, crazy, unpredictable Manila traffic. Every minute I'd think "Whoa! that was close!" when several vehicles switch lanes at once WITHOUT turn signals, while being just mere inches from each other, while pedestrians are crossing the street, etc. There were even passengers sprinting across the road, and jumping into moving buses or jumping off of them. And unlike in Hawaii... in Hawaii/America, other drivers honk/beep their horns at you to show that they hate you (cuz you pissed them off). But in the Philippines, it seems like drivers honk/beep their horns at you to show that they care
about you. Thus beeping is extremely common. They beep to simply give other drivers and pedestrians a head's up that they're approaching or switching lanes. Usually it's a quick double beep. And yeah, despite the close proximity of the vehicles while driving, the lack of speed limits, less safety restrictions, aggressive driving tactics, and fast vehicles passing every slow vehicle (sometimes vehicles traveling towards each other both overtake others in the way, at the same time )... I have to say that drivers there are really good drivers. They've got skills that make the rest of us here in Hawaii seem like grannies.

Also, we rode a jeepney between the Kabayan Hotel and the mall. Just like the taxi driver, our jeepney driver collected money from everyone (about a dozen passengers) while driving. It took a while too, as he had to make change individually with several of the passengers, and did it all while looking at us thru his rearview mirror. My brother and I were quite humored/impressed, and my brother thought it was nuts/cool how the passengers pass their money up to the front, then pass change back. I imagine that people have to rely a lot on honesty, cuz even though it might seem like you could get away with pretending to pay your fair (or accusing someone else of not paying ), it seems like the driver is super sharp at using the rearview mirror to check if everyone paid. And all while driving in fast, swerving traffic.

The Kabayan hotel is a pretty small, cozy place. The workers were mostly young adults (young workers again! ), mostly with college-age, skinny guys with American names. We had some poor service though, from NOT getting picked up by a hotel chauffeur from the airport (which was part of our package), to our room being prepped for only two people (even though the reservation was for three), to the breakfast server guy serving the girl in line behind me first, THEN me. That was really offensive. I think he was sexist! Well I didn't know what he said (some line in Tagalog), but I'm sure it was some dumb thing. (My brother was ahead of me in line, and he, myself, and the girl behind me all asked for the same food selection when asked.) Anyways, if I knew how to speak Tagalog, I would have said something to embarrass him in front of everyone standing in line about to be served by him. Like "Ohhh, what is this?! You serve girls before guys, no
matter where they stand in line? " He was the least attractive male worker there too, so I wonder if he was trying to impress that girl by giving her special treatment.

Anyways, from the hotel we went to a bus terminal to board a Partas bus early in the morning. Partas is one of the inter-province bus companies with big, air-conditioned buses with large baggage compartments on the outside/bottom of the bus. It had a TV at the front, near the ceiling, with speakers throughout the bus, and we watched a few American movies now and then. We were going to travel to the province of Ilocos Sur, to the area ("municipality") called Santa, where my dad grew up in. The national road we traveled (in the USA we'd call it an interstate road) went north from Manila, and close to the western coast as we entered Ilocos Sur. I enjoyed looking at the various sights, from huge billboards in the cities to fields of rice plants. The bus took several stops along the way (for restroom breaks at lil restaurant/shops), as well as a lunch stop at the province of Pangasinan, where Partas had an official, but rustic & simple, Partas bus stop.

We had about 15-20 minutes to buy & scarf down food from a lil cafe in there... which a few hours later caused me to have gas. And then, caused me to have diarrhea. I basically spent the last hour and a half of the bus ride squeezing my butt cheeks together, and fighting off a "butt attack" every 10 minutes or so. It was like... I was giving birth, but trying not to let the baby come out! So painful! I knew I had to rush to the bathroom as soon as we arrived to our dad's hometown (district of Magsaysay). Thus for the last part of the bus ride, I wasn't able to enjoy the scenery much.


