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I think it's about time to get back to the story of my trip to the Philippines.  I  mean 3years is a pretty long break! Stay tuned for what happens next...

Last Day in Manila -- Part 2

We took showers and a short nap then headed out for dinner on the coast. Did some more sightseeing from the car with Nimrod.  As we arrived at the coast we noticed palm trees lining the streets.  The differences in these were the 2x4’s supporting them from the base of the fronds to the ground. It took is a minute then we all kind of said it over one another. Tsunami  - Hurricane type storms. BIG difference compared to our coastal landscape.

We walked on the boardwalk while we were searching for some food and there were tons of people sitting on the wall separating the sidewalk from the beach. Walking down the center towards us were advertisers handing out menus from the different establishments.  Advertisers aka Transvestites. Now, we are extremely liberal.  The whole family actually.  And we were open to new experiences being in a foreign country. Not one of our friends, family members, tourist books, NO ONE told us that this was a special job for super manly looking women wearing platforms and mini-skirts. Nope, we were not prepared.  So not only were we feeling like the center of attention as we walked down the sidewalk while the wall of locals watched us, but we were also so confused to as where we really were.

We Headed over to the Mall of Asia. Huge mall again! So many corridors to visit we didn’t get to one. Would have been fun to check it out being more rested. We were looking for a decent restaurant with AC.  The humidity lever must have snapped off cuz it was in full sweaty affect! Dad decided on a Claim Jumpers type eatery. Ethan was ready for some prime rib!  I was ready for a coke! I haven’t had any because you can’t have a coke with ice. No ice! Anyway, I digress. The restaurant was very nice and cool. I was looking forward to a nice steak and the kids were starting to get a bit tired. We had a little live music from a Filipino man who didn’t sound Filipino when he was singing American songs.  We all ordered bottled water. I forgot about my Coke.  That was a different thing for me. To have a bottled water in a restaurant. I never quite got used to asking for that and then seeing the table lined with them. Honestly I kind of felt bad. It was like I was insulting them by asking for water that they were not responsible for. Too much thinking? Amy’s my name and thinking’s my game!

Directly behind us was a cooler, like a fridge they would put bottles of, let’s say… Coke.  But instead was Haagen Daaz! Oh ya baby! Bars and little individual cups. Too bad I don’t like eating dessert right after eating a meal.  The kids were excited as was Dad. I think this is our new favorite treat. I wonder why it’s everywhere? Dove doesn’t seem to have a market there yet.  I think Dove is American?  Germany is closer.  Hmmm… Oh ya, so as the dessert was being enjoyed the sky outside the window was lit up by fireworks. What the heck? Philippines Independence Day was the very next day.  June 13^th. Ahhh… tons of locals on the beach wall? Explained.  Transvestites handing out menus? Still a mystery!

Drinks Please

Ed and Ritche were headed to the empty bar on the other side of the pool and before they left us they took orders. Blended margarita for me please. Oh I can’t wait to get this tropical drink by the tropical poolside in this tropical world. When I say the bar was empty, I mean the bar was empty! There was no  one else there. Drinks should come fast riht? WRONG! About 25 minutes later the guys come back with the drinks. My margarita was HUGE! Find by me! I know there is someone to press my elevator floor #. There has to be someone to carry me there rifht? Duh! My drink was overflowing cuz the heat was in full affect. Oh well. This is how we do it ! Erwin got some kind of big boy drink and it was half full. Hmmm…really? The drink was approx. 9 US dollars and it’s half full. Cynthia’s cran and vodka was soooo red! Any Vodka? Nope. And Ed’s big boy drink looked weird too. This doesn’t happen at a 5 star resort!? Seroiusly they no clue how to make any of the drinks Ed aslked for. Ya know, margarita? Not a clue. It was the weirdest part of our stay there. We didn’t ask for crazy “Sex on the Beach”. Can you imagine how they would have handled that one? Needless to say, my margaroita could have had 1 tsp of alcohol or 1 cup and I would have felt just as good  as I did after drinking ¾ of it. (light-weight doesn’t even begin to describe!)

Last Day in Manila -- to the Pool

It’s Saturday and Mom and Dad went into town to grab some things for the house in Sta. Maria, Laguna. This gave us some downtime to enjoy the amazing amenities of our hotel. The pool was picture perfect and the weather made it even more inviting. Lucky for us, today the sun was covered by some light clouds.  Still humid like no other but we didn't have to deal with the torching sun. Now I like to swim just as much as the next person. I just prefer warm water. Hubby and kids don’t understand that if it’s warm outside why would you want warm water? Well, we all know that feeling of trying to get in gracefully with cold pool water. No one can have a graceful pool entering face when that temperature of the water is completely opposite than the air temperature.  When our kids jump in no holds barred we are not looking at their faces. We are making sure they don’t drown or land on someone else.  We all make that ridiculous face thinking the same thing,”I can do this, OMG, I can do this! FRICK it’s COOOLD I can do this. If I just walk in super slow, I won’t cause any AHHH!!” Yep, you know that’s what you are thinking! And guys… you get in as fast as you can so no one notices your brain telling your nether-regions that it’s TOO COLD!! I just hate it! So give me warm water. I can walk right in the pool and be a swimmin’ fool!  For me, I was going to be a resort diva with a margarita in one hand and a magazine in the other.  Sunglasses on, covered in sunblock lounging away! I did just that and enjoyed every second of it.

