Philippines: Week 2

Week 2 was great; it started out with a visit to my mother’s side of the family who were all very happy to see us. The house that they had been working on when I last visited is now finished and the young cousins I met before have all grown. There have also been new additions to the family, my cousin Ren Ren and Goddaughter/cousin Margaux. It will be interesting to see how they’ve grown the next time I make a visit to the Philippines. My aunts and grandmother prepared a terrific lunch and dinner, which included Miki; a favorite dish of mine that I had for the first time on my last visit and one that I hope to have in future visits to come.

My parents during our stay here hired a driver to take us around, one of the locations was a visit to Baguio City, which is located in the mountains of northern Luzon. There were beautiful views and interesting little shops to visit. Souvenirs in this part of the country had a phallic theme as seen through their wood carvings, which I found funny. Kids here don't seem to be afraid of heights as I would see many of them walking the road barriers on the edges of the road where the hillside drops off steeply. In traveling through Baguio we were able to visit the Korean War memorial, the Philippine Military Academy, and the Mansion House which is home to the president of the Philippines.

On another day our driver took us to Subic Bay, which has beautiful beaches and resorts. This was really great for me considering I’ve never been to a beach before. There were many other attractions as well, one of which was a tree top tour where you can bungee from the tall trees or zip line across them. I was tempted to try it but thought otherwise once I watched other people do it; I figure I'd like to make it back home in one piece. While there was a zoo that we were able to visit, the wildlife was present outside the zoo as well during our encounter with monkeys hanging out on the side of the road that we stopped to feed bananas.

My uncle Dick invited us over to his home for dinner on another night. He lives in the same subdivision as my parents so he was within walking distance to visit. We brought over a popular Philippine beer called San Miguel, which I tried for the first time and didn’t think was bad. The dinner at my uncle’s however was terrific! He cooked goat stew, squid with spinach, fish balls, sinigang and a fish called Dori which I thought was the greatest thing I’ve eaten on the trip so far. Once the San Miguel was kicking in we partook in my uncle’s karaoke system. I thought I sounded horrible but I had fun nonetheless. My sister and myself's rendition of Enigma's "Return to Innocence" was priceless.

There were days to relax and hang around also, which was nice. Since not many people have washer and dryers here, we washed our clothes by hand and set them out to dry. Having my mother’s cooking again was nice as she prepared various foods I loved eating growing up. To stay active we started running at a nearby cemetery, I feel I can run much harder here with the lower altitude, I love it. I've been enjoying hanging out outside and soaking up the sun and forgetting all the stresses I left behind on the other side of the world. I feel that I can really relax here and it is nice to get a taste of a simpler life.