Corrigador

We went to Corrigador yesterday - that's 29th December. It was a very hot day trip, but really worth the effort. For any WWII buffs, this is really a brilliant site to visit from a 'hands on history' point of view. You can see the canons used during the war to defend Manila. The sad part is that it's hard to see the guns and the ruins without thinking of the lives lost defending the island and attacking the island.

We went with a bunch of wonderful people we have met through our church. Thanks Jamie for organising the trip. This is us all in the back of our fake jeepney. A jeepney is the equivalent here of the South African mini bus taxi. This one was fake because it didn't look the same as typical jeepneys on the outside.

The fake jeepney.

Ayala Triangle Christmas Lights

We went to the Christmas Light Show at Ayala Triangle Garden the other evening. I felt like I was in a mini version of Disney Land in a way, because the music had the same kind of sound to it. Anyway, it was short, but enjoyable. And so colourful!

Mall of Asia at Christmas and Hooters

Obviously, the Philippines is severely hot. So it was pretty interesting to see this snow bubble at SM Mall of Asia. The snow falls out of the circular vent at the top. 

Then after seeing the snow bubble and reserving movie tickets for Ghost Protocol, Brad decided I needed an introduction to what by all accounts is a good family restaurant. So off we went to Hooters...lol. In fairness the food was really good, but perhaps the decor could be a little less euphemistic :-)

Starbucks and Data Capture

So we went to get our 'data captured' - yet another step in the visa process. We made allowance for the traffic, which can truly stand still here beyond anything I've seen before, and unfortunately ended up arriving an hour too early. So we found this funky little starbucks over the road. They're on just about every corner. 

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was bittersweet this year. It was our first Christmas away from family. However, God has given us some wonderful friends who spent Christmas day with us. After church in the morning, they came over for what turned out to be a very late lunch. We've decided that's Linner... cheesy but an apt name I think :-)

Anyway, below are some pics from the afternoon. This is us with a serious cook up. Deboned, stuffed chicken and a rolled roast, which ended up being unrolled and roasted as a fillet instead...lol. Dior and Lindsay were fantastic in the kitchen. Hats off to all the culinary efforts!!

Dive weekend Philippines no. 1

So this is a quick blog about our qualifying dive trip. Can't believe it's taken this long to blog about it!!!!

Anyway, it was great fun trying to get kit like fins and masks. Thanks to our dive instructor and the very helpful folk at Scuba World in Makati for all the help and advice!

Diving in the Philippines

We are so excited! We are now qualified PADI divers. Awesome!!!

Our instructor was wonderful and really taught us well. Karin Timmel. 

We've been to Batangas for a few dive trips already, all of them wonderful. I'll name the various dive sites below for those who are interested in diving. For those of you who aren't into diving, I hope you'll skip the writing and just enjoy the underwater pics.

This was our first open water dive. It was at the house reef of Bambu Villa and Resort. As a spot for completing your qualifying dives it was lovely, but I would definitely recommend Dive & Trek's house reef across the bay as another great dive site to do your first few dives. More to come on this dive site later.

Just a quick one about Christmas. Clearly Christmas in the Philippines is celebrated in a huge way! Check out the decorations in the streets around our building and the moving reindeer in the shopping centre over the road. 

Apparently Brad's office has already started with Christmas decorations all over the show.

The Wild East

OK, so no updates in a while.  This is just a quick one to tell a little about our events on the weekend of 21 October.  So, first things first.  Friday we spent a wonderful evening with some new friends at their house in San Lurenzo.  It was a late night after a long week, but was really great.  Ves and I both fell in love with their little dogs.  Really full of fun.

Smokey Mountain

So yesterday I went off with a wonderful group of ladies on an outreach to a place in Manila called Smokey Mountain. It used to be the refuse dump of Manila, and in truth it seems to still be the area where a lot of garbage is sent and sorted. 

We met a wonderful group of people, obviously mostly children, who had lunch with us and enjoyed making gospel bracelets too. 

