We're Back

Oh yes, we have returned. Six months ago. The date may say February 28, 2009 but I'm wriing this on August 6. I know its late....but due to jet lag and well pure , Grade A laziness I've put off blogging. But I'm back and hopefully I'll find things to blog about (Sigh, my lifes just not that interesting) But, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, or maybe I'll look to my husband for inspiration....

Luckily, it was a beautiful day when we returned because we were both pretty sad to be home. We had so much fun gallivanting and exploring; it was divine not knowing/caring what day or time it was. Now its back to reality...And what a home coming it was! We had to go through customs/homeland security because many a felon had the name Carlos Gonzalez.

We spent our last week in the Phillippines visiting family members. For Carlos it was mostly about connecting with his fathers side of the family. We first met up with Carlos' cousins and hung out in Timog, which is in Quezon City. Over beer and margaritas, we heard crazy stories about family and basically shot the breeze. They were wonderful, chill and down to earth people - maybe its a Gonzalez thing. At the end of the night there was a lot of picture taking and email address trading; hopefully we'll keep in touch. The most anticipated meeting for Carlos was meeting his two long lost older brothers. He was able to track them down through his cousins. We had dinner at one of the brothers homes and he was an excellent cook - a trait that coincidentally Carlos' dad had. The other brother (who has an uncanny resemblance to Carlos) is in the process of having his own political talk show Usapang Pulitika. Both brothers are ambitious businessmen who are very involved in their community. According to Carlos, they seemed to have a lot of Gonzalez characteristics a lot of which he can't pinpoint, but knows that they are Gonzalez characteristics.

I was able to meet a few members of my dad's side of the family. My dad comes from a family of 13, and I met four of his siblings and a few cousins. The first family I met was my uncles family in San Francisco Del Monte. We were welcomed, generously with food. He has three children - all of whom are smart, talented, loving, and polite. I fell in love with them all. My uncle reminds me a lot of my brother - same characteristis, same facial features. It's a relief because my brother was always somewhat of a mystery. The next day, I met four and my aunties and more cousins. My aunties run an internet cafe in Metro Manila. My aunties are all single, jolly ladies who told me story after story about my mom and dad. It was nice to have some of my questions answered and to get in touch with my roots.

On a last note about the Phillippines, picking your nose (in public), staring, and hovering is not considered rude. I think thats great. My only regret is not being able to ride a jeepney...maybe next time.

Greetings from Cebu

So the trip to Banaue was a doomed one. For various reasons(weather, accomodations, transportation) and mishaps in planning, our dream of seeing the rice terraces may never come to fruition - at least for now. We also wanted to see Palawan, but we aren't going there either. It's crazy how fast time flies, especially when you take 10 hr bus rides. I guess we could probably see the rice terraces, but then we'd cut out time for seeing family. And that's just not nice. Also, we had to make sure we had enough time to buy pasalubong aka gifts for you people back in the states.

So our "last" trip here is Cebu. People kept telling us we have to go to Cebu. So we went to Cebu. I really didn't know what to expect from Cebu, but I was excited nonetheless. Quick history note, Cebu is where Magellan first landed in the 1500's and the one and only Lapu Lapu is from Cebu. (there is actually a Lapu Lapu City) Anyway, I found (at first) Cebu to be much nicer than Metro Manila. It was less crowded, less polluted, and the cab drivers seemed less asshole-y. Carlos said it reminded him of Hawaii.

Cebu has white sand beaches and we went in search for one or two. We hired a driver ($20 for three hours) The front desk recommended a place called White Sands and another called Tamboli. When we got to White Sands, we found that it was resort and only had a little beach area...the water didn't look very tempting a far cry from the blue-green water we saw in pictures. We were disappointed, but the awesome pool there made up for it. After being hot, sticky and uncomfortable for two and a half weeks, this pool was heaven. I think I may have had the best burger to date there at the resort. It may have been because I was hungry or because I used banana ketchup instead of regular ketchup, but I swear the best burger that I've had so far is ironically in Cebu. Tamboli was also, to our disappointment a resort as well. It did have more of a beach and had more picturesque views of the water. I guess we were looking for a public beach paradise but we found that most of the beaches within reasonable distance are resorts.

