Hey everyone back in the States!!
I think the best time for me to write a blog will be Sunday
nights. I will have to stay up to get back onto my odd schedule of sleeping
days and working nights. This last week has been an experience at work and I
realized I may be working here more than expected - hours wise. I am hoping
that the first few weeks will be busy and then the last few weeks I will have a
bit more free time. I still had to go in tonight to get some things done.
After a long week of working, a little bit of yoga, and
finally losing the jet lag feeling, I was excited to back able to have a free
weekend. Saturday I slept in and then met up with Megan. We went to the
Greenbelt mall, which the name speaks for itself. It is a huge chain of malls
that are connected by green space, an area for outdoor entertainment and many
restaurants with outdoor seating. We were looking for sushi, but decided on a
little Club Havana restaurant where we sipped on mojitos and coronas. The tapas
meals were delicious and I was glad to enjoy a different type of meal. While we
were seated outside the restaurant, a big group of people began dancing. I
think it was supposed to be flash mob, but too many people knew about it. There
was a big group of people waiting for it to begin. I found a video on YouTube that
shows the dancing. They did the flash mob twice. Megan and I were so upset that
we left our cameras at home. Next time, we won't be making that mistake.
Conveniently, we ran into some clients that were working
with Megan and we enjoyed a drink with them before they went to the clubs. It
was hitting close to 1am and we were ready for bed. We wanted to be able to get
up and enjoy some of Manila the next day. We had a fun night and learned a lot
about each other. I think we will make a great team on all our adventures.
The next day we found out about the many tour guides that
are offered through the hotel. We were lucky enough to get on the afternoon
tour guide through the city of Manila. We had some free time so we went to the
Ayala Museum. To put into context, much of Manila was owned by the Spanish for
around 300 years. Independence Day was made June 12, 1898 from Spanish rule,
but the US just took ownership of Manila. Anyway, the Ayala's owned the land
that is Makati before and then after WWII the Ayala’s sold the land to
millionaires. With millionaires, comes the money and it became the Financial
and Business District of Metro Manila. The Ayala’s are major investors in our
company and have many of the buildings named after them. The Museum has a
little bit of Filipino art and a lot of the history concealed into a diorama
that you hear about through an audio recording. It was very interesting to hear
so much history. There is a lot of colonization and a lot of death.
After the Museum, Our tour guide took us first to the
American National Memorial that is in Manila. It is the biggest US cemetery for
US Soldiers after Arlington. There are over 17,000 bodies buried in this cemetery.
They are bodies of soldiers from all over the Asian Pacific during the World
War. I felt the significance of this cemetery and it was very patriotic. The
site is maintained beautifully and I took many pictures. People actually weed
the cemetery by hand.
We were taken by the many popular areas of Manila including
the old Fort McKinley that is now being called Ortegas Center – many tall condos
are being built in this area. We were taken to the SM Mall of Asia which is the
biggest Mall in Asia – it had a Ferris wheel that reminded me of the London
Eye. We were taken to the Rizal Monument where the National Hero is buried – he
was the first person to stand up to the Spanish and to request that Spanish
give back the rule to the people. He was falsely accused for treason and was
assassinated by a firing squad.
We were taken by Manila Bay – but it is very dirty and not
safe to swim at because of all the ships in the area. It is too polluted and we
need to drive about three hours away to get to a clean beach. Finally we went
to Intramuras – this is the Old Manila where the Spanish built a huge wall and
lived around a big moot. It had old buildings although it had been heavily
bombed by US during WWII when Japan had occupied the city. After WWII, the US
took hold of the land, drained the moot, and turned it into a golf course
surrounding the old walls. I was able to take some pictures of the buildings
who still had bullet holes in them from WWII. It had a very Spanish feel to it
and I still was amazed to think I was in the Philippines. So many outside influences
makes this city seem like a mixture of everything.
I will upload pictures hopefully before the weekend, but I
did not get my shopping in or laundry done this weekend and that might take
priority during my random free time. I miss everyone and want MORE emails from people telling me what is up? I miss that I have very little connection to the outside world. It is the littlest things that you are sad you missed out on...but the experience is worth it.