Admittedly it was really difficult to see what I saw. Not just the conditions that these people are suffering in, but also the look in people's eyes in the area. You could see hardship written on the faces of the people we met. And yet the children still raced around chasing each other, playing and laughing. It really was a humbling lesson for me. I saw one child share her lunch with another who hadn't made it to the event on time. Fortunately, an extra big helping found its way to her! A child taught me a lesson in generosity yesterday!

Mountain Biker gets taken out by a Buck!!!

I totally just had to publish this!!! This is why South African Mountain Bikers have to wear helmets!!! Some expletives, so please excuse the sound in places.

Choices, choices, and the drive to the coast.

So this gives you an idea of what some of the houses are like in the Philippines. Obviously you get much smaller ones with no gardens and you get much bigger ones that look like mansions. This one obviously has a garden, which not all the middle income homes will have. There often seems to be wood panelling in the houses here and the garage is more often than not, underneath the main bedroom usually. Or at least the garage/parking bay would be underneath the second floor of the house.

Front Entrance

Typhoon Nesat - Update 3

I was at lunch yesterday with some friends, who told me that apparently the wall around the bay had been completely washed away in something like 5 places. Looking at the video below, I'm not surprised!

Typhoon Nesat - Update 2

This is some of the video I've found on the internet...I think CNN used this too...of the flooding down at the esplanade on Manila Bay nearby Mall of Asia. We were there just a couple of weekends ago. Crazy!!

Again, we've been absolutely fine, but I am concerned for those people who do not live in proper buildings/houses, or in well run areas.

This site was helpful for understanding the strength of typhoons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffir%E2%80%93Simpson_Hurricane_Scale

Typhoon Nesat - Update 1

Typhoon Nesat has arrived. We had no idea what to expect, or rather we didn't have any real idea of what kind of effects the typhoon would have. In truth, we're absolutely fine. I'm more concerned for those folk who aren't in well built homes or buildings or who live anywhere near hills that could become saturated with water to such a degree that a mud slide could occur. We've only watched the crazy wind and we've had rain for almost 36 hours now. Some videos below.                                                 

Saturday Market and Market Market

So, another weekend and more to see.  Today we took a quick trip to the Salcedo Saturday Market.

View Salcedo Saturday Market in a larger map	The market was really nice.  We each had a cheese hotdog and wondered around.  There were many interesting items and interesting smells. Some of the pictures below how just how interesting the food is.  The prices are definitely better than the shopping malls.
As you can see, the seafood is out.  Not all is on ice, which makes me a little nervous, however, the fact that the crabs (not in this picture) were still moving makes me think the food is pretty fresh.	An how about that spit on the left.  No automatic turning.  The poor man in the blue shirt manually turns the spit.  How much fun is that. Now if only we can find some biltong.

Some other interesting pictures follow below.

So that was the Salcedo Saturday Market.  From there, we went over to Market Market which is in a fairly new CBD type area call Fort Bonifacio.  The mall was pretty large.  Outside was very similar to the Saturday Market, having fresh fruit, veg etc.

Some pics below of Market Market.

And how about the taxi line

Anyhow, what a great day.  We ended it at home watching the All Blacks killing the poor French.

More Manila Rain & other bits & pieces.

So the rain here is totally insane!! These pics show you the view we normally have out of our bedroom window. And then how the buildings in the view disappear as the rain moves in!?! Totally insane!

Ok, so puddleduck below, is for you dad. This is not at a petting ground or anything. This duck just lives in the garden in the shopping centre nearby. I don't think he eats the koi...lol. I had a good lurk with him during one of my shopping expeditions. I think he thought I had food, because I had a bag with the kettle I had hunted up. He kept trying to look in the bag.

They start here super early with Christmas shopping. I'm already hearing Christmas carols in the stores and below is a picture of one of the stores setting up for Christmas shopping. It was like walking into a wonderland. The picture totally doesn't do it justice!

