As those who've been reading the blog know, I was in the Philippines last month, and was there for a little over two weeks. I was sent there by my company to help get the company's new call center running. It was hard work, but I enjoyed myself despite this: I met a lot of good people, saw new places, and did a lot of shopping! (lol) Lots of reasonably-priced goodies, made me put a big dent in my semi-new credit card's account. (I even got myself a new Paypal account just so that I could register at this swanky designer shoestore and have the piviledge of receiving their by-invitation catalog regularly, and get first crack at their wonderful designer shoes and bags.)

So, it wasn't all work.

It was a third-world country, of course, so there were lots of signs of poverty, though where I stayed and where the company was putting up its new offices were in the more affluent parts of Metro Manila where outward signs of poverty were muted - downtown Makati, for example, was very upscale as well as cosmopolitan. Also, you hear a lot about the unrest and the political turmoil, and, for foreigners, the danger of kidnap-for-ransom gangs, (the company put up lots of precautions in our behalf). But we didn't see any of that.

Where we were was a a busy, jumping place - full of busy people, tall buildings, cars, buses and wall-to-wall people. The entire place didn't seem to go to sleep: cars, buses and trains all bringing people in and out of the city in a never-ending stream (I wanted to ride their version of the Metro just to see, but my driver-security guy nixed that). There were malls in the middle of the commercial district, and they were overflowing with people, especially during the lunch hour and after work. And many of the malls were tastefully surrounded with little belts of greenery so that they looked more like parks than malls from the outside.

To help people move around, there were above-street-level covered walkways that connected many of the buildings so you can walk from building to building high above the street traffic. There were also underground people tunnels so you don't have to cross the major intersections in rush hour traffic.

The actual "plant" where the main operations of the call center would be was to be housed separate from our main office, in a new industrial park in another city, one of the other fourteen cities that made up Metro Manila, and was very near the city's university belt. I guess it was good for the call center 'coz we seemed to have a lot of well educated, well spoken young college graduates applying to be part of our staff. (Metro Manila was made up of fourteen cities and three townships - Manila City being just one of them)

The food was great, but just this side of being too rich: It was pretty good, except everything was either just a little too sweet, or savory, or salty etc. Nowadays, most food tastes just a bit bland. But my palate is returning to normal slowly, although I'll always miss the Jollibee burgers with the sweet pickles instead of dill.

In a way, it was good for us to be shuttling back and forth between the two offices and our apartment, since we get ot see more of the place. But as okay as it was, being in Metro Manila was, I think (this trip is my first out of the country), like being in just another citified place: there are only "citified things" to do - shopping, dining out, going to the theater, etc. Which I could all do at home. Not too much sightseeing, no exotic flora or fauna (except at the zoos, I suppose), et cetera. And there was not time to enjoy the museums and such...

Still, I tried to enjoy the "citified" stuff, and in Metro Manila, home of three of the twenty largest malls in the world, shopping is unparalleled (in my limited experience, of course). I got to go to the Megamall and the Mall of Asia (two of the three), and, with prices generally lower than normal, I really gave my credit card a workout. The Mall of Asia was so large, they had electric trams right in the mall to shuttle the people around. And they had a three-storey-tall iron-frame globe out in front, similar to the globe at the New York Expo. They even had an IMAX theater, an open-air music hall and the country's first olympic-sized ice-skating rink. And, of course, the closest thing to a girl's heart, dozens upon dozens upon dozens of shops!

Still, the best shopping wasn't to be had at the established malls, but in the little "tiangge's", or flea markets, that are, actually, not hard to find. It is a socially acceptable thing to bargain-hunt in these places, and lower-income office girls would happily rub elbows with well-heeled matrons, all of them good-naturedly bargain-hunting. In my mind, they're like friendlier versions of the barain hunters in the movie, "Confessions of a Shopaholic." I had a chance to do that in a place called the Makati Cinema Square - a somewhat seedy place, but I felt safe and happily bargain-hunted along with the locals (and, shhh! it's chock-full of pirate movie, TV & music DVDs, AND pirate software). I did try not to speak much because my accent attracted too much attention, and I would have trouble haggling when they realized I wasn't a local. (I guess I'm a little embarrassed about Americans' provincial attitude towards language, in that we mostly expect everyone to know how to speak English. At least, in the Philippines, this isn't much of an issue as everyone knows English (to varying degrees), so there is virtually no language barrier - a legacy, they say, of the American occupation of the country in the late eighteen-hundreds.

I also had a chance to see Manila at night from out in the bay (they had this ship that would take tourists out to the water for candle-lit dinners in the bay), and seeing the lights of the city at night was one of the best views ever.