Random stories from Cebu....There's a lot of Koreans in Cebu, so seeing the Koreans made us want Korean BBQ. We randomly and chose a restaurant and stayed with the safe choice of bulgogi and what looked like kalbi. The kalbi was fine, but the bulgogi was a different story. We're used to seeing bulgoki as a generous heap of thin strips of meat. This time, it was thin strips of meat in a soup with noodles and vegetables. Pretty weird but it is what it is. Carlos was playing poker at a hotel nearby and Manny Pacquiao walks in. I was jealous he saw him and I didn't and furious he didn't take a picture. We went to a spa and got these aromatherapy massages...the massages were great but what the highlight was, was that Carlos got violated by the masseuse (or so he thinks)

The last two things we did in Cebu was go to Carbon Market and the Taoist Temple. Carbon Market came recommended as a destination for Cebu City. And man was it an experience. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but Carbon Market was a simply a ghetto, open air market. On top of the deathly heat, there was lovely mixture of fish and sewage smells. I'm pretty sure we were the only tourists there. There was really nothing out of the ordinary sold at that market.. I tried to get Carlos to eat balut at one of the stands but he really didn't want to try balut for the first time in that crazy market. We left, empty handed, before the heat and/or smell killed us. The Taoist Temple was huge and pictureseque - for some reason you can use your camera, but you can't use a tripod. There's also a huge Chinese community in Cebu, so this place solidifies the establishment of the community. It was very peaceful there and we enjoyed watching people pose for their new Friendster profile pictures.

We wished we would've seen more of the beaches in the area, but alas we didn't. We made a promise to ourselves that when we return to the Phillippines, we will definitely come back to Cebu, but we will do it right...

Another random note, as a kid growing up in 90's, I didn't have the pleasure of going to a mall show. But at the ripe old age of 24, I went to my first mall show. And the star of the show was none other than Hansen. Me, Carlos, Hansen, and Hansen's merry band of superfans packed into a van and headed to Imus, Cavite for the mall show. It was nice knowing the star, because you get to walk around with security, stay backstage, and watch people get excited to the point of convulsions at the mere sight of their idol. Yes, for a couple of hours on Valentine's Day in a random town, Carlos and I were fame whores...

I Left My Heart In Baguio

It's a six hour trip from Vigan to Baguio. We decided yet again to do baller status and take first class. Unfortunately, something got lost in translation and we ended up on a local bus. Instead of a straight shot from Vigan to Baguio, it made a what felt like a million stops. With people came mosquitoes - so most of the trip was swatting mosquitoes away from our faces. It had air conditioning, which was a blessing but we had to listen to this 70's and 80's hit-love-songs mix cd over and over for six hours. The road to Baguio was a very windy one; thanks to Dramamine (thank you Gracie Lou for the tip) I didn't throw up whatever silog I had that morning.

It was a beautiful, cool evening in Baguio when we arrived. It was a nice break from the hot and humid weather in Manila. We stayed at the Bloomfield Hotel which was a million times nicer and comfortable than Grandpa's Inn. The first thing we decided to do was walk down Session Road. Session Road is where all the bars, restaurants, and shops are in Baguio City. Baguio City is a known college town, so naturally the crowd was a lot younger (at least on Session Road at 11:00 at night) and it reminded me of University Ave and Downtown Davis, with hilly San Francisco type sidewalks.

On advice from a friend of Hansen's, we had brunch at a place called Cafe Zola's. Compared to other restaurants in the area, this looked the cleanest and had the more modern decor. Carlos delighted in the fact that he could smoke in the restaurant and that he knew every song that was playing in the background; the music was strictly 90's R&B hits. (think Shai, IV Example, Jodeci etc) I had the chili pork while he had the tilapia surpise. I think we both enjoyed the ambiance more than the food.

