Taking Care Of The Little Things

I really have not done much today worth talking about - mostly just getting rested from the travel and adjusting to the new time.  The time here in Manila is 14 hours ahead of my home in Albuquerque.  I slept a little last night but tossed and turned and kept checking the time to see if "night" had ended.  At 5:30 I finally gave up -- shaved, showered and then headed for breakfast.

Pritong bangus , or fried milkfish

Breakfast was a buffet set up with rice, eggs (sunny side up), a few varieties of sausages, fried milk fish, and some version of pancit.  It was all quite good.  And of course some coffee - strong and freshly brewed!  The only sad part of breakfast was eating alone -- I tend to rush through the meal since there is no one to chit-chat with.  Still, it was a good start to the morning.

After breakfast I returned to my little room.  It's actually quite nice, although many of my fellow American's would likely turn up their nose -- it's nice by Filipino standards, but by US standards it might qualify as "quaint" at best.  For the price I paid and for the convenience in location, it has worked out well.  My only complaint at all is that the hot water for the shower was . . . how can I say this simply . . . not hot.  In fact, it wasn't even warm.  Oh well, nothing like a cool shower in the morning to wake up with!

I shot some video of the room and the upper grounds of the hotel: the dining room/bar and swimming pool.  I also took some of the city from the rooftop -- I will shoot more tonight when the city lights are on -- much more appealing.

I splurged and bought a cell phone for use in the Philippines . . .  it cost me a whopping $35.00 and has as many features as my more expensive phone (less the qrety keyboard).  Most US phones (not counting smart phones) don't work here in the Philippines, so it made sense to pick up an inexpensive one.  I will let one of the church members use my phone after I leave (her's was stolen in a robbery - more about that later maybe).  As long as I don't do too many overseas calls it shouldn't cost me too much to maintain it.

I am right next to the Metropoint Mall here in Pasay, Manila.  Usually the mall opens at 10:00 am, but since today was a holiday (All Saints Day), it didn't open until noon.  The problem is, no one at the hotel seemed to know about that little change in schedule, so they weren't able to tell me that it was not open when I went bouncing out the door at 9:55.  Oh well . . . I walked around for a while, smashed by the crowds of people, dodging the tricycles, jeepneys and service vehicles.  The crowdedness here is a little much -- I appreciate the more peaceful locations like Bohol.  Even Tagbilaran, with nearly 500,000 people didn't seem as intense as the streets of Manila.

I did lunch at the restaurant here in the hotel.  It's a little more expensive, but the crowds at the mall eateries were ridiculous.  I had one of my favorite meals - sizzling squid.  As someone who really likes seafood, the Philippines is a great place to be -- I like Albuquerque, but the availability of fresh sea food is . . . well . . . it's in the desert, what else can I say?  After lunch I roamed around the local streets, just enjoying the people and the street scenes.  I gave 10 pesos to a young beggar girl -- it was obvious to me (one doesn't need to be a special ed teacher) that she had some mental disabilities as well as a severe speech problem of some sort.  Anyway, so I had no problem giving her a few coins.  It wasn't much, but she was very happy with getting something.  I didn't hang around in case she decided to come back for more -- sometimes you can create a worse situation by being too kind.

So now I am sitting in my room, reviewing the first half of my first day in Manila.  I will probably get a short nap and then venture back down to the streets.  I will take the video camera with me just to capture some of what I've experienced so far.  I'll include some in a later post.  Oh . . . I had quite a difficult time back in the US with finding the mini DVDs required for my borrowed Sony HandiCam.  I thought I found some online . . . twice . . . but they were not the right ones . . . twice.  I did find some at Staples, paying a ridiculous $12 for a package of three (including jewel case).  I found some here at the mall . . . 10 pesos for the disc and 6 for the case -- 16p divided by 40p to the dollar . . . $.40 each (or $1.20 for three, for the math challenged readers).  So I picked up enough for the trip and will return the others to Staples upon my return.

Ok - well, as I suggested, it's nap time.   I will post more tomorrow.