I'll post photos... but later. Last time we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to post them regularly.
This time, I think we've realized that we're on vacation!
Later, sure - watch this space - but no promises on when.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Arrival, and day one in Calamba
Earlier in this trip - Friday, May 15, 2009, about 4 PM local time
So I'm sitting here on the second floor of a beauty salon. For the past several hours, Agnes has been having unspeakable things done to her hair, downstairs; from time to time, there's been lots of laughing and conversation going on around me, not in English, and most of which I cannot understand. Manang and Chris, who are accompanying us everywhere these first few days, are relaxing in chairs near me. The air in here reeks of perm.
Outside the salon's picture windows is a tangle of dozens of black cables: telephone and DSL, cable TV, and who knows what else. Beyond the cables, there's a busy street, probably a national highway (I think this is the road to Los Baños) full of jeepneys and tricycles and commercial trucks, with an occasional bus or private vehicle. Traffic, though heavy, moves more easily here than in the bigger cities, except for holiday weekends when Metro Manila residents clog these roads on their way to the Los Baños resorts for their vacations.
I can hear puttering engines and the squeak of a loose fan belt, the barking of a small dog, and the thump of music coming from somewhere not too far away. Lots of people are walking around at street level, coming from every direction. It's a beautiful day, with partly cloudy skies, and none of the lingering haze that you'd expect in Manila and which sometimes makes an unwelcome guest of itself here. Mount Makiling keeps watch over us, alone and unobscured except for a low cloud hanging out at its peak. Across the street, Walter Mart, a two-story indoor small-city mall; shops, fast food, a supermarket, movie theaters.
School must be out of session; Walter Mart is full of high-school age kids. With the crowds, the food, and the constant thumping music, it's a busy place, and full of excitement for people who get excited about crowds, food, and constant thumping music. Me, I like the food, and find the rest less compelling. (The air conditioning is nice, though.)
There is that constant tropical heat and humidity. The weather really doesn't bother me as much as it did on my first visit - instead of wishing it were cooler, I've come to accept it as it is. You just have to get used to being sticky all day, every day. The thermometer on the free-standing air conditioning unit in the corner of this room gives 33 C as the ambient temperature, and when the fan blows my way, there's a moment of relief, yet the room remains warm. Malls are cooler, but still not at the same standard as in the USA. (Later in our trip, the climate became more comfortable... or maybe we became more comfortable with it.)
All in all, it's been a good day. Not a productive day, but a good day. We took care of some business this morning, and when this hair treatment thing is done, we'll be visiting friends nearby.
Our travel here went really well. We didn't sleep the night before our flight, and on the long flight from JFK to HKG we took several one-hour naps before getting an actual full night's sleep in Calamba last night. I wouldn't say we're all caught up, but I at least am not feeling sleepiness crushing my brain in the way that often comes with jet lag. (Agnes is finding it a little more difficult, but at least I don't think she has to stay wide awake for the beauticians to do their thing.) I'm sure it helps that we got in to Manila at a decent hour - about 6:30 PM rather than the 12 midnight we've seen in the past - so we were able to head to bed at a normal time. The flights themselves were comfortable and uneventful, pretty free of turbulence.
Streaks of something the color of pureed pumpkin run through Agnes's hair. We are assured pumpkin won't be its final color; "brown, like mine" says the black-haired expert. We must only assume he has had his marinated the same way, and that on some level which lies beyond my cognitive grasp he knows what he's talking about.
The Philippines can be a wonderful an exhilarating place. It can also be like this!
So I'm sitting here on the second floor of a beauty salon. For the past several hours, Agnes has been having unspeakable things done to her hair, downstairs; from time to time, there's been lots of laughing and conversation going on around me, not in English, and most of which I cannot understand. Manang and Chris, who are accompanying us everywhere these first few days, are relaxing in chairs near me. The air in here reeks of perm.