Give the kids any pool and they will swim for days. They both love it!! They are fish, thanks to Ms.  Yvonne!  The kids had lessons with another mommy when Ethan was 5 and Abby was 3. We usually need a brush up on skills, but they remember quite quickly! Pencils were being preformed and laps were being completed in no time. This pool experience was a little different. The kids got to swim with their Uncles!  They tasted another piece of heaven pie. Uncle Ritche was right there to play the splashing wars and had no hesitation when Abby wanted to climb all over him! Adding Uncle Ed just through it over the edge! Both Uncles?! Heaven! The 3 brothers took turns entertaining the kids in the water, which I was infatuated with watching.  I love my family and so does Erwin. It means the world to us both.  So watching our kids show their affections to their Uncles and receive it back 10 fold was a treat. 

1st Full Day ... and I mean FULL!!

Abby woke up at 4am and Erwin told her to get back to sleep until the sun comes up. Thank goodness for black out curtains! 6am she was up and ready for breakfast. Er and she went down for what turned out to be an amazing breakfast and brunch buffet! Holy cow! The food was out of this world. Cynthia and I were in heaven with all the American food. Waffles, Pancakes, BACON! The fruit was crazy sweet. Melted in your mouth. We had an array of muffins, donuts (Ethan’s favorite), fresh croissants, ice cream and freshly made to order omelets!  I could go on and on.  Anything and everything you could ever dream of having for breakfast.  It actually took us about an hour and a half to finish. Then we rolled out of the room. 

Today is the first day of seeing PI through and through. I’m excited. I’m nervous that I’m not going to be able to take it all in. Nervous I’m not going to remember it all. Again, thank goodness I found a great camera. Ed has a great camera and Ritche is taking video of just about everything.  Mom too! Our driver Nimrod picked us up in an air-conditioned van and the kids are arguing already about who is going to ride in the jump seat. No seatbelt was a super-treat for them. No way! (I was yelling in my head.) Seatbelts! (I’m such a mean mom) There are no seatbelt laws in PI. No carseat/booster seat laws either. Off we go and the sights are some of what I expected. Lots of kids, lots of people who look like they just need a roof over their head or clean clothes. What I mean by “just need” is they didn’t look sad or down and out. They were going about their day, their life. As we drove around I really couldn’t tell where the residential areas ended and where the businesses began. There were “squatters” on every other street in Manila. These were vendors of some sort. Sometimes they were drinks or snacks or clothes. There were full stores too. We saw McDonald’s and Starbuck’s. These seemed to be in newer strip malls with restaurants and such. A typical intersection had people on every corner. There were students in uniforms from the local college, maybe a guard with an AK47 in front of the corner bank. That was Abby’s favorite sight. Seriously? She would yell out, “GUN!” They were pretty intimidating with their weapons laid across their chest and military gear on.  We did notice that 80% of the billboards and signs were in English. There was tagalong too, but mostly English. I found out from someone that they tried at one point in time to institute “only tagalong” in the schools. It was a no go. The students learn in English. Not sure if all day. Speaking of school, we past where Erwin’s Mom went to college. That was kind of cool. Dad told us that the kids go to high school for only 3 years. The school day in PI is from 7am to 5pm. Incredible!  The city, even though it was the capital of the country was way behind what we would see in America. All electric and phone lines are above ground and an unbelievable mess. Nimrod said the locals call it “Spaghetti”. Abby yelled out,” You mean pancit!” lol! Fire hazard is what it should be called.

The congestion of people, cars, mopeds, bicycles, tricycles, big delivery trucks was overwhelming to say the least. There were traffic lights that I came to believe were only there for decoration.  Honestly it was as if there were no laws for the roads. We asked Dad why there wasn’t a law enforcement officer anywhere. He said the only time you will see them out and about is when they are in need of money for the city. Then they start giving tickets and citing people for breaking laws. Thank Goodness the city was ok while we were there. We got to our destination in an old part of Manila. We were going to take a horse drawn carriage ride. They were actually called Calesa’s I think.  Very cool way to see the sights.  Our driver spoke some English. Dad new some of the information to pass on to us. We looked at stone walls and buildings that had the original bullet holes in them from Japan’s and Spain’s occupation in the Philippines. Eerie. Lots of pictures were taken within these few hours. A lot of Manila’s history was focused in this area. They had many memorials to their past leaders and war heroes.

With congestion of card and trucks and such, comes exhaust. Cynthia said at the beginning of the trip that she brought hankies for the foul smelling air in the city. I was like really? Give me a break! We don’t’ need no stinking’ hankies. Ummm… I ate my words when we ended up driving directly in traffic with everyone else. Not on the tour path anymore. We couldn’t breathe it was so bad. You could taste it. I whipped out some tissue and made Abby cover her mouth and nose and I did myself. I NEED HANKIES! I picked some up that day or the next. Phew! So much better!  Our clothes smelled fabulous when we returned. 

