DAY 440: On New Year's Day 2004, I had a pretty hectic one trying to get from the bottom of Colca Canyon in southern Peru to the city of Arequipa with a Puerto Rican couple that simply had to get back in civilization right away since they were slated to be in a wedding in Lima the following day. It was a crazy day of trekking, waiting, and organizing any sort of transport we could on a day when the public buses weren't running like people said they would.

New Year's Day 2005 wouldn't be half as chaotic, or even a third; it would be a casual and laid back one to rest and recuperate from the festivities the night before, and to visit more relatives.

AFTER A LAZY SATURDAY MORNING OF TELEVISION and surfing the internet, my uncle, cousins and I hopped in the car to go to my father's hometown, Malabon, not too far away from Manila, to visit my Tita Sedy. It was a casual lunchtime family gathering of Filipino food, English conversation (so that my relatives could practice), and my little second cousins A.C., Trisha and Aaron running around as kids do, with toy swords, the Spider-Man mask, and a mask of Skelator from He-Man. It was great to see my aunt again, an old teacher and author of numerous biology textbooks; she was thrilled to see me healthy and writing as well.

After a group photo, we left Malabon to continue our casual first day of 2005. It was just like any other day, except things were a bit different because of the events of the night before. Suddenly the big billboards on the highway of actress/model Giselle Toengi had a new significance, and now I was really into the Filipino rock scene. We went off to the shopping center in Greenhills to shop for music CDs and bootleg DVDs, but they were closed for the holiday. Instead we head back over to where we celebrated the night before, the affluent neighborhood of Makati.

MANILA IS A HUGE METROPOLIS OF THE OLD AND THE NEW, the good, the bad and the ugly. Like many of the world cities I've seen, it is where poverty is juxtaposed to the super rich, sometimes abruptly without any transition. One minute you're driving through the slums and the next you're in a ritzy neighborhood of luxury hi-rises.

Makati is such the ritzy neighborhood and is definitely the "Madison Avenue" in Let's Go's "Malay, Madrid, and Madison Avenue" description of the Philippines. If "Hong Kong" was in that description, it would be that too; an upscale commercial and residential district, it is where HSBC's skyscraper stands amidst other post-modern financial office buildings, where Louis Vuitton and Hugo Boss grace the marble floors of the numerous upscale shopping malls, most connected to each other by covered walkways. It is where all the international restaurants are, from the Hard Rock Cafe: Manila to the Manila's branch of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., as well as the standard that should go without say, Starbucks, situated in a nice open-air courtyard that reminded me of Miami's Coconut Grove (picture above).

"Not here, this is Makati," my uncle told JayPee when he was about to put on the Spider-Man mask again. The gag was getting stale anyway, and so he put it away.

"Spider-Man is retired," Judiel said.

JayPee went off to meet his girlfriend in the first mall as his normal mild-mannered self, leaving the rest of us to casually walk around amongst the other people relaxing after the night of New Year's Eve. Jessica bought a new book to read since she was almost done with Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, and Joey and Judiel helped me find the CD of Bamboo, the headlining act at the concert the night before -- it wasn't so easy to find since some stores had it sold out.

The casual first day of 2005 ended with a casual dinner at the local branch of California Pizza Kitchen, for Peking Duck and Garlic Shrimp Pizzas and bottles of S.M.B. (San Miguel Beer), an acronym I didn't make up; "SMB" posters and flyers are seen all over the Philippines. Nothing really exciting happened after that; we simply went back home and vegged, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. With 364 days left in the year, there was still plenty of time to do stuff later on.