Philippines: Part II of II

27 March

The last morning in El Nido included sleeping in (I was actually able to which was nice) and some quality beach time. The nice thing about the main strip of El Nido is that it is on a pretty solid beach. Not of the quality you get when you do the island tours, but still good sand and water.

Randomly met up with Jeremy and Kasandra on the beach and we walked the beach around the bend as far as we could go before it became too rocky.

We then meandered back to town to shower and pack up our things. We had to check out by noon and we were planning on catching the 1pm van leaving for Puerto Princesa.

Lunch that day was at my hotel and I enjoyed some more pork sisig.

The van ride back to PPS sucked. What do you want me to say? Five-plus hours being tossed left and right without being able to stretch my legs. It sucked. Oh well.

Jeremy and Kasandra already had a room booked at a hotel in PPS for the night. I had no accommodation but their hotel had an extra room so I took it. They were nice enough to take me to the airport at 5am the next morning for the price of free99.

Dinner in PPS was at a Filipino joint called Kinabuchs Grill and Bar. We knew we had made a good decision because the place was packed.

I tried a couple more dishes I was supposed to: lechon kawali (fried pork) and liempo (pork). My lechon kawali came with mang tomas; it was this incredible liver-based sauce.

Dinner was lovely. We jumped in a tricycle* and headed back to the hotel. This was goodbye for Jeremy and Kasandra. They had a different flight to Manila the following day and were staying in a completely different part of town than I was. Can’t stress enough how great it was to have their company in El Nido.

*Tricycles are motorcycles with an attached seating area. Common transportation in El Nido and PPS.

28 March

Alarm went off at 4:30am so I could make my flight. It would seem like an un-Godly hour, but that’s an average weekday for me, so…

Got to the airport and waited for the flight. On one of the TVs in the terminal there were Philippines facts that would pop up from time to time.

Fun fact: the Philippines is the only country whose flag is flown upside down when they are at war.

(I like flags; this is the flag upright; pretty dope)

Land safely in Manila.

Get on a bus that will drop me at the LRT station so I can head up to the Malate area where I am supposed to explore*.

*This was the great part about my trip to Manila. I work with so many Filipinos that are from the area, they just told me where to go and what to see (mostly Ms. Tet; she was a huge help).

(LRT outside)

(LRT inside)

Manila is…how do I put this…it’s…not Jakarta….umm…I don’t know. I can’t really explain Manila. It is very SE Asia.

(Manila)

I think it is a little nicer than Jakarta. I think the people are a little more (this is going to sound really offensive, but it’s the only way I can express it) intelligent*.

*This may not be completely fair. Not many Indonesians speak English, where almost all Filipinos speak at least some English - most of them are quite fluent. I may be interpreting the language as intelligence, but just the way that people moved and carried themselves in Manila seemed a little more advanced than those in Jakarta. Sorry if that's offensive, but that's really the best way I can verbalize it.

The first thing I noticed in Manila was the jeepneys (combo of the word “jeep” and “jitney”).

I actually had a little prior knowledge about jeepneys thanks to the teacher that sits across from me in our workroom at school. Her name is Ms. Lydia and she is an awesome person. She got me this mug that gives some background information on jeepneys. Jeepneys are the most common public transportation method in Manila. They go on designated routes and are super cheap to use (roughly 20 cents). The jeepney itself started from the leftover jeeps that America used in the Philippines during WWII. Locals transformed these into what they are today: public transportation. The back has two benches running parallel with the sides of the vehicle.

I think they are pretty sweet. They give flavor and a unique image to the city. I would say that at a given time in Manila the road could be occupied by 20-60% jeepneys. My Filipino colleagues complain about the pollution they omit. It's a fair point.

The Philippines is a very Catholic nation coming from their roots of Spanish colonization. It was cool to see Christ-centered messages throughout the city. Anything from “God’s Will” to “God Bless Us” could be on a jeepney or on a sign in the city.