Outside the salon's picture windows is a tangle of dozens of black cables: telephone and DSL, cable TV, and who knows what else. Beyond the cables, there's a busy street, probably a national highway (I think this is the road to Los Baños) full of jeepneys and tricycles and commercial trucks, with an occasional bus or private vehicle. Traffic, though heavy, moves more easily here than in the bigger cities, except for holiday weekends when Metro Manila residents clog these roads on their way to the Los Baños resorts for their vacations.
I can hear puttering engines and the squeak of a loose fan belt, the barking of a small dog, and the thump of music coming from somewhere not too far away. Lots of people are walking around at street level, coming from every direction. It's a beautiful day, with partly cloudy skies, and none of the lingering haze that you'd expect in Manila and which sometimes makes an unwelcome guest of itself here. Mount Makiling keeps watch over us, alone and unobscured except for a low cloud hanging out at its peak. Across the street, Walter Mart, a two-story indoor small-city mall; shops, fast food, a supermarket, movie theaters.
School must be out of session; Walter Mart is full of high-school age kids. With the crowds, the food, and the constant thumping music, it's a busy place, and full of excitement for people who get excited about crowds, food, and constant thumping music. Me, I like the food, and find the rest less compelling. (The air conditioning is nice, though.)
There is that constant tropical heat and humidity. The weather really doesn't bother me as much as it did on my first visit - instead of wishing it were cooler, I've come to accept it as it is. You just have to get used to being sticky all day, every day. The thermometer on the free-standing air conditioning unit in the corner of this room gives 33 C as the ambient temperature, and when the fan blows my way, there's a moment of relief, yet the room remains warm. Malls are cooler, but still not at the same standard as in the USA. (Later in our trip, the climate became more comfortable... or maybe we became more comfortable with it.)
All in all, it's been a good day. Not a productive day, but a good day. We took care of some business this morning, and when this hair treatment thing is done, we'll be visiting friends nearby.
Our travel here went really well. We didn't sleep the night before our flight, and on the long flight from JFK to HKG we took several one-hour naps before getting an actual full night's sleep in Calamba last night. I wouldn't say we're all caught up, but I at least am not feeling sleepiness crushing my brain in the way that often comes with jet lag. (Agnes is finding it a little more difficult, but at least I don't think she has to stay wide awake for the beauticians to do their thing.) I'm sure it helps that we got in to Manila at a decent hour - about 6:30 PM rather than the 12 midnight we've seen in the past - so we were able to head to bed at a normal time. The flights themselves were comfortable and uneventful, pretty free of turbulence.
Streaks of something the color of pureed pumpkin run through Agnes's hair. We are assured pumpkin won't be its final color; "brown, like mine" says the black-haired expert. We must only assume he has had his marinated the same way, and that on some level which lies beyond my cognitive grasp he knows what he's talking about.
The Philippines can be a wonderful an exhilarating place. It can also be like this!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Update
We've been here for a few days now; haven't posted many photos, but we've taken some and hope to post them soon.
Our flight to Manila went very well; we spent a couple of nights in Calamba, Laguna with our family there. Then, we flew to Iloilo, where we'll spend most of the rest of our time.
When we've been to Iloilo in the past, we've stayed with our family outside the city. We'll do that for most of our time here on this visit too, but we've been able to spend a couple of nights in the city itself this time around. Met up with some friends we've met in past years; they took us on a quick tour of this side of the city, and we'll post some pictures from that tour soon.
I like Iloilo. The little tour took us through the ports district and the districts of Jaro and La Paz; we stopped for pictures of some of the churches and ships and old Spanish structures. One thing that struck me was that I was again surprised at how many educational institutions are in this city; Ilonggos are always learning. Every few minutes we passed a school. We passed high schools, universities, and all sorts of trade schools - engineering schools, maritime universities, you name it. There is no shortage of educational opportunity here, and there seems no shortage of people glad to take advantage of it.
I don't really have a point in that, except to note that I don't see the same ambition to be educated among Americans that I see here. It's encouraging to see.
More later...
Our flight to Manila went very well; we spent a couple of nights in Calamba, Laguna with our family there. Then, we flew to Iloilo, where we'll spend most of the rest of our time.
