Hotel H2o Manila

... except for a few small trees and signs that got blown around. Things were looking good. Friends complained of power outages and lack of TV and internet but not here. My newspaper even came on time so I was pretty happy.


For some reason today things have deteriorated. I thought that would happen during the storm not a couple of days later. The internet went down, the water pressure is gone and there's no paper this morning so I still don't ...

... fruit. But then the friend changed into smelly durian. The princess didn't go near it ever again.

Then we played Chinese Whisper.

We went to Robinson's mall for lunch. I and Mum had japanese food while the two others had dumplings and some kind of soup. It was delicious. Then we went home and watched TV.

I liked the children's meeting it was very fun.

... intercom that may have explained why. It was a reminder that "work is a gift from God". Just a little motivation to keep the workers in line. If God is reading this and wants to give me a gift, I think I'd prefer early retirement.

Our assigned doctor came to the room to perform a routine exam and discuss our medical histories and any complaints. He was very thorough in his questioning especially when it came to consumption ...

... options the system lets you participate in. And performance doesn't seem to figure into this feature since I've been given additional balance exercises even though I can't perform above the "unbalanced" level on the ones I've already been given. We'll keep you updated on our progress. So far we've each gained a pound which means we now have 4 pounds to lose in a week and a half! Maybe this isn't going to be as easy as we thought.

... coming up and still heard the thump of the music. I don't know how many people were there by then but Filipinos love to celebrate so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a big group. Normally, on New Year's Day we have a tradition of eating black-eyed peas and collard greens - an old southern tradition that is supposed to bring luck and money in the new year. We've been doing it faithfully for years. I'm not sure if it's helped but maybe things would have ...

... massive shanty town in Makati at the edge of the highway. Whether that is the wall's purpose I don't know. While I've been here I've noticed that holes were punched through and had gotten larger. My theory is that the gov put up the walls to hide the shanty town from people passing by on the highway and the people living there punched through it to show that they are still there. Kind of like ...

... it always looks this rough? My plan was to go back to Bontoc in the north today but what with the storm the roads are apparently full of landslides at the moment...and I'm still not 100% better. So the trip's postponed for now. Went to the shopping centre and bought my friends a thank you present for their loving nursing then came back to the hostel and watched a whole season of the Simpson's with other lazy hostellers (all of season 5...class). My throat ...

... doh). June 23rd Cle*r skies tod*y but the streets were pretty wrecked. Felt * lot better this morning so checked out *nd he*ded for * hostel for something * bit more lively in dorm style living. Did my usu*l w*lk *round town to get my be*rings (not e*sy in M*nil*...* lot of the streets look ex*ctly the s*me with thous*nds of money exch*nge shops *nd kiosks). Am *lre*dy loving the *tmosphere here...the hustle *nd bustle of people, suspect smells *nd *rom*s everywhere, noises ...

So Manila turned out to be nothing special in my opinion. I ended up staying at a pretty run down guest house no where near anything but the couple that ran it were exceptionaly nice. I was the only person staying there. I took a few walks around the city, most notably Intramuros, Chinatown, Makati and Quezon City. What I couldn't phathom were all of the Malls, everywhere! It was like a city full of Malls. I guess the best ...

... whole time. This is something all filipino's alike do.

Mall Of Asia was also amazing. Did a bit of shopping. Mainly bought a few things for Angela. A few souveniers for myself. It was a very busy mall. To say the least. We were both tired. I invited Angela to stay the weekend in the hotel I had booked. She was very happy to.

So the rest of my first weekend in Manila was hanging around the peninsula hotel with my companion. It was that enjoyable I best not write ...