Home Sweet Temporary Filipino Home

Just a quick post to show where we are currently living.  We are in Makati City which is part of metro Manila, and within Makati City, we are in Salcedo Village.  We live in an apartment building that is about a five minute walk from Eric's work and about a three minute walk from the park we have mentioned in previous posts.  It's a perfect location for us!  Our apartment is fully furnished, and since we are only here for one year, we have opted not to request any changes.  The front desk staff and doormen are always pleasant.  They keep track of comings and goings, and they say "good morning" and "good afternoon" every single time we pass by them.  I am known as "Ma'am Kim" and Eric is "Sir Eric".  :)

This is our building.  We live in Tower 1 which is on the right.  The first 5 or 6 floors are all parking.  You can kind of see an open area with trees on the top of the 7th floor.  This is where the open area and pool are.  The gym and laundry area are also on this floor, but inside.  Our apartment is on the 18th floor, and we are all the way to the right...almost in the shade of that building next door.

 

From the front door.  Straight ahead is our little kitchen.  The door on the right is the bedroom.

 

Our cute little kitchen...with washing machine.  No dryer.  Just a washer.  A little weird. :)

Plenty of counter space for what we need.  Only two burners on the stovetop, though.  Good thing because we only have two pans!!!  :)  Small oven, but it works for what we need.

 

Turn right when you walk in the front door and this is our dining/living area.  That's a giant tortoise shell in the corner by the window.  Not sure why.  We think it is "art".  Maybe.

 

View out the living room window.  That tall black building is the Philippine Stock Exchange building, and the short building to the left of it that has an arch in it is part of the park.  There are concerts there sometimes.  There are also fountains there.

View from the living room window.  If you look closely in that alcove on the right, you can even see our Quidditch broom.  :)

And finally our little bedroom.  There is a closet to the left of the bed and the bathroom is to the left of that. 

 

So that's it.  Our home sweet temporary home.  Nothing fancy and pretty small.  But it works for us for now and that's all that matters! 

 

Until Next Time,

Eric and Kim  :)



 

 

 

Odds & Ends, Observations, and CASINOS!

Wow!  Time flies when you are experiencing new things and having fun (although it would be a lot more fun if our friends and families were here)!!  We have been keeping ourselves busy and trying to stay in touch with everyone back home as well.  We love hearing from you all, so thank you for keeping us updated on your lives and happenings!!

Odds & Ends

We had another typhoon this past weekend – Typhoon "Luis".  This is the second major typhoon we have had since we have been here.  We had lots of rain but no damage.  We have our go-to ‘typhoon restaurant’ as well.  It’s called The Flying Pan, it's right next door to our apartment building, and it seems to always be open.  Works for us!

We are getting used to the humidity here.  Seems that at first every step outside the front door resulted in complete saturation and required a change of clothes.  Now, at almost 11 weeks into our adventure, we seem to be getting used to it and have adapted….somewhat.  Here's our weather forecast if you are interested.  You will notice lots of rain in the forecast, but it usually only lasts a short time each day.

We don’t miss commuting.  If we are going a long way or it’s raining hard, then we will grab a taxi, but 95% of the time, we walk to wherever we need to go.  It really has been refreshing.  We do not miss being in cars…or traffic.

Nope, nope, nope....

There are several active and inactive volcanoes in the Philippines.  One is called Mayon, and it has been reported that an eruption is imminent in the next few weeks!  It's about 200 miles from where we live.  Officials are currently evacuating the area surrounding the volcano.  You can read more about it here.

Observations

Age - This is a very young city.  Most of the people we encounter on the street can’t be over 30.  In fact many places advertising jobs specify age ranges.  There doesn’t seem to be any law prohibiting age discrimination.  On the other hand, Filipinos LOVE their senior citizens!  Deep discounts on almost everything, free movies (as many as one can watch), rocking chairs set up all over for ‘Seniors Only’, special seating areas, and lots of other things.  Extended families are everywhere and every hotel offers "family rooms” where you can have as many as 12 people in one room.  Family is very important here, and you can really feel it when you are among people.  We could learn a lot about how to treat our seniors from Filipinos!!

