justzoomin

So, it has been a while. Again. What has happened since my last post? I’ll fill you in:

Continued my training in Manila until March 17 and flew home on the 18th. Justin came over and we were able to explore the Philippines together and he got to live the “retired” life!

After we got home (we flew back on the same flight but had drastically different experiences. I sat in the upper level of the plane from Manila to Tokyo and Justin sat about 10 rows from the back of the plane from Tokyo to Minneapolis. I did go and visit him on that last flight — and then hightailed it back up to business class!), we packed up our whole house and sold it. Then we bought a new house and moved to Yvette’s house. Yes, you read that right. We bought a house and moved somewhere else!

We off-loaded as much that we could from the house and last week the oldest house on our block (built in 1889!) came down piece by piece. It was quite the experience to watch them destroy the house — and nothing brings out the neighbors like a little destruction! I met a number of our neighbors that I look forward to getting to know better and being a part of their community for years to come!

So, that is what is happening with us. You will see many updates related to the house coming for the next few months.

The ball is rolling. We have footings (today). Tomorrow we should have basement walls. We have been busy talking to a kitchen designer/cabinet lady, we picked out tile, we have our appliances picked out, shingles are selected, exterior paint has been selected. Phew! There is a lot to do still, but it seems like we have a good start!

Photos to come!

This weekend is a few days of much needed rest. I am actually supposed to be at a beach resort, but am under the weather so I am hanging at the Ascott! That is OK, then I can update my blog!

So, this past week was week 5. I can’t believe I have already been here for that long! Time has really flown by. Two things I can say is that I have not fully adjusted to the time difference and Filipinos really are the happiest people (there is a shirt to prove it!)

Last weekend was another busy weekend. Here are a few highlights:

We started out with one of my requests … no surprise here … the Marikina Shoe Museum! I had read about this museum in a book over the summer when I first found out I would be travelling and we were able to go and see about 600 pair of Imelda Marcos’ shoe collection. I mean really?!?! Who really needs that many pair of shoes (this was about 1/3 of this collection!) The kicker was there were about 15 pair of the SAME EXACT shoes! Not in different colors, which she was also fond of — the SAME EXACT shoes! Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos, except for the giant shoe in the lobby.

Next we went to Tiendesitas, which is an open air market. We did some window shopping, bought a few things and had some lunch.

We headed over to the National Museum for a tour and saw paintings by the Filipino Masters, saw bones of native animals and a few scultpures. We didn’t have a lot of time to see everything, so our guide gave us a highlight tour.

Last stop for Saturday was the dinner cruise in Manila Bay. We thought Gillian was kidding that we had to board the boat last because we were sitting out front and that our table was up on dry land when we arrived, but she was only telling us half the truth. Our table was on the front of the boat, but it wasn’t one of them up in the waiting area before boarding. We had a nice cruise around the bay and past the Mall of Asia. It is amazing to see the size of that place from the water!

Sunday was the following:

First, we went to Chinatown. What a busy place — very community oriented and I swear that everyone was out in the streets! The funny thing is that we were told that weekdays are even busier than weekends! We walked around, seeing a church, some shops, restaurants and we almost saw a Dragon Presentation for a store that was opening, but it wasn’t going to happen for a while so we had to keep going.

Second, we went to Rizal Park, the site of Jose Rizal‘s execution on December 30, 1896. He was a highly educated man from a well-off family that spoke his mindand was leading the revolution and the Spanish saw him as a huge threat. In the end, the Spanish imprisioned him and lead him from Fort Santiago to what is now Rizal Park to execute him. According to our guide, the Spanish didn’t want to actually execute him, so the forced soldiers from the Philippines Army to execute him (see photo of the painting below to see the guns held to their backs to make sure they did it). They also made him stand facing away from the firing squad like he was a criminal. He tried to spin around when he heard the shots, but was hit in the spine and never got turned around.

Third stop was Intramuros and Fort Santiago. The historic fort is very interesting and kind of funny at one point. Years ago, they (the Americans) removed the moat that was around the walled area and turned it into a golf course. So, you are walking along inside the historic military area and you go through a tunnel to go to the chapel and you are standing right next to a tee box! Here we saw the areas where Rizal was held for his last few days, a museum with some of his belongings and his writings. We also saw the path he took for his walk from the Fort to his execution site.

We ended up at the Mall of Asia for the Pyromusical show. We saw the UK and China compete and if it were a one night contest, the UK would have won hands down. We had dinner on the patio on the upper level of the mall, so we had a great view of the show. There were a few things that came with dinner that a few of us didn’t eat (tripe and tounge …)

Well, three weeks left — but the exciting part is that I will have some company for the last two!