Opening bank accounts was an experience in itself. We opened accounts at Citibank. This TV with CNN showing, was in the waiting area, when you're wanting to have a meeting with a bank manager. Pretty cool. We were treated with such respect and so much care was taken when we were opening our bank accounts. It was a totally new experience for us at the bank. 

The traffic is a little crazy. This is a pic of our taxi driver trying to squeeze through a tiny gap between two busses much bigger than us!?! 

A couple of weekends back we went to the oldest hotel in Manila. It's just a touristy thing to do. We were desperate for something to eat and found out they had burgers...with a difference. Chips were served in the tall twister. Very different but very enjoyable. It was like stepping into another world. It was so classically grand with wood inlaid ceilings. It seemed to be the spot for brides to get ready too, because while we were there, about 3 or 4 brides must have come through, with other wedding parties entering the hotel to get ready. Was very interesting! But more about churches and weddings in another blog I hope.

Quick Update

Hi all.

So, Vesna has been posting a bunch of pics.  I thought I would let you see some rain.  Today, the rain came down a little at the office.  Below are some videos.  My favourite being the one with the kids swimming in the street. This is the view from the window.

Random Manila Facts

Clearly I'm totally overdue with blogging! This is the shopping centre just over the road. Powerplant Mall. I need to get a picture of the piano, but people can sit and play to their heart's content. It adds such ambience to your shopping experience.

There's also a few Starbucks in the area. Everyone walks around in the evenings and goes for late coffee or frapuccino in my case :-) It's so wonderful just being able to walk freely at night. Totally awesome!

This was the smallest bag of Jasmine rice I could find at our local grocery store, Rustan's. It's incredible how much rice there is here! I've got a photo of the rice isle in the shop further down.

The duck lives in another shopping centre about 5 minutes away. The next photo is basically a picture of his home!?! Such a stunning shopping centre. Looks more like a garden than anything else. All the restaurants open onto the garden and spill over into different parts of it. Totally stunning to sit under the lanterns and have supper - as long as you have an outdoor air con nearby...

This is the isle of rice I mentioned earlier.

Manila Sights 2

Incredible Jewellery.

The fresh water pearls were incredible!

Manila Sights

Some random Manila sights.

The shopping is crazy!

Friday night dinner at a French restaurant with accordian included?!?

The view from our balcony.

Manila!!!

K, so a few sights in Manila. There's a shopping centre over the road from our apartment building. It's called Powerplant Mall of all things?!? So I was exploring it for a bit today and discovered a set of restaurants outside.

It was sweltering hot, but it was such a lovely walk. We don't get to do that in ZA unfortunately.

Most of Manila looks like this.

This was one of the most exciting parts for me! I was like a 2 year old when I saw it. These are the jeepnees. They are old world war two jeeps that have been expanded into limo size and then decorated up.

The cable connections are incredible here. How on earth do technicians make sense of all of these?

And of course, it was amazing to find KFC in Manila :-) Brad reckons it doesn't taste anything like KFC that we know.

And this is us outside the Manila airport. We had to walk out the airport, over a road, down a ramp to a designated pick up area where you stand according to first letter of your surname so your pick up can find you easier. Interesting way of doing things.

So much more to tell but it's already after 12am in the morning...eisssshhhhh.

Singapore Airport

Wow, so here are some sights from Singapore airport. Unashamedly I have to admit I was like a two year old. There are just the most ingenious and crazy things there. Definitely a must see airport!!!

The koi were the size of mini tuna just about!?!








And I just don't know any other airport that has a tropical jungle in the middle of it! THe singaporeans know how to kit a place out!













This was just totally incredible! A little electric buggy with a tow hitch to pull the long lines of mini luggage carts. Totally amazing. Just wish I'd got it on video.










And of course, here are the mini luggage carts. The were totally funky. I got mine to pop a wheely :-)

Brilliant start to a wonderful adventure.