Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Manila 01

So I decided to write about my trip in sections or stories rather then in one big long block…this will allow for me to keep you coming back for more stories.
Las Brisas – this is where we stayed in Anitpolo which is up on top of a hill overlooking Metro-Manila and it was very nice. The rooms each had their own bathroom and two twin beds and windows with views and best of all air conditioning!! So we pushed our twin beds together and David cranked up the air conditioning…since it was 95 with about 90% humidity!! Las Brisas had hot water most days which was nice…but once in awhile it would run out and while I was showering the water pressure would go away and I would hope for just enough water to drizzle out and get the rest of the shampoo out of my hair. This usually wasn’t the case so I would have to turn on the freezing cold water to get the shampoo out of my hair and I decided conditioner was an amenity I no longer needed. About half way into our trip we got back to Las Brisas and our bus couldn’t pull into the parking lot it looked like a very expensive wedding was going on with the biggest film crew ever. We found out that it wasn’t a real wedding but a staged one for the tv show “love to love” and it was crazy all over the hotel…since we had been working hard all day we pretty much trucked up the 6 flights of stairs and fell into bed. Well at 2:30am we were reminded that they were filming a tv show downstairs by a few very loud booms and then the sparkle of fireworks right next to our bedroom window. A lot of the other work and witness people thought we were under attack but lucky for us we had our shades pulled up so the sun could come in. The first thing David said was, “I hope they got that on the first take.” At about 2:58am we knew that they didn’t get it because the second round of fireworks went off and they were even more spectacular then the other ones. The weird part was they were only as high as our window and we were on the 6th floor….i guess they make fireworks different in the Philippines. The other part of Las Brisa’s was our breakfast!! We ate breakfast there and it was cooked by 2 Filipino women who didn’t know much about our lifestyle or how to keep food warm…but they did the best they could. The first morning we had oatmeal and French toast which was pretty good!! Then the next day we had some weird concoction of ground pork, mango, potatoe, and corn over rice. It didn’t seem like breakfast food but it was still delicious!! I think after the second day we had mostly rice for breakfast with other dishes including eggs (which I don’t eat) and the best part was everyday they had little rolls that they toasted in a toaster oven and then put jam and butter on….yum! To tell you the truth I woke up this morning and I was craving rice. Weird how your tastebuds change!!

1 comment:

OutOfTheSilent said...

well the frist of many posts to come was fun to read... It was cool to read about where you stayed and that it wasn't all "poor" in the area you lived for two weeks. Or did you live there for two weeks? The pictures on the other site made everything look poor, run down, and borken. I have this tosled view... Anyway we like to eat at Las Brisas in Laguna, they have the best food.