G2a: Note from Maria
Hello Everyone – Jaime and I are enjoying a San Miguel beer at our resort on the Island of Boracay and it is getting late. We are doing well, and haven’t been able to get “on line” until now. We are having fun, it is so incredibly beautiful here! The trip went well, in that we landed safely, but wow, what a long way to go. We managed to get through the longest leg, 14-1/2 hours from LA to Hong Kong, but any longer and I wouldn’t have been able to take it. We occupied about 2-3 hours trying to understand the time difference. We weren’t alone, you could hear people around us trying to do the same. It was best to accept the fact that no one was going anywhere until the pilot got us there.
We spent two days in Manila, took a tour of Intramuros in a calasa (horse drawn cart) with Ray (driver) and Romeo (horse). Intramuros is the ruins of a large Spanish fort, so we saw a lot of firsts, like first church in Manila, first University in Manila, etc. We went to the Mall of Asia, which is huge, and borders the bay, so it has many restaurants with great views. The food is incredible!!! I’ve heard great things about the fried chicken, and it’s just as people described (we tried it at Max’s in the Mall). Manila was interesting, we took a taxi just about everywhere we went, and got to experience the traffic. They have painted lane lines on their streets, but they are just suggestions – cars, buses, moterbikes, calasas, Jeepneys all go between other cars if there is room. It’s organized chaos, and a thrill from the back seat. Jeepneys are everywhere, they are extremely colorful expanded jeeps that are made from the left over WWII jeeps. They expanded them, and use them as mini buses, you can hop on one anywhere and hop off when you get to your destination.
We met Bing Bing, Jaime’s cousin, out for sea food our last night. It was great to meet Bing, and she helped us get the seafood we wanted. Most people speak English, but not everyone.
It took the two days in Manila to really adjust to the time difference, we were pretty tired during the day, and woke up really early every morning. After breakfast, it felt like mid afternoon. So we left Manila in a puddle jumping plane, took a pump boat to the Island of Boracay, and then a motorized trike with side cart to our resort. We are doing well, looking forward to the Island stay, and relaxing even more.
Tags: G 2008 PHILIPPINE TRIP
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