Umbretiquette -  That’s what I am going to call it.  Most Filipinos carry two things  everyday– an umbrella and a fan.  Any time of the day during the rainy season, the skies could cloud up and then open up, so it's nothing to whip open your umbrella at any given time.  You would think there would be some etiquette to this.  You would be wrong.  We are taller than most walking down the street, so most of the time we are okay with our umbrellas, but there is a lot of bumping and dripping and catching and shaking and tilting and knocking of umbrellas.  It’s quite a sight to see.  But as quickly as the rains start, the rains end, and the umbrellas go away...unless the sun shines.   At first we thought everyone was just very cognizant of skin cancer.  However, since we've been here almost three months now and have been to several shopping areas, we have seen the overwhelming number of 'skin whitening' products for sale...including deodorant.  I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.   

Umbrellas everywhere!

Coffee – It is very difficult to get just a cup of coffee with cold cream here.  With a Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Seattle’s Best, and countless other coffee shops here every 10 yards or so, you would think a simple cup of brewed coffee would be the norm.  But, alas, it is not.  Fancy coffees are the norm.  It took us about a month to figure out we had to ask for a small cup of cold milk for our coffee because every time we ordered coffee with cream or coffee with milk, we ended up with lattes or steamed milk.  I’m pretty sure we have it figured out now!!  And I still enjoy my white mocha with whip every now and then. J

My Café Mocha today at a coffee shop called the Commune.  Can you tell I took a sip before I clicked the picture?

Mangoes – Delicious.  That is all.

Discount Airfare Promos – This is an awesome thing!  There are several discount airlines here: Cebu Air, AirAsia Zest, Philippine Air, Tiger Air, etc., and every so often one or more will run special deals (domestically and internationally).  If you can time it right, you can really save a ton of money and go to some pretty amazing places.  We are going to Boracay next month, an island south of here in the Sulu Sea that is said to be one of the most beautiful places in the world, and our r/t airfare tickets for both of us together ran us less than $100.00 USD.  We are keeping vigilant watch over these promo fares so we can keep going to amazing places.  We are hoping to find something great for when the kids are here visiting around Christmastime!!

CASINOS

So this last weekend, we ventured out to check out the casinos in town.  We went to two different ones.  The first is called ResortsWorld Manila.  It is large and bright and very much like the casinos back home.  It is in a complex with lots of shops and restaurants which makes it very convenient to spend an afternoon there.  It also houses a performing arts center where they are currently running a famous Filipino opera called: Touch Me Not.   We joined the RWM players club and got cards to use in the casino.  There were no promotions going on, so we didn’t get any freebies (boo).  In this casino you have to put your card in the machine, put in your pin number, then put in your money.  Your money then stays on your card (if you remember to cashout right) and you can move from slot machine to slot machine with it.  We wandered around for a bit and played a few slot machines.  We didn’t play any table games, but they had quite a few:  texas hold ‘em, baccarat, pai gow, blackjack, roulette, craps, three-card-poker, and pontoon (which I think is a British form of blackjack…we need to check into this more).  There was also a big poker tournament going on while we were there for the APT (Asian Poker Tour) circuit.  We grabbed some lunch, played a little more, and left with most of our money intact (which is a win in my book). 