Here are a few photos:

At the Shoe Museum (Jessica, Kor, Andrea, Gillian, Karen, Shannon and me)

That is one BIG shoe!

Wall of yuck (spiders, lizards, snakes ...)

Some good facts about pet ownership.

Getting ready to get on the cruise ship. Gillian told us the table under the tent was ours. It wasn't but our table was not set up yet when this photo was taken!

Beautiful sunset.

Look at me, I'm on a BOAT!

Dragon head for shop opening.

Chinatown firetruck and lanterns from the Chinese New Year celebration (it is purple because of the color of Ube).

The Rizal Monument.

0km -- the center of Manila.

Two guys I don't admire. This has to be a demanding job in the heat!

FORE! (and some history!)

The moat around Fort Santiago.

At the gate of Fort Santiago.

Jose Rizal statue and his cell in the background.

The painting depicting Rizal's last days

The footsteps of Rizal's last walk. He walked extremely slowly in case anyone was coming to save him. No one did.

The Bee and the Turtle enjoy some chicken at the fireworks show.

Fireworks from the UK show.

The fireworks were so big that my camera was not zoomed out far enough!

Quite the finale!

Sorry for the delay in updating. They keep us pretty busy!

So, last weekend we went to Greenhills to go shopping on Saturday, and on Sunday we traveled to the Hot Air Balloon Festival and then up to Subic Bay.

Greenhills is an interesting place. Rows and rows of stalls that sell pretty much everything under the sun. We were focused on buying pearls. What an overwhelming experience. Not only are there thousands of different sizes, colors, quality … you also have to negotiate for the best price. We had Prince, one of the employees that started this past fall, doing the talking and he is really good! The normal rule is to ask the price and then start negotiating at half the price. Well, let’s just say Prince drives a hard bargain! He got me one of the necklaces I wanted for LESS than half price! It was really cool to watch them knot the strands!

We also had lunch at Max’s. They are famous for their chicken – the slogan is “the house that chicken built”. Good Filipino food! After a successful trip to the mall, we headed back to the hotel to relax.

Sunday was an early morning. We left the hotel at 4 a.m. I couldn’t believe I got up even EARLIER than I do for work to go on the event! We needed to drive about an hour and a half to get to the hot air balloon event. I have never seen so many hot air balloons in one place, so it was fun to see.

From there we headed farther north to Subic Bay. There we saw wildlife, a beach and more sunshine. Somehow I managed to not get a sunburn even though I never put on sunscreen! I lucked out!

OK, enough talking … time for photos! Enjoy!

A few trays of pearls.

Knotting my pearls!

Turtle, Sun and Barn balloons

Up, up and away!

Through the fence, a few balloons with Mount Pinatubo in the background. (Last erupted in 1991.)

Giant fruit bats ...

A closer view of the bats in the trees.

A bat taking flight. Please stay in the tree!

YIKES! A close up of a flying bat. The wingspan is 5' on average ...

Our driver doubled as Bat Man and was calling the bats. YUCK!

A monkey on the side of the road.

I would have LOVED to kayak at Subic!

Too bad we didn't get to spend time at the beach.

This is what this tiger thinks of being in the cage ...

Lovebirds on Valentine's Day!

Bearcat.

Our guide was under attack.

One hungry kitty!

Internet at the hotel freaked out and didn’t let me finish posting the photos. For more about the trip to Banaue, see the post below!

Home sweet home for the night!

Locally grown red rice

Doing the Rooster and Hen traditional dance.

More traditional dancing

The whole group

Jump shot!

Gillian learning to play the gong.

Ice sang a few songs

Learning how to pound rice. It was a workout!

This was my bed!

Some of the many stairs to get to the village ...

At the scenic "rest stop" halfway down the steps.

This is when Ice realized she forgot something ... about 3/4 of the way down the stairs ... she forgot to use the comfort room (the restroom)!

The sign for the village where we stayed

The Hapao Rice Terraces

Ice, Andrea, me and Gillian at the Hapao Rice Terrace

The Turtle and the Bee at the Banaue Rice Terraces

Banaue Viewpoint

A row of Jeepneys. If they are too full to sit inside, people ride on the top!

Street scene in Banaue. We shopped and had lunch in this area -- and almost got run over a few times!

So, a group of us went for a weekend excursion to the Banaue Rice Terraces. We assembled in the lobby of the hotel at 10 p.m. and loaded into two vans and hit the road.

