Philippines, 03-13 August
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
A very rainy Manila
Boracay Island - not ALWAYS rainy!
Philippines
This post will be short (mercifully) as (1) we didn’t spend a lot of time here and (2) it rained 83.5% of the time we were here. We don’t mind the rain at all, especially in Asia, but it did limit the amount of outside activities for a short stay. Fortunately, the rain can be easy to get along with in Asia since the cultures are SO heavy into shopping malls, meaning there is always a dry indoor space to go to get out of the hotel. And they have MOVIES in English!!! The one thing we were both blown away with was the friendliness and graciousness of our new Filipino friends. Everywhere we went we were treated like their beloved auntie and uncle - if you want to go somewhere to feel special and loved, this might be the place.
Also, throughout Asia (and unlike a lot of the world) the malls offer a ton of great eating options. In particular, our new crave, Din Tai Fung and their addictive soup dumplings (Xiao Long Bao - I just like saying that word) is almost always nearby somewhere. Also, malls let us find some of the American restaurants we grew up with for an occasional divergence from local foods, like El Pollo Loco and Shake Shack. I’ve developed all sorts of new comfort foods on this trip (ramen, dumplings, pho, tater tots) but every once in a while a real strawberry shake can make me whole again. WHOLE lot fatter!!!
I read that Manila in good weather can present legendary traffic problems…in pouring rain it’s a mess, with crazy traffic jams and mini-floods and motorcycle riders dressed in hooded trash bags with umbrellas strapped onto their handlebars. So we pivoted and decided to limit the outdoor activities and only really made it to the fort, which is a famous site for Philippine Independence. And then we turned toward indoor activities - museums and movie theaters!
One of the things we really wanted to do but missed, because of the rain, was ride in a Jeepney. These are American military jeeps left behind after WWII that the Filipinos chopped, stretched and turned into mini-bus passenger vehicles. There are over 240,000 in the Phillipines and are everywhere in Manila, painted and decorated with the tastes of the owner, and provide over 40 Million person trips daily! They look uncomfortable as hell but it would have been fun to add these to the list of crazy things we've ridden in the past year and a half! Their days might be numbered as the government is requiring them to change to electric versus gas, which might make them unaffordable to the owners in the future, but much better to the local smog problems.
We really wanted to go to the island of Palawan, which is a top diving destination, but the travel paths just wouldn’t make it easy for us to get there and on to our next destination, so we opted for Boracay. The island is known for it’s powdery fine white sand and beautiful beaches, which are stunning, but aren’t all that much fun with a driving 40MPH rainstorm hitting you in the face! I know, Poor Poor us!!! There are also pods of whale sharks that make their homes nearby, but the one day we were going to go swim with them the weather turned pretty ugly and it got cancelled. We got lucky a couple of days and had some beautiful hot and sunny days to wander the beach and play in the surf, but it was too rough to do any diving.
The highlight of the trip was actually getting to meet Shawn, a hometown friend of our family that we were introduced to on Facebook. He has been traveling a similar path as us for the past few months but we’ve narrowly missed him until now. It’s such a small world - he was staying just down the beach from us so we met for a breakfast that somehow turned into evening drinks and dinner! Pina Coladas apparently have a time bending additive in them - not sure what that is, though. One minute it's morning and the next it's last call...curious.
Traveling/wandering/exploring has always been our happy spot, so getting to meet other travelers is super gratifying and comforting and it’s reassuring to know that we’re not the only crazies out there! I used to think that travelers are a special breed but that’s not really true - we’re simply open to wandering and exploring a bit…but some of us tend to take a little too far! It’s always fun to compare stories and places and experiences. And meeting others from Oklahoma (It's a state north of Texas, for you non-Americans and New Yorkers) isn’t a regular occurrence, so it was kinda soothing talking about Tulsa things, even though I've been gone so many years. Meeting Shawn also validated that our love for Asia isn’t misplaced. We shared many of the same favorites from our travels. It’s easier to understand the beauty, friendliness and modernity of many parts of Asia once you are able to spend a little time there.
Overall, I’d love to come back to the Philippines, but maybe not in rainy season. And I don’t need to go back to Boracay. Shawn left us for Palawan (after a nightmare debacle with AirAsia) and preferred it to Boracay…if it was just easier to get to for this trip we would have gone there instead. It was too stormy for me to do any diving in Boracay but I can easily see a dive trip to Palawan in the future someday! I’d also like to spend a couple DRY days in Manila and possibly head to the north a bit to check out the countryside.
Great post, as usual! Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you!
Did you get to experience any Filipino live music? They are super talented musicians and vocalists! Sounds like yet another wonderful destination. When you circle around to STL, we have a Filipino restaurant to take you to! Safe travels!