Well in truth it is just over a week that we've been here now. I must say it has been a fantastic week. We've made some awesome friends that I hope even when we go home will stay in touch. I won't go into too much detail about work as it simply is pretty much like home. The difference being a much nicer place. Our fellow trainers are awesome and have been very friendly and helpful. I've tried to be adventurous in regards to trying local foods and I think it has surprised a few of them that I am willing to try anything once. Grace has been nice enough to make a few suggestions. For example it's thanks to her that I tried chicken ass... no thats not a typo. It is called chicken ass and it's not a crude name for something plain, it is what it sounds like. I also tried dinuguan with puto. Puto is small rice breads that are very sweet tasting, where as dinuguan which tastes awesome sounds less appealing. It translated means pork blood stew. It's pieces of pork meat in a blood based gravy/soup with seasonings. Very tasty!!! I've also been told that I should try balut. I won't go into detail on what that one is as I will let you look it up for yourselves. I figure that even though they have the usual fast food joints, KFC, Wendy's, Dairy Queen, etc. I'd rather try local dishes, I mean I can get a big mac back home... granted back home its serves with fries instead of rice but I want the real experience.
So that was the week at work, then we had some real fun on the weekend. Our new friends Grace and Rome picked us up on Saturday morning and we went to Greenhills. We started off by going to see How to train your dragon in 3D. I couldn't believe the prices at the theater. For the four of us to see a movie in 3D it cost 1200 pesos... that's only about $27 CAD. Not only did it include admission but it also came with a drink and popcorn for each of us... after that we did some shopping. The best way that I can describe Greenhills is to put it in terms of the Stittsville flea market times a hundred. It is a combination of legit stores and knockoff shops. There were so many knockoffs that I couldn't believe it. Tara ended up picking up a Louis Vuitton bag for about $30. It even came with a certificate of authenticity. You name it they had it, Rolex watches, handbags, shoes, electronics, etc. Mind blowing and most of which were very high quality and only the trained eye could spot the difference. Then on Sunday we met up with Honey (whom Tara had met through Facebook and YouTube while researching the Philippines) and her husband Pirouz. They took us around to see some of the touristy stuff. We started off with Fort Santiago, which is where the Spanish inhabited during the 1500's and where the national Philippine hero José Rizal was executed. After that we visited a few of the churches in the area, one of which was used as a concentration camp by the Japanese during WWII. After that we went to the famous Manila Hotel. We were given a tour of the hotel, the archives, a suite, the spa, and the pool. I must say it is an absolutely beautiful hotel. After that we went to the Greenbelt, which is a very Americanized area in Makati. Once we had wandered around we went back and spent some time hanging out at Honey's house.
Well that's been it for the past week. We are now off on a long weekend as it's Holy week so I will try my best to try and write more often. But for now, here are pictures.
This ones for you Kasper. Enjoy!
This is a photo of Chicken Ass... Looks just like a normal BBQ skewer doesn't it?
Dinguan. Trust me it's good.
A couple of residents of Fort Santiago.
Grace and Tara waiting for our dinner at Yellow Cab.
This is a river that flow's by Honey's house. It might look pretty but most of what you see in the water is really garbage. It was quite disgusting.
This is the courtyard by work. They share this area with a few other offices around as well as the University nearby. It's very beautiful with colour changing globes and fountains as well as several restaurants.
An outside shot of the Manila Hotel.
3 comments:
Grace and I will definitely keep in touch. Maybe we can all go on a weekend trip to Hong Kong. It'd be fun since we'd all be strangers to the place. We'll see if Grace will be as adventurous with food as you, in Hong Kong. ;) The fare is less than US$100/person :)
As much as I'd like to believe I wouldn't want to eat bland fast food, I honestly would go to a McDicks or a KFC to see what has become so unfamiliar to me.
The prices there just goes to show how greedy and inflated our economy is. But also, how not starving most of us are.
Oh, and the trunk full of shoes made me lol.
Thanks Liam! Your blog is extremely well written! It is good to know you are well,settled, making friends and experiencing the culture.
All is well here and not very exciting!
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