It was about a 6 hour drive out there and I slept most of the way – no small feat in the back seat of a bouncy van! I woke up as we were going up the mountain at sunrise. What a beautiful way to wake up!

My group followed a tour so we met up with our guides, had breakfast (eggs, sausage, rice, fish, bread) learned more about the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (SITMo) and their mission and then headed out for sights, history and a little hiking. Our tour guides (Kenneth, Jonathan and Jovin) were great!

On Saturday we went to Bae Rice Terrace, then to the Nagacadan Rice Terraces, Ifugao Shrine, Ifugao Museum, had a nice picnic lunch at the park and then saw the Yamashita Surrender Site. It was then time for us to head to Banaue and the market there. We then headed down the “road” to the village where we were staying.

The village we stayed in was the Uhaj Village where we relaxed a bit and got ready for dinner (Chicken Adobo and rice) and our cultural show. The youth of the village performed native dances and told us about the meaning of each dance. Oh, and they got us to participate! It was fun, but very tiring!

We had a bonfire and Ice broke out the guitar and sang a few songs and then we hit the hut. I know the saying is hit the hay, but we were sleeping in a hut! Had to climb the ladder to get into our hut, slept on foam mats and hoped that there were no bugs!

I was so exhausted that I slept like a rock. Although, when we woke up in morning it was chilly! In the tropics and I forgot my sweatshirt in the van – and didn’t want to walk halfway down the mountain to get it!

In the morning, we had breakfast (eggs, rice, bread, this tomato/egg thing and more rice!) and the hosts at the village presented me with a necklace for my birthday. Such a nice gesture! We all also got wooden hut keychains. They are really cute! We hiked back down the mountain to the van and headed out to see more rice terraces. We went do the Hapao Rice Terraces, which were REALLY impressive. We could have gone to see an Ifugao traditional ritual, but we had to meet the rest of our group to head back to Manila.

So, the story about the ritual: a man was accused of stealing money from someone and in order to see if he was telling the truth, they were going to get a metal rod red hot and have the man touch it. If he was telling the truth, he would get burned. If he was telling a lie, then he would be unharmed. Hmmm … not really sure what to think about this type of ritual. Seems like torture to me. We were all a little glad that we couldn’t watch that!

From there, we went to the Banaue viewpoint and had an amazing view of the rice terraces and house terraces in Banaue. After the incredible view, we went into town and had lunch, met up with our other group and did a little shopping.

Spend about 10 hours in the van on the way back (traffic slowed us down!), got back to the hotel and went to bed. (OK, I checked my e-mail since I was waiting to hear some important news.)

So, to recap the weekend: did a lot of riding in a van, saw where rice is grown, ate my weight in rice (OK, maybe it just seemed like it!), saw a much different part of the Philippines than Manila, woke up on my birthday in a native-style hut, was in WARM weather for my birthday (traditionally one of the coldest days of the year!), shopped, had many birthday wishes and am looking forward to my 34^th year – and all of the adventures it will bring!

Here are a few photos:

Bae Rice Terrace

Nagacadan Rice Terraces

Ifugao Shrine

Funny sign ...

At the top of the Ifugao Shrine

Lunch

So, we had a jam packed weekend last weekend and now I am getting ready to take a road trip!

Last weekend was the Salcedo Market and Mall of Asia for bowling and seeing Avatar in 3D on the largest IMAX screen in the world, both on Saturday.

Then on Sunday we headed down to Tagaytay to go to Sonya’s Garden and to see the Taal Volcano. We had a delicious lunch at Sonya’s in the greenhouse and then toured the gardens. We even got to go into one of the bed and breakfast houses. Looks like a great place to stay! The Taal Volcano was really incredible to see. It was a little hazy, but we could still see out into the lake to see the tip of the volcano!

The coolest thing we did there was to zip line across the ravine! It was really amazing. On the way over I laid down “Superman” style. On the way back, I sat in the chair. If you ever have the chance to do a zip line, I highly recommend it!

I put a few photos below from last weekend.

This weekend we are driving to the Banaue Rice Terraces. It is about a 10 hour drive so we are leaving shortly to drive overnight. There are 2 vans and 2 drivers for each van.  Will be a long trip, but I think it will be worthwhile. I will post photos next week (definitely not on Sunday night since we probably will be home around midnight and I have to get up for work at 4:15!)

Catfish

Frogs -- that I did not sample!

The gardens on the way to the bed and breakfast area.

Chillin' on the bench. Wow! I am white!

The bee and the turtle in the garden nook.

Taal Volcano/Tall Lake

Kor and Emman zip lining.

Prince getting strapped in!

WHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!