When we've been to Iloilo in the past, we've stayed with our family outside the city. We'll do that for most of our time here on this visit too, but we've been able to spend a couple of nights in the city itself this time around. Met up with some friends we've met in past years; they took us on a quick tour of this side of the city, and we'll post some pictures from that tour soon.
I like Iloilo. The little tour took us through the ports district and the districts of Jaro and La Paz; we stopped for pictures of some of the churches and ships and old Spanish structures. One thing that struck me was that I was again surprised at how many educational institutions are in this city; Ilonggos are always learning. Every few minutes we passed a school. We passed high schools, universities, and all sorts of trade schools - engineering schools, maritime universities, you name it. There is no shortage of educational opportunity here, and there seems no shortage of people glad to take advantage of it.
I don't really have a point in that, except to note that I don't see the same ambition to be educated among Americans that I see here. It's encouraging to see.
More later...
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Packing for a new trip
Our to-do list:
DONE: finish & file our wills (have you done this yet?)
DONE: do business at the bank
DONE: stop mail delivery
HALF-DONE: arrange for lawn mowing
HALF-DONE: pack our bags; prep our gadgets
NOT DONE: sleep
All have to be done in the next 12 hours or so - and then we're off!
We'll try to write a few things and take pictures while there... let us know what you're looking for in the comments!
DONE: finish & file our wills (have you done this yet?)
DONE: do business at the bank
DONE: stop mail delivery
HALF-DONE: arrange for lawn mowing
HALF-DONE: pack our bags; prep our gadgets
NOT DONE: sleep
All have to be done in the next 12 hours or so - and then we're off!
We'll try to write a few things and take pictures while there... let us know what you're looking for in the comments!
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Thursday, April 26, 2007
New pictures
New pictures on flickr.
Food, people, small town life, city life, more food, and shots from the air.
A sampling:
Food, people, small town life, city life, more food, and shots from the air.
A sampling:
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Back, mostly
We got back late last week - traveling for more than 24 hours from Manila to RDU. While that sounds like a lot, for this kind of trip it isn't bad at all; we had a 90-minute layover at HKG and about 3 hours at JFK. My parents were home when we got back, and we were glad to take advantage of that rare chance to spend a couple of days wth them, without everyday pressures pulling us away.
But the old routine presses in quickly, for good or for ill. (It's both good and ill, of course - we got too used to not having to do chores.) I think we've recovered from most of our jet lag, and we're back at work. Soon, it will be almost as if we'd never left.
There are a few things I'd still like to post about - some thoughts still bouncing around in my head, and some photos I'd still like to talk about. But first: laundry.
But the old routine presses in quickly, for good or for ill. (It's both good and ill, of course - we got too used to not having to do chores.) I think we've recovered from most of our jet lag, and we're back at work. Soon, it will be almost as if we'd never left.
There are a few things I'd still like to post about - some thoughts still bouncing around in my head, and some photos I'd still like to talk about. But first: laundry.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Rushing through Hong Kong
We've arrived at the Hong Kong airport, and as we've sat down to check e-mail, our flight to JFK has just started boarding. Not much time to linger here (though we would like a good bowl of ramen).
Our next challenge, in about sixteen hours: finding a power outlet.
Our next challenge, in about sixteen hours: finding a power outlet.
In Manila
We're in Manila now, but only for a few hours - heading to bed now so we can be up at 3 AM for an early flight.
We spent some time this afternoon in the Baclaran neighborhood of Manila, which was really something else. We'll post more, including photos, later (perhaps after the trip is over).
Next: An hour or two in Hong Kong, and then the long-haul flight to New York.
We spent some time this afternoon in the Baclaran neighborhood of Manila, which was really something else. We'll post more, including photos, later (perhaps after the trip is over).
Next: An hour or two in Hong Kong, and then the long-haul flight to New York.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Leaving Iloilo soon
We will be leaving Iloilo in just a few hours, heading to Manila for a few more hours before our final flight out of the country. I have more I'd like to post, but no time in which to post it. Maybe later. In the meantime, there are some new photos on flickr - click on any of the images below to see the photostream.
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