The Philippines - Part 2: City and Culture

PART I RECAP

     Late in 2018, my life long friend Jeremy casually mentioned to me that he was going to visit some family in the Philippines in 2019 and asked if I wanted to tag along. I had never left the continent at that time and I wasn't sure what my situation was going to be financially or if i’d even have the vacation time (or the guts) to go. Well, after my last-minute trip to Kenya with Ed in the summer, the travel bug bit me hard and on December 19th I was on a 17-hour direct flight to Manila. Jeremy, his brother, and I decided to split the trip into two parts. Part one was sitting on as many beaches as we could on the island of Coron. Part two was visiting his family north of Manila and then spending five days exploring Manila around New Year. While Kenya was a vacation to remember, I felt like this was more of an actual vacation for me to kick back and just soak up some sun and alcohol. I brought along some of my camera gear: my Nikon D7200 and D5300, a Sigma 17-50 mm, my trusty Sigma 18-250 mm, and I rented a Nikon 24-70 mm from LensProToGo.com for street photography. I ended up using the 18-250 mm the most, as it's a compact, versatile lens. The 24-70 mm lens drew too much attention in some of the small towns on the islands, but I did use it in the city. While I didn't take a ton of pictures, what I experienced across each part of the trip had a pretty significant impact on how I see the world. It also highlighted the importance of traveling and seeing other cultures.

And now...

PART II 

City and Culture

Deck hands push a boat away from the docks in Coron.

After our adventures and (misadventures) on Coron, we caught a flight back to Pampanga to spend the weekend with Jeremy’s grandparents who were celebrating their birthdays together with the entirety of their extended family. We got our luggage from their house and then spent the afternoon at the mall. Malls are a huge deal in the Philippines. It's a place to go with air conditioning and it’s just something cheap to do on a hot day. The exchange rate was $1 for 50 Piso (peso). While most things in the Philippines are cheap, anything name-brand, like electronics and designer clothing, are priced the same as they would be in America. After the mall we headed over to his grandparents’ house to have dinner with some of the family. 

I have known Jeremy for 20 years. We lived on the same street for a few years where I spent quite a bit of time at the family parties. I ate my weight in lumpia (Filipino egg rolls) and the kabaobs his Tito (respectful way to address an uncle like “sir”) would make. I spent so much time at Jeremy’s house I felt like I became part of the family.

While eating at his Lola’s (respectful way to say grandmother; lolo is for grandfather) kitchen table in Pamapanga his Lola was kind of staring at me and she casually remarked that she remembered me from when she lived with Jeremy for a short time. I was shocked that she would remember me from 17 years earlier when I was much younger and much less bearded. She still treated me like family all these years later. She insisted that I refill my plate after each time I cleared it. Dinner consisted of rice (so… much…rice….every…..day…), pork tocino, lumpia, vegetables and carabao. I didn’t know I was eating carabao until one of Jeremy’s cousins asked me if I knew what I was eating. Carabao is a domesticated water buffalo and when prepared properly is very delicious. The next afternoon we went to a catering hall and celebrated Lola and Lolo’s birthdays, 80 and 82 respectively. There was a ton of food (yes, more rice), speeches, games, and plenty of line-dancing. 

High-rises in Quezon City, Metro Manila

Monday morning we took off to Manila which is only about an hour drive south of Pampanga. Correction: It should only take an hour to drive there, without traffic. Traffic in the Philippines is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The number of times we changed lanes, came close to hitting another car, and cut someone off or were cut off by someone was more than I thought was possible in a lifetime. It took us close to three hours to get to Manila due to just the sheer number of vehicles on the road. Manila is a whole different form of chaos. Cars, Jeepneys, buses, tricycles, mopeds, and motorcycles all pack the roads at all hours of the day. Crossing the street safely is not for the faint of heart. We stayed at the 1898 Hotel in the Makati section of Manila. 1898 is a high rise hotel with beautiful views of the city from the upper levels. It has a rooftop pool and in-house spa. We hung out at the hotel early in the afternoon and around 7pm we headed out into the city to find dinner and bars. We had some local food at a bar a few blocks away and spent the night bar hopping. Bars will do almost anything to attract patrons. The bar next door to the hotel advertised “midget boxing”, so we naturally had to see what that was all about. We watched a match which was very much a planned fight. The rest of the bar was… well lets just say it's not a family friendly bar and we quickly left to find bars that weren't so seedy. We spent the rest of the night bar-hopping and drinking a fair amount of tequila and Red Horse beers. We had tacos at 3am (the best time to have tacos) and then went back to the hotel to recover so we could do it again the next night for New Years eve.