My Dad's Hometown, Relatives, and Old House


We arrived at Magsaysay in the late afternoon, roughly 5 pm I think. Some of our relatives waited patiently at the little roadside bus stop for us. I barely recognized anyone in the group, but I knew that our three nephews would be in their mid-teens by now. (They were about 5 years old when I last saw them long ago.) I did recognize my two older cousins (in their late 30's I think) Arthur & Arlene there. Anyways we all hugged each other, and they helped us handle our mass of luggage. It was a really short walk really--just crossing the street, and walking on a road that forked into two. The left road went to the nearby coastal beach, and the one to the right was the street of "the house." Well, technically the house was one of those houses in between other houses (on all sides), so that you had to walk on pathways between the neighbor's houses to get there. And since relatives lived within walking distance (one family lived "in front" of the
house), there's a lot of foot traffic going on.

Anyways, there I was, my poop getting ready to burst out, walking down the street to the house. It's the house my dad grew up in, where my older cousins now live in (or at least do most of their cooking, cleaning, and hanging out at). One bedroom was for Arthur's kids belongings (at least temporarily while we were visiting?), another bedroom was for my brother & I to stay in, and the third bedroom turned out to be a small carpentry project my dad was working on... basically he built a lil bedroom in a big empty area in one of the two hallways in the house. That would be his room for the stay. The house itself is one story with cemented walls. Even the yards are covered with cement except for a few patches of soil for trees, probably for less maintenance. So yeah, when I arrived, I went right for the bathroom. The bathroom is quite makeshift, with actually two little rooms: one for the toilet, the other for the bath. After I "relieved"
myself, I felt all fresh and ready to explore! I felt like a new person. Better yet, my diarrhea was gone for the rest of the trip!

The majority of our stay involved:

chilling at the house (literally, at least twice a day we'd just sit on plastic lawn chairs in the yard)
playing PS3 games or watching DVDs on PS3 with our four nephews, niece, and cousin (and adult relatives who sit/stand behind us to watch what was going on)... on my brother's PS3 & LCD screen that we brought along.
our dad doing more carpentry projects around the house (replacing cabinets, doors, etc), or leading our older relatives to do more cementing outside the house. Such a big spectacle... seeing like 10 men vigorously mixing cement right on the ground (technically, the already-cemented-ground in the front yard), all day long for a few days, and pouring/smoothing it out, and we'd have an equal amount of people just watching.
exploring the neighborhood within walking distance. I liked to say it was like being in an adventure RPG game, and I'll probably draw a fun map of the place someday.
occasionally going to the two shop-houses nearby. Those are lil grocery/goods shops built right at the front of people's houses, and sometimes they'd have a lil grill to cook some foods.


More Funs


A few days into our trip, our relatives from England arrived. They came to rendezvous with us, although not at the exact same time. They included my only male cousin my same age, and his mom. The house right next door to our dad's childhood house is their own house (aka Auntie's house), which our Philippines relatives had been building & working on for the past few years.

And so when my aunt & cousin arrived, they wanted to furnish their Philippines house. My brother & I traveled with them to a department store in Vigan, and auntie "went mad" buying a sofa-seat-table-lamp set, a dining table & chairs set, stove, fridge, fancy lamp/clock, microwave, display dresser, etc. Interesting to note that she'd be buying all this for their house that they'd be staying in for just a few weeks. Of course, a few of our relatives would use the house for the rest of the year, and regularly hang out in it cuz of it's second floor balcony, etc. It's a pretty fancy, small but two-story, pink house. Our uncles/etc did more cementing in its yard (and laying a brick wall as a fence at one side) while aunt was there... and I'm not sure why but... it seemed like a popular idea for people's names to be etched into the semi-dry cemented areas. I was surprised when I saw the names of my brother, cousin, and myself on some of the cementing, even though we didn't help construct them. I think it was my dad's idea.

We took two drives to Vigan, the capital city of the province of Ilocos Sur. It was just north of Santa, and we'd cross a large bridge over a river to get there. Vigan is very Spanish-influenced, especially with its older buildings. There were lots of kalesas (calesas) there too, [link] sometimes with 1-2 dozen of them lined up on a wide road, waiting for people to hire them. They're a nostalgic mode of transportation, consisting of a two-wheeled carriage (seats 2-6, depending on how skinny you are), a driver guy, and a single horse.