 

We headed over to Solaire.  This casino is beautiful – it’s right on the water on Manila Bay.  It’s big and bright and beautiful.  We signed up for their players cards, too, and we each got a free t-shirt – winners right away!!  J  This casino plays just like Vegas.  Put your money in, take out your ticket, cash your ticket or put it in another machine, etc.  No cashing your card out at the cashier like RWM.  Here they were gearing up for satellite tournaments for the WPT circuit.  While we were there, they were setting up a final table on a big stage.  Also while we were there, we saw a woman win over one million pesos on a slot machine on one of those random drop down progressive jackpot machines.  This was the top prize.  It was the equivalent of about $24,000 USD.  Pretty exciting!  We played for a bit here, had a couple of glasses of wine, enjoyed a cup of coffee, did a lot of people watching.  We were ahead for most of our visit, but by the time we left, we were slightly in the hole.  In December the musical Chicago will be playing at Solaire.  It will be their first major production in their new theater.  Solaire has only been open a little over a year.  Our experience there was wonderful!  We are low-level players, but we were treated as if we were very important people.  All-in-all with cab rides, lunch, dinner when we got home, tips for wine and coffee, and our gambling, we spent less than $100.  Not too shabby!  We will definitely go back!

 

Love to you all! Until next time!

Eric and Kim

Holiday Weekend in Palawan - Pt. II - Dos Palmas

     We were up pretty early on Friday morning so we could have some breakfast, grab some coffee, and get organized before Eric had to take his work call at 9AM.  Yes, a work call, even on vacation.  He has a lot of calls in addition to his daily office hours.  Most evenings he has calls that last anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours, and usually he has calls at least two early mornings each week before he goes in to the office.  His call was from 9-10AM, and the shuttle for Dos Palmas Resort and Spa was to pick us up at 10, so everything was coming together.  It was still a little rainy out, but tolerable.  A note about hotels here: we have noticed that when you check out, the front desk calls an employee to go check your room to make sure nothing is missing or broken.  No one leaves credit cards on file, so they have to check before you leave in case you owe something more.  We waited for them to tell us we were all clear.  We waited out front of the hotel for our shuttle.  The front desk attendant came out to tell us that Dos Palmas was on the way.  How considerate!!  We're still not sure if she called them to check or if Dos Palmas called to say they were on the way.  Either way it was a welcome gesture!
     The shuttle arrived, and we took the 30-40 minute ride to the wharf for our 11:00 departure.  It would take one hour by Bangka boat to get to the island resort.  We had to wear our life jackets the whole way, but the ride was pretty smooth despite the rainy weather.  When we arrived on the island, we were treated to staff playing drums and a welcome drink!  Awesome!

Our Bangka to the island: Calypso 10

Our accommodations.  Each building is a quad, and they all face the sea.  Our room is the bottom left.

View from our patio!!  :)

Our patio.



     We followed the path to the bar area where we listened to Marvin go through all of the information as part of our orientation.  There are bicycles provided by the resort, and all you have to do is grab one and go!  You can bike all over the island!  Pretty cool feature.  There are no motorized vehicles anywhere on the island.  The restaurant is open all day, coffee and tea are free all day, breakfast buffet is included in our stay, snorkeling, island hop tour, swimming, beautiful pool...all included with our stay, so we decided to get right to our room, drop off our stuff, grab some lunch, and go snorkeling!!  I snorkeled once several years ago on the bay side of South Padre Island where everything is brown, and Eric had never snorkeled before, so to believe we were going to be snorkeling in the South China Sea (kind of) was beyond amazing.  We had to pinch ourselves!

Lunch.  I think we have both become addicted to mangoes!

Waiting for the snorkel boat

Snorkel Gear

Heehee!  :) 

Hannah, Andrew, Emily, and Tricia:  I hope you guys are up for snorkeling because your dad is hooked, and he is looking for places to go when you are here!!!

Dive and snorkel platform.

Our snorkel platform!

On the snorkel boat!  (Have you ever noticed that when you say 'snorkel' a bunch of times, it doesn't sound like a real word anymore?  I only noticed that because of how many times I have typed the word 'snorkel' in this blog post!!)

 On our way to the platform.

After snorkeling.