After brunch we took a walk down to Burnham Park, which apparently is the Phillippines answer to Central Park. The first thing we noticed was the man made lake with row boats (you can rent) shaped like swans. There were tree lined walk ways, make shift bikes (tandem bikes as well) for rent, large picnic areas, gardens, and large soccer fields. There were familes having picnics or taking rides on the bikes, couples and friends huddled together on the benches, Jehovah's Witnesses (equipped with the Watchtower) and of course the ever present merchants. (who sold everything from strawberries to cigarettes to these weird monkey-stuffed animal things) It was nice to stroll around and breathe in clean air. We walked around taking photos of the scenery and the people (both were quite interesting) A note on "interesting" people - we photographed a group of Baguio punk kids. In a seemingly homogenous youth culture, it was refreshing to photograph these kids flipping us off.

Our next stop that day was Tamawan Village, which is about 20 minutes outside of Baguio City, nestled up in the hills. Tamawan Village is an artist colony that also serves as a Filipino Heritage Site that allows you to stay in a traditional Ifugao hut. The artists at Tamawan also teach art workshops (painting, sketching etc) and you can also learn traditional dance. (We found out those services are only offered to guests) Tamawan is a breathtaking, lush, tropical hillside. From what I can remember here is some of what is at Tamawan : Restored Centuries old Ifugao huts, which serve as classrooms and rooms for guests; galleries of Filipino art with perspectives that range from traditionalist to abstract expressionsm; Ifugao statues and various artifacts. Carlos and I got portraits sketched by four different artists. (Carlos looks different in all of them)What I will remember most about Tamawan is Chit. Chit is the founder and owner of Tamawan. He is a very friendly and personable guy who is an artist in every sense of the word: creative, cool, and intense. He told us the story of how he left his unfulfilling career as a computer engineer and decided to concentrate on his art. He bought some property to use as a hang out spot for him and his friends (also artists) Those artists started to make important art, more people started coming and the art collection grew...and so what is now Tamawan Village. When the village closed for the day to tourists, we were invited to gin and palutan (fish). For me it was yes to the fish, no to the gin; for Carlos yes to both. Chit and his artist mates live the life and they live it well. They are all people who at one point lived normal lives but decided to follow their passion and live as artists - and after a day of teaching, sharing, and talking about art, they share bottles of gin. Does it get any better? When we left that evening, Chit hugged and me and said "Enjoy Life".

Our last night in Baguio was spent at Ayuyang (a bar that had live music) having a couple rounds of San Miguels with two artists from Tamawan and one of the artists' driver, Steve Buscemi look alike Mel. Mel has got to be my favorite person so far. He's a loud spaz who over the course of the evening kept insisting we try "jack rice". What that is I don't know, but he swore it was good and said if we ate it for breakfast we wouldn't need to eat lunch. He also gave us a checklist for all the sites in Baguio (Sadly, we only saw about four things on that list) The singer who had a set that night, had an "interesting" voice and did acoustic covers of Time after Time, Fast Cars, Message in a Bottle and many other 80's-90's contemporary hits. What I loved the most was how Mel sang a long to almost every song, very loudly and with his eyes closed.

I loved clean and green Baguio. The weather and landscape reminds me much of San Francisco: cool weather, homes on the hillside. I ate good food, met cool people, but most importantly got to see another side of Filipino culture and lifestyle.

Midnight Bus to Vigan

The jet lag has since subsided and we are slowly getting into the swing of things. I am sporting a shiny face and three mosquito bites on my feet (one on my left, two on my right), but thanks to Rachel I was able to get my hands on some Malarone which means no malaria for me. I am trying really hard to be a "good tourist" meaning observing the scene without disrupting things. But I got moony eyed over the big lights, jeepneys, and kids smoking cigarettes that I'm sure I got in a lot of peoples way, thus pissing them off. One thing I quickly learned was that it sucks to be a pedestrian here. Who knew that crossing the street would be a life or death situation? You either wait until the coast is clear or wing it and weave through the damn cars. It's like playing Frogger, only when you get smooshed you truly are fucked.