We also had a chance to stop at the Manila Cathedral. Gigantic and gorgeous! So old. I had a chance to really take some amazing pictures inside. The stone work was bee-utiful. As we started to leave the clouds decided to open up on us. Nothing horribly bad. We felt blessed it didn’t happen while we were in the carriages. Nimrod walked us to our van with an umbrella. So nice! We made a pit-stop at a small mall to do a tiny bit of souvenir shopping and eat. Yellow Cab Pizza. It was very good. I drank my 1^st coke of the trip. Yummy! Only in a can. No ice! Then we headed back to the hotel.  Day 2 of sightseeing was complete. I already have 100’s of pics. Oh boy! (Lemme know if you wanna see them, I will share a link with you.)

Waking Up...or not!

Erwin and I woke up from our fabulous nap in crisp, clean sheets to get ready for a trip to one of the biggest malls in the world which was right across the street. We began our chore of waking the kids from their siesta. “Ethan - let’s go….get up. Papa and Grama are waiting for us we have to go.” I tried, Erwin tried. I tried again. Erwin tried again. Ethan ended up standing there with eyes closed after much threatening and pulling and pushing. Erwin did his usual "knock it off and get up!" I did my pulling off of the blankets and tickling his feet. He managed to sit on the side of the bed, closed eyes mind you, grabbed his pants and put them on over his other pants he had on. He got them to his knees and fell asleep sitting there. I was anticipating a blow-up between Dad and our pre-teen son. But not so.  During all of this Abby was still asleep and no matter what we promised to buy her, she wouldn’t budge. Seriously, not moving an inch. Erwin knew immediately that they were not going to be able to wake up and made the decision. (Thank goodness!) A call was made to Mom and Dad that we were not going to be able to join them for this outing. Impossible.  I was so glad that he recognized this and I didn’t have to point it out. Ethan took off his two pairs of pants and got right back in bed. Abby slept for 12 hours and Ethan slept for 14 hours straight. Super glad they we didn’t force them to wake up.  That would have been a whole other entry.

During this crazy nap the kids were taking, Er and I ordered room service. A ham, sausage and pepperoni pizza and a banana split for dessert. It was so funny. The pizza came and there was ham. There was pepperoni. But the sausage…. It took Er 2 seconds to notice it was not our sausage. Vienna sausages it was. Lol…We were in the Philippines. The banana split was yummy looking! I couldn’t wait to eat it.  Erwin had an issue. “Who puts marshmallows on banana splits? And they must have run out of chocolate ice cream. There was a scoop of vanilla, a scoop of strawberry and right in the middle was a scoop of Cookies and Cream.  We were laughing. It was a nice little dinner we had. PI cost 1800 pesos = US $42

Shangri-La Hotel & Resort

We pulled up to the hotel and as we turned the corner in this tiny driveway we were surrounded by beautiful bird of paradise and palms of all sizes and types.  A completely different vision than the entire drive from the airport. We pulled up to the door and were greeted by a team of supremely dressed doormen, door ladies and valets. They were all in beautiful teal blue and black. Every button in and fold in the right place and standing tall and proud.   As soon as we got out of the van up walked a few men with very handsome dogs and large rifles.  They were the security.  Bomb and drug sniffing dogs. They smelled the car, the luggage and anything else they were instructed to.  I felt horrible for them.  One was a black retriever. A puppy of no more than 18 months.  He was panting and there was no water bowl in sight.  I do realize they had a job to do and I did feel safer.  Our bags were loaded on the cart by the valet and we were ushered toward the main doors where two astutely dressed ladies were holding the gigantic golden doors open for us. Our bags were checked and we were “welcomed to the Shangri-La”. (This happened each time we walked in those doors.) So classy. I mean really. I don’t think I would have ever dreamed of staying in a hotel like this. The manager came out from the back office to greet Mom and Dad, to thank them for choosing this hotel and to ask if we needed anything else. The kids and I stood in the lobby patiently waiting for a comfy bed to stretch out in and sleep! Walking by us were employees of this paradise. All, even the manager, were dressed like they were going to the ball. Beautiful barong dresses, mostly in teal, with make-up to match. I forgot to mention that the door ladies who were so neatly dressed with the teal and black uniforms also had the teal eye shadow to match. I mean totally matched! When talking about it later we wonder if it was mandatory to match.  They looked like fine porcelain dolls. I loved just looking at them. Biggest smiles too. 

We have our keys now…let’s go.  Walked to the elevator and there are two more of these finely dressed ladies pressing the buttons and holding the doors open for us. “What floor Sir?” and “Thank You Ma’am.” (which really sounds like Mom with their accent) Am I really in this moment?  We finally got to our room. Er, I and the kids will have our own room. Ritche will room with Ed and Cynthia. Mom and Dad will room with Auntie Nati.  The room was beautiful of course.  The bed was so nice! Nicest bed in the world!! Well, the same hotel bed you would see in any other nice hotel room. This time it was special since we all had to curl up in an airplane seat to attempt to sleep not so long ago.  After we got some things together in the room, snacks out and luggage in the right places, we all laid down to take a much needed nap.