Neon skyline Makati, Metro Manila

Jeremy and his brother had both come down with the flu as I had done a week before at Christmas. His brother got it the worst and spent all day in his room trying to feel better. Jeremy and I hung out by the pool and wandered the streets to find lunch. Around 8pm we went out to plan our night for New Years eve. We found a hostel that was having a rooftop party and got wrist bands so we could get in and out as we pleased. We got dinner and then bar-hopped until 11:30 where we ended up back at the hostel for midnight. I can't really say what happened after midnight. Not because I don't want to tell you, I just honestly don't remember much other than dancing to reggae music and drinking more Red Horse beers. On New Year's day we took a cab to another mall. This one was an open air mall filled with gardens and ponds. Each mall seems to have some gimmick to set them apart from the next mall. Other than the mall we just kind of chilled out and recovered from the night before. 

Stone gateway to Fort Santiago, Intramuros.

 One of the big things I wanted to see in Manila was Intramuros. Intramuros is the old part of the city: as in Spanish occupation of the Philippines in the 1600’s old. This whole portion of the city is walled in and includes Fort Santiago and San Agustin Church both built during Spanish control and both having survived American bombings during WWII. We spent the January 2nd wandering the walled city, exploring the church, and walking through the fort. One of the big museums in the fort is the Rizal Shrine. Jose Rizal was a moral and ethical hero of the Philippines who pushed for the end of Spanish rule over the islands (think Martin Luther King, Jr. or Nelson Mandela). Rizal was arrested, tried, and executed for inciting revolution. He was held at Fort Santiago before his execution. The fort also holds a mass grave of unidentified American and Filipino soldiers who were killed at the fort during Japanese control during WWII. The fort is falling apart; there are only a few buildings that are fully intact. The rest are just foundations or pieces of wall. After Intramuros, we took a cab over to see Jeremy’s other grandfather in another section of Manila: Quezon City. We showed up unannounced where Jeremy and his brother were greeted with open arms and smiles from his extended family. His grandfather is 90 years old and doesn't look a day over 75. We all went to lunch at a nearby restaurant where we ate chicken, lumpia, and, yup, you guessed it, more rice. After lunch we said our goodbyes and took a short walk through the streets of Quezon City, which is a more middle-class section of Manila. We then took a cab back to the hotel to find dinner and drink to celebrate my last night in the Philippines. 

Tricycle driver takes a break in Quezon City, Metro Manila.

 The next morning we woke up early and went out to a local fish market. We got there just as the shopkeepers were opening up. The market is basically a large roof structure with tables set up inside. On either side of the structure are restaurants where you can take your newly purchased fish and they will cook it for you. We wandered the market for a short while and then made our way to the Mall of Asia which is the largest of all the malls in the country. We ate breakfast and then headed to Sofitel (where my vacation started) to get Jeremy and his brother checked in as they were leaving the day after me. I still needed some souvenirs for my family so we took one last hail-mary trip back to the mall. My flight left at 8pm and 17 hours later I landed in New York. Trip complete, back to reality. 

Stall owner shows off the quality of his catch.

 Tradition, Culture, and Stereotypes. 

During many of the cab/ tricycle rides, I had really deep concerns for my well-being and safety due to the close calls and general disregard for many of the driving rules that we follow here in America. The more time I spent on the road the more comfortable I became and the more I realized that due to the sheer volume of cars, in a metro area containing nearly thirteen million people, the more impractical basic driving etiquette becomes. There are no hard feelings or road rage when you cut someone off ( I experienced this in Kenya as well). Everyone is just trying to get where they’re going and it's not a competition or wrong if they have to get there faster than you. Then I took the thought one step further into the stereotype of the “Asian drivers are bad drivers” and that it's really just a misunderstanding of how people drive in other parts of the world. What we as Americans see as poor driving that may infuriate us is very normal for people from many parts of the world, particularly from Asia where cities are overcrowded and there are only a few highways in and out of a particular city, like Metro Manila. 

Tricycles lined up outside of a mall in Quezon City, Metro Manila.

 Filipinos will find any excuse to party: birthdays, graduations, baptisms, Easter, and even just because. At the heart of these parties is food. Food is an integral part of Filipino culture, food brings people together. While the recipes are simple, they are delicious. The amount of garlic fried rice I ate in a two-week span could fill a small duffle bag. Pork tocino is probably one of my favorite dishes. The pork is marinated in sugar and spices and then cooked and served as a sweet breakfast meat. I could eat it for every meal! 

 I rented a Nikon 24-70 mm lens from www.lensprotogo.com for this trip thinking that it would be a good street photography lens. It was a fantastic lens for street photography. I was not disappointed. However, I underestimated the amount of attention the camera and I received in the streets of Manila. It was a little more than I wanted in certain areas and I opted to use my Sigma 18-250 mm to blend in a little more with the tourists. Downside to having pro gear is looking like you have pro money. Part of being a good photographer is knowing when and where to use the right lens at the right time.

Children play a simple game of keep-away in the streets of Quezon City, Metro Manila.