As I mentioned earlier, we were doing a mini-back packing trip through three places in Northern Luzon: Vigan, Baguio, and Banaue. I was genuinely excited about going on the trip until two hours before we had to leave for the bus station. It dawned on me that in my 24 years of existence, I had never back packed anywhere. The closest I came to back packing was in the halls of my middle and high schools. I panicked. Carlos was very excited- which is understandable because this is a guy who went on a cross country trip by train all by himself. He's a wanderer at heart, like Dora the Explorer. Anyway, I eventually got over my panic attack and we were on our way to Vigan. It was a 10 hour bus ride from Cubao to Vigan. We decided to do it baller status and ride a deluxe bus (which is higher than First Class) It was the best decision ever; big comfortable seats, sub zero temperature, and few passengers. We left at midnight on Tuesday with the hopes that we'd sleep through out the whole 10 hour trip. I would doze off then be jerked awake and distracted by the scenery. This was the pattern until I took two NyQuils. Along the way, the scenery looked like Metro Manila; chain restaurants, shacks, make shift businesses but without the high rises and jeepneys.

When we got to Vigan, we were a bit disappointed. Vigan is supposed to be the best preserved example of Spanish Colonialism and architecture. When the bus pulled in, the city looked disappointingly modern. We took a tricycle, which is a motorcycle with a side car, to our hotel. Carlos and I are fairly small people and we barely fit into the side car, I can't imagine how anyone over 5'7 could fit in there. We were staying in a "quaint" hotel called Grandpa's Inn. When I say quaint I mean budget; we just needed a place to sleep. Our room was a small, mildewy dungeon. On the flip side, it had powerful air conditioning.

We took a calesa, which is a horse drawn carriage, and toured Vigan. Note, always ask how much something costs before partaking; failure to do so will result in a hustle. Anyway, we saw a jar factory, the hidden garden, a really weird zoo in which ostriches were wandering freely, two museums and Calle Crisologo. The two that were worth the tour was the Crisologo Museum and Calle Crisologo. The Crisologo museum is a museum dedicated to the Crisolgo family. Their mansion was turned into the museum. The husband was a congressman and the wife eventually became mayor. Everything was well preserved: their offices, their furniture and clothing. The congressman was assasinated and in a glass case were pictures of his assasination, the pants he wore that day, his glasses, and various news paper clippings. Morbid, but nonetheless fascinating.

Calle Crisologo is what we traveled 10 hours for: it had the cobble stone streets and the colonial architecture. It was beautiful. Mansions with crumbling paint and large wooden doors were turned into equivalents of live/work lofts: store at the bottom, home up top. Stores sold everything from various Vigan souvenirs, funny t shirts, hand made purses, and hand made furniture. We watched other calesas go by and I loved the sound of the horse shoes on the cobble stone streets. (what I didn't love was the horse shit smell) We also watched toddlers do dances that I'm positive they learned on Wowowee. We sat on bench taking in the scene until we were ambushed by blood thirsty mosquitoes.

As far as food goes, we went to one of the street stalls in Plaza Salcedo to try the empanadas and the okoy (fried whole shrimp omelett) The empanadas were huge and filled with cabbage, pork and egg. They were large, crispy and delicious. The okoy was good but not as good as the empanadas.I guess I was thrown off by the whole shrimp thing; I prefer mine shelled, deveined and headless. So for two empanadas, okoy, and two giant Pepsis, it came out to P 116, which is roughly $2.30. I was worried that we'd regret eating street food, but fortunately we didn't vomit or get the runs.

In conclusion, Vigan didn't have that rustic charm that I was hoping for but seeing Calle Crisologo was well worth the trip. Vigan is very down home; friendly people, managable weather and an overall charming atmosphere. Next is Baguio.

Malls, Malls, Malls

From San Francisco to Hong Kong, it is 14 hours...to Hong Kong to Manila it is 2 hrs..so counting a layover which is about 1-2 hrs, that 18 hours to get to the Phillippines. We arrived in Manila at about midnight February 7th. The airports that I have been to, which is a grand total of 6 (most of which in the US of A) there seemed to be organized chaos - meaning there was a whole lot going on, but there was a system in place. In Ninoy Aquino International Airport, it was just chaos. So you have all these people with their huge luggage and balikbayan boxes scrambling about with no order; it almost looked like people were looting.