I also went (with just my cousin, aunt, and an uncle) to the city of Laoag, much farther up north. Mainly we went to a resort there, called Fort Ilocandia. (Turned out it's not associated with a fort/fortress. ) It's pretty big & fancy, with a LOT of recreational activities there for guests: three pools, golf driving range, archery field, paintball, casino, shopping, pools, beach volleyball, mini-boat rides, etc. They even have an ATV driving course on the beach! There were barely any guests, making it seem like a great getaway resort for people vacationing on the down low.

Most of our souvenirs are T-shirts. Actually, buying shirts & clothing in the Philippines is pretty fun, cuz a lot of the good stuff is so inexpensive compared to American prices on similar stuff. Next time I go, I'm gonna reserve even more room in my luggage for clothes I'll buy.


Special Events


Christmas 2008 was alright. I didn't receive presents (only one, waiting for me at home in Hawaii from my uncle & aunt), but I made a few friends happy by sending them gifts thru the mail just before I left for my trip. While on my trip, we spent Christmas Eve mainly just chilling at the house. On Christmas Day, we had a fancy lunch party at a nearby relatives house, with more relatives I've never seen before.

For New Year's Eve, we had a bulk pack of 100 mini rockets to light up the sky, as well as some of those huge, triangular-shaped "whistle bombs" that are SO loud. We also went to our relative's house where a pig was being roasted by constantly being turned over an open fire (lechon ), and an uncle fired a real assault rifle. It was the loudest thing I heard all night! He surprised everyone, causing a commotion, and my ears were "ringing" for a while from the sound. Yup! In Hawaii you mainly just hear long stretches of firecrackers rapidly bursting. On the other hand, in the Philippines you hear a lot of explosions from rockets as well as gunfire. Thus, it sounds more like a war is going on!

Aside from those two holidays, we also attended a wedding. One of our older cousins there got married in the nearby church, and the reception was a block party at their house. Literally, people built a wooden structure over the road in front of the house to shelter long dining tables beneath them. Of course, most people don't have cars there, plus you could take a quick detour around the block, thus they were able to block the road like that.

And the most surprising event... a Christianing a.k.a. baptismal of a distant cousin's baby. (I'm not even sure how I'm related, but the baby's grandfather is my "uncle" who probably is an uncle in some way. ) And just a few hours before the baptismal ceremony, I was told by a bunch of people that I HAD to attend, because I was one of the "ninongs" aka godfathers. Even more surprising was that the baby had over a dozen ninongs & ninangs (godmothers)... just like with the dozen or so other babies getting baptized at the church that day. Thus the altar area was quite packed with people. It was my first time being a godfather for someone. Basically we held lit candles (being careful to not get burned by the melting candle wax ) during the ceremony, then at the end we each used our thumb tip to draw a cross on the baby's forehead. Finally we headed to the baby's grandparents' house for a lunch reception (where I gave my gift money to the mommy). Later on I learned that as a ninong, I'm expected to send a gift every Christmas from now on.


End of the Trip


On our 2nd to the last day of the trip, my brother, our dad, and I rode another all-day, inter-province bus ride to Manila. Just for one night, we stayed at the Renaissance Hotel in Makati (a "business district"). Nice hotel! The workers spoke English, and the entrance had guards, metal detector, and drug-sniffing dogs to check every person entering. We did some shopping at the the small but fancy shopping malls very close by. Just like at Mall of Asia, these malls also had security guards at entrances to check for weapons as well as security officers patrolling , about one every 100 feet or so with either rifle or shotgun. Makes the place nice and safe. :3 Also, we noticed there were considerably a lot more non-Filipinos at that hotel. We even saw a woman in a nearby mall who looked a lot like Jennifer Love Hewitt.

The next day, after shopping a lil more, we ate at a really cheap but really good buffet restaurant. Worth going again! Then we took a taxi to the airport, where each of us got pretty affordable massages from an all-female massage & aromatherapy crew by the terminal shops. It was pretty good except, the women massaged us REALLY hard. My back & shoulders hurt for several days after that. But I'd do it again. Then we flew on the plane back to Oahu, and took a smaller plane back to Kauai.

Overall it was a pretty good trip. Pretty much the only thing I missed during the entire vacation was using my cell phone.



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