The first place I stopped in the Malate area was Robinson’s Place.

It was a big mall. That’s pretty much SE Asia for you. The nice areas are big malls where you can hang out/shop/eat.

(Manny !!)

(MANNY!!!!)

The mall was nice because I got to hook up to wifi and chat via Viber with my parents in Virginia. They finally got to go see Ellie Katherine after a very long month of waiting. It was late their time and I didn’t get to chat with Michael, Emilie, or the grandparents, but it’s always good to talk with mom and dad. And I know mom always worries about me – especially when travelling – especially alone. But I tell her not to worry. My parents did a great job of raising me. I can take care of myself. I just hope, if I’m given the chance, I can be a fraction of the parents they have been*.

*I think a huge moment in every person’s life, well at least it was in my life, is fully realizing that our parents are people too. That really messed with my head when that dawned on me. They were young, they made mistakes, they had to find their way, etc. It makes me want to pry and ask them a lot of questions. But in all honesty, I don’t want to know the answers. I think if I knew the answers I would sort of think more negatively on the world. Like there isn’t hope for something full, complete, perfect. Currently, I can still look at them and strive to be that as I mature. But I probably don’t want that. Does that make any sense? Probably not. My thoughts rarely make sense.

The Filipinos I work with have all told me that the dried mangoes are so much better in the Philippines than here in Indonesia. So for lunch, I had to check them out.

(sarap)

They were pretty delicious. Maybe it was the placebo effect, but they did taste incredible.

From the mall, I walked to my hostel. It was about a mile and a half, but it gave me a chance to roam the streets and get a vibe for Manila.

Got to the hostel and took a nap for a couple hours. I knew that I was going to meet up with friends of a colleague that night and figured I’d better rest up in case things went late.

(view from the hostel)

After the nap, I still had a couple hours to kick it before Ms. Tet’s (my friend and colleague from Manila) friend came and picked me up.

I hung out in the living room area of the hostel I was staying at in Manila. I met Italian Daniel, Aussie Matt, and Canadian Matt. Canadian Matt and I clicked instantly over our love of sports. I knew he was good people when I said I was from Kansas and he said, “Oh, the Jayhawks!”

Phyllis (Ms. Tet’s friend) was nice enough to pick me up at my hostel and took me out to dinner with him and another of Ms. Tet’s friends, Herbie. The three of us went to Gerry’s Grill which had some great Filipino food.

My favorite that night was probably the kare kare which came in a terrific yellow sauce. We also had pork sisig (delicious as always) and I believe it was called dried adobo. It looked nothing like the adobo I had previously had. The best way I could describe it was that it was like a bloomin onion of adobo. I don’t know. It tasted good, but I preferred the traditional adobo.

After dinner, we met up with one of their friends at some bar. Some people they worked with were there and had already ordered a ton of beer. They insisted that we join and help them finish it off*.

*Filipinos are so hospitable. All of them wanted me to thoroughly enjoy my time in their country. They wouldn’t let me do/pay for anything. They went way out of their way to make my time there enjoyable. Love the Filipinos. Can't stress that enough.

It was a fun night and they were a good group to chill with. My favorite person from the night, I feel terrible I forgot his name, was a coworker of theirs. He was pretty buzzed and kept coming over to say what up to me and he invited me to join a bunch of people for a weekend getaway in May. He was a riot.

(you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Manila gettin ****** up too !!)

29 March

Slept in until 11:20am the next morning. That is an insane number for me. I’m rarely able to sleep past 8am.

I went downstairs to grab a bottle of Gatorade and Canadian Matt was chillin there watchin a Golden State-Memphis game that was on TV. God bless the Philippines.

The only thing I had on my agenda for that day was to pick up some Filipino goodies for my colleagues.

Robinson’s Place was close so I got the goodies there from the supermarket and a sweets shop called Goldilocks*.