Most people who have been to the P.I. tell me the first thing I would notice about Manila is the smell...and man did I ever. When we stepped outside to meet our ride, the smell of sewage slapped us in the face then humidity began to suffocate us. So it was a quite violent welcoming into Manila. Anyway, it seemed like everyone and their mom was waiting to be picked up...people had signs and cars/taxis just parked pretty much anywhere in the terminal. It was amazing to me that at midnight the airport would be this crowded.

Luckily before we got swallowed by the crowd, Hansen was able to find us. Driving in the Phillippines is some scary shit. There must be only one traffic law because people dont drive in lanes, or signal they just speed and honk. He took us down Roxas Ave which is basically hedonism central..which is bars, casinos, and quickie hotels - a quickie hotel is a hotel in which you have a quickie. They are advertised like its the Hilton, but supposedly they are clean. We all went to a massage parlor called Wensha. Dressed in robes, we got our backs, shoulders, necks, legs and feet massaged. It was funny watching Carlos get massaged by a dude especially when the dude was massaging his inner thighs. My first meal in the Phillippines was regrettably spaghetti carbonara..but it was free and I was starving. So I got a massage for 650 pesos which is roughly $12. And I also got a free meal.

So we are staying (for now) in Pasig City at Hansen's condo. He lives in a very nice sort of upscale compound. He has indoor plumbing and hot and cold water, which I hear are luxuries here in the P.I. His "entourage" includes Manang (his maid), Mon (his 20 year old driver) and Bugoy his wing man/fellow celebrity.

Seeing as how he lives in Metro Manila, we had to go to malls. I really didn't want to travel half way around the world to spend time at a mall but apparently the malls are the place to be. We went to Market!Market!, SM Mega Mall, the Fort, and Glorietta. The first two are where the "masa" (the commoners) go and the latter two are supposedly more upscale. As far as I'm concerned the malls were like all malls..crowded and with a lot of stores..However here in the Phillippines everyone is at the mall, or so it feels like. There were three enjoyable things at the mall: seeing people gush over Hansen (who was a contestant on a reality show called Pinoy Dream Academy-think Big Brother meets American Idol- he didn't win but has built up a loyal legion of fans), the air conditioning, and the food kiosks. The were stands for deep fried sho mai, ensaymada, empanadas...seeing them all made me want to stuff my fat American face. I did try this stand called King Corn, basically its corn kernels with melted butter and the same cheese used in the Kraft Mac and Cheese boxes..doesn't sound like much but it was pretty damn good and about .50 cents.

Hansen is very friendly with upper crust of Taguig ( a city which is part of Metro Manila) and on Saturday night they had an anniversary party for their own home grown political party called Kilusang Diwa Taguig...what they stand for, not to sure...but they know how to throw a party. The party was pretty much a bunch performances( a mixture of singing and dancing numbers) and speeches. Filipinos and singing(and or dancing) go together like peanut butter and jelly; the talent show is part of Filipino culture.

What I've taken in so far is that there are a lot of people in the Metro Manila area, I mean shit loads of people. People just walking around (weaving between cars, walkin along the freeway, on the jeepney at the mall) It never seems to die down; even at 4am there are folks on the street. My favorite scene is kids playing near the construction sites. I know they can get crushed by machinery or a piece of concrete could knock them unconscious but its really cute. I have to remind myself that I'm in a third world country, meaning the division between the rich and poor is very noticeable. There are expensive high rises and a block away you see shanty towns and people digging through heaps of garbage. I've seen it in pictures and TV, but its feels more real when its in front of your face. This is a trip I've been waiting for my whole life and this is a trip I may not get to take very often. With that said I intend to see as much of the Phillippines as I can and absorb as much of the culture as I can. So next we will be travelling by bus to the following: Vigan, an untouched Spanish colony in Illocos Sur; Baguio, college town with a climate similar to San Francisco; and Banuae home of the rice terraces.

Yes, the food here is cheap, but we haven't found anything too memorable but then again its only our third day here. Photos to come...