 

     We had so much fun snorkeling!!  We went during low tide, and we both think high tide would be better because we wouldn't be quite so close to some of the coral...and it's sharp!! But it was an amazing experience!  We would both love to learn more about great spots to go.  Eric thinks he would like diving, but I'm no so sure I would.  We may give it a try sometime to evaluate.  :)   The brilliant colors of the fish were unbelievable!  Yellows, bright electric blues, greens, brown fish with orange and pink stripes, some kind of eel hiding in the coral that was a color of blue I have never seen before...almost like the color of blue sky on a perfectly sunny day but lit from within...almost iridescent.  Thoroughly amazing!  We can't wait to go again!  We spent a little over an hour in the water at the dive spot and then took the five-minute boat ride back to the island.  After turning in our gear, we decided to give the pool a whirl.  We were the only ones there.  We floated for quite a while, checked out the scenery - the pool has an infinity edge that makes it look like it flows right into the sea, and we ordered a couple of drinks.  Poolside. 

Great pool!

Kind of a lazy river design; nice to just float around.

With an infinity edge.  Love that!

 

     After the pool and a little relaxing on the patio, we strolled around the island for a quite a while.  There is a spa that is ocean front as well, but we opted not to have any services.  It was nice to just sit on that side of the island and relax while watching the tide roll in.  We headed to dinner after that.  A very nice buffet with lots of seafood!  Baked clams, prawns, and fish, as well as squash soup, lots of fruits, chicken teriyaki, fried rice, and lots of other things.  While we ate dinner, we watched a show of drums and dancing which was pretty cool (reminded us of Dirty Dancing a little....the 'native' dancer was also the dive instructor...very Patrick Swayze).

 

     The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast buffet with everything we could possibly want, and then we decided to go on the island 'hop' to another small island for swimming.  Because our flight was not until 8:00 that night, and we were taking the last ferry off the island at 4:15, the staff told us we could just keep our room and check out at 3:30 instead of the usual 11:00AM check out time.  What a relief!  This was so nice!  They didn't have to do that for us, but it allowed us to keep everything secure in our room and come back from the island 'hop' and shower and change before leaving the island.  The service on this island was wonderful!  Every single person was so friendly and helpful, always smiling, always positive - from the front desk people to the servers in the restaurant who never missed an opportunity to pull out or push in our chairs to the server poolside who made us a grasshopper, a bird, and a fish out of coconut leaves!  We were in the pool when he gave them to us, so he was not expecting a tip; in fact, no one expected tips.  Very odd departure from the mentality of hotel staff back home.  And I would be remiss if I did not point out that this is not a 5-star resort that would break the bank.  It is just a wonderful, service-oriented vacation spot where they do the little things right.

 

     The island 'hop' was a lot of fun.  It really looked like something out of  the movie Castaway.  The water could not have been any more blue...or green depending on the depth!  We waded through the water, took lots of pictures, lay in a hammock, looked for shells, made some friends, and just relaxed for the two hours we were there.  It truly felt like a paradise.  Then we headed back to the Bangka and to the big island to get packed up.

Island "hop"

 

 

     Back on the big island, it looked like it might storm.  Clouds started to roll in, but it made the water even more beautiful.  We took a few more pictures before heading to our boat for the ride back to Puerto Princesa and the airport. 

Not sure what kind of bird this is, but it was fighting with another one for awhile.  We didn't get the camera out in time to catch both of them.

Our view on the way back to PPC.

Leaving our 'Castaway' island....<sniff>

 

Our Bangka back to reality.

Looks like it may storm!  It never did, but the skies looked ominous for a while.  This is a picture from our patio.

 

So. Much. Fun.

A bridge leads out to a small hut in the water where we can sit and watch the water.

One of our new friends.  :)



 

     This was a great weekend!  It felt like a week, but we were really only gone for two and a half days.  We hope to get back to Dos Palmas sometime.  It's a winner!  In fact we enjoyed every bit of Palawan!  The only thing that could make it better is if we could bring our friends and family with us next time!!!

 

Until Next Time,

Eric and Kim <3