We were also lucky enough that we ended our stay with a three-day vacation in picturesque Palawan, a place known for sun-lit lagoons, pristine beaches, excellent wreck-diving spots, and mild tropical weather.

We wrapped up work on our second Friday, and come Saturday morning, we took a a one-hour plane ride to Coron, the province's main town. Manny, my driver-slash-bodyguard, plus another of our drivers, were required to accompany us walking security risks, and one of the girls, Tintin, the sales team supervisor, tagged along as our native guide since she came from Palawan (as well as unofficial chaperone, and for protection against any innuendoes about sexual harassment - I know my boss and officemates wouldn't do anything, but I guess the company was just protecting itself against that kind of liability).

The flight was unremarkable, but when we arrived in Coron, the place did not disappoint. It was very picturesque in a provincial small-town kind of way.

Up on a hilltop, clearly seen from across the little bay was a big sign that said "Coron," which was clearly designed to imitate the big Hollywood sign in L.A. And we had a bit of a giggle at that as our little "banca" sped us to our bungalow on a small island with only us and the caretakers as the occupants.

I had that little throwaway USB-powered 1.2 Megabit underwater camera strapped to my wrist the whole time I was there and was able to get lots of snaps of our vacation, including lots of underwater shots. (I bought my GoPro at that flea market I mentioned).

We got to do a lot: did some shipwreck diving in Coron Bay and Busuanga, went and visited a lake inside an extinct volcanic crater (Lake Kayangan), took pictures of the live corral and sea sponges and anemones in the bay, swam among the big groupers that were making the old Japanese shipwrecks their home, saw beautiful volcanic rock formations, fed the fish with bits of bread, visited two adjacent lagoons connected via a little underwater tunnel (called "twin lagoons" by the locals), played water tag, nearly got stung by jellyfish at the beach near our cottage, and so many other things.

For me, I guess I felt I was feeling more secure so that I was able to get the nerve to wear a swimsuit for the very first time (a scary as well as thrilling thing). And even though I didn't know how to swim - I think I did well. Tintin taught me one of the things the tourists liked to do, which was to wear one of those orange life preservers while I swam around. I only took it off when I had the nerve to try diving underwater (making sure that my boss or Tintin was around first, of course).

I even got to lounge around in my suit and got the appropriate "tan lines" (which was difficult since I wasn't all that fair to begin with) - my favorite places to lay about in was this little secluded beach near the Japanese shipwreck we tried exploring, plus this little raft that was tethered near our bungalow's beach - I would wade to the raft with my little netbook and lie in the shade of the raft's little thatch roof, soaking in the sun and the tropical beauty of the place. From time to time, speedboats would race by "my" raft and the tourists riding in them would whistle or make catcalls as they zoomed by. When Tintin was with me, I'd act all affronted, but inside, I was sorta giggly.

While we were there, I guess we acted like typical noisy, rowdy tourists (and I guess that's all right since that's what we were) - speaking too loudly, or just behaving in a very rowdy manner. I'm grateful that the locals were tolerant. Especially of one of the directors and Tintin: my other boss liked to horse around in the water, or making believe he was a submarine or a shark (my other boss keeps on forgetting that there are no sharks in the cove, and that his bald head looked nothing like a shark's fin...), or Tintin bringing a bag of cookies while swimming, holding up the bag above her head and bobbing up occasionally to munch on a cookie. Crazy girl that Tintin...

One of the things I guess I learned, other than the fact that I looked funny in the life preserver while I swam, was that I was totally out of shape (actually Tintin was, too). On the last day, Tintin and I decided to swim as far as we could, clearly forgetting to save energy for the swim back. We were so tired that we had to holler for help and get our boatman to come and fetch us...

I can see why girls liked swimming. It was great fun, but for me, half of the fun was the attention girls seem to automatically get while at the beach and such. Still, I don't know if I'd be courageous enough to wear a suit to a swimming pool or the beach back home. I know that sounds crazy, given that I didn't have such compunctions in Coron, but I guess I have to parse that one little neurosis out with my therapist a bit deeper.

Anyway, We all went back to Manila on Wednesay morning, had some lunch, fixed up our stuff, and then flew back home in the evening. The funny thing was, we arrived more than twenty-four hours later, but still on a Wednesday (lol). Manny helped me to square away the stuff I was shipping back separately, and I'm expecting my stuff to arrive this Saturday. Apparently, my boss was right - shipping stuff does take a long time...
   

Bobbie's Pictures
(note those pictures with the blue dot in the corner - those are pictures Tintin kindly downloaded from the internet for me,
since I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures while in Manila)
   

   

To see ALL of Bobbie's blogposts, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/bobbie-c To see Bobbie's stories in BCTS, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot

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