*The reason for stopping at Goldilocks was the polvoron. I was first introduced to polvoron thanks to my coworkers. It is a Filipino sweet that is amazing. It is a type of crumbly Spanish shortbread that is made from flour and powdered milk. They are delicious. They have several different flavors and I made sure to grab some to share with my coworkers upon my return to Jakarta.

(jeepney flo)

Ms. Tet’s friend Herbie was nice enough to accompany me around so I didn’t get lost or killed or something*. Whenever we took any type of transportation, she was always making sure I had my wallet/phone and that my bag wouldn’t be stolen. Haha. I thought it was funny. I’ve lived in Jakarta for 9 months yo !!

*One thing about Filipino women I’ve noticed is that they are very motherly. I’ve noticed it from Day 1 at work. I don’t think it is necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. I think it’s just neutral. It is just very apparent. They are constantly checking up on me and making sure I’m having kids cover their mouths if I cough/sneeze, that I am eating enough food, and demonstrating proper posture (I’m gettin better about the last one, Ms. Toni !!). I think it is kind of funny, but it is definitely the Filipinos that have the motherly instinct.

The one cultural thing I did in Manila was visit Intramuros.

“Intramuros” means inside the walls and it makes sense because it is a walled off area where the Spanish used to live when the Philippines was part of the Spanish Empire. The coolest part was the cathedral, San Agustin Church. There was a museum that had a ton of sick paintings and portraits.

After Intramuros, I headed down to the Makati area which is the fancy financial district of Manila. These malls were a little nicer than Robinson’s Place. The one thing I wasn’t able to find in the Philippines that I was hoping to get was a Philippines flag. I got one when I was in Australia and thought it would be cool to have a flag of all the places I have visited. The only problem is that I am now short an Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Philippines flag. But other than that, it’s a great idea.

The last Filipino dish that I was introduced to was gising gising. It was spicy vegetables in a coconut milk sauce. It was incredible. Put that on top of rice and it was almost a meal in and of itself.

Back to the hostel after that. The hostel had wifi which was nice and I spent about an hour chatting on WhatsApp. The only problem was that the wifi just stopped working around 10:30pm. I thought it might have had something to do with the whole Earth Hour thing, but that was around 8ish when I headed back to the hostel and all the buildings had their lights off. Who knows.

Off to bed before waking up and heading to the airport to go home*.

*Yes, Jakarta is my home.

30 March

Woke up around 6am to make sure I had all my things organized.

Left the hostel around 6:50am. I thought I had given myself plenty of time because I had a 9:35am flight (more on this in a sec).

I easily found a taxi and he started to head to the airport. The first problem was that the main highway was blocked off. There was a marathon or some exercise-based event going on which caused us to change our route. Then with all of the congested traffic because of the event, a giant truck stalled out in one of the three lanes that was already packed. I started to worry a little bit, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I got to the airport right before 8am. Not the 2 hours recommended for an international flight, but close enough.

Where I screwed up was forgetting that I had received an e-mail about a month ago from Philippine Airlines saying that my flight times had changed. I remember because the Jakarta-Manila leg was changed something miniscule like 5 minutes. The Manila-Jakarta leg was moved up to 9:05am, apparently.

I think one of the greatest feelings of relief in the world is when you hear the "click-click" of the customs agent whenever traveling internationally.

I was the next to last one to board, but I jumped in the back of the line where they were taking boarding passes (which was about 10 deep), so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Philippine Airlines hooked us up with lunch on the flight, which was nice. They were showing the Hobbit on the TVs on the plane, but I opted for the iPod instead.

Safe touch down in JKT ;;

Another great trip. So blessed. Honestly don’t know what I did to have life so good. I can only thank God for the amazing situation He has put me in.

Thanks for reading the blog. I’m very humbled that I have so many people interested in what’s going on in my life. The blog will hit over 7,000 pageviews sometime this month. Cray. If you have anything you want to ask me or need to get a hold of me please feel free to e-mail me at mattsphillips@cox.net

Keep on keepin on !!