We’ve been living in Manila now for about 6 weeks and we are about to decamp from our hotel and head off to Australia for 11 days. What a time this has been! There is so much that is familiar, quasi-familiar, different, weird and just plain incomprehensible. This is so much a discovery.
Here are some of my observations – with the proviso that if there is anything that I do know, it is that I know nothing…
1. Lets get the priorities right - it’s all about the shoes
I now totally understand Imelda and the shoes (see earlier post). In the hundreds of miles of malls in this town, there is shoe store after shoe store after shoe store, filled with amazing shoes. Wearable works of art.
Someone had told us before we got here that if you are a woman wearing more than a size 8 (Canadian/U.S.) you can’t find shoes here, so for the last weeks of walking through the malls, I only had my nose pressed against the glass, drooling. The other day I decided to test that information and found it WRONG.
Don’t believe everything you hear!
2. Something is rotten in the state of...
Our recent Canadian home brewed corruption scandal – a few millions of some kind of advertising thing – well let me tell you we’re absolute pikers compared to these folks. Every single day without fail the papers are full of one scandal after another. The editorial commentators are all over it, to their credit, and, I might add, bravery as I understand that journalists have been shot from time to time. A recent poll said that more than 54% of Filipinos believed their President, Gloria Arroyo be corrupt and more than 70% believed her husband to be corrupt. It’s hard to describe, or even to understand, but this really is a small town, where the ruling/business class is concerned. The former president has been under house arrest for the past 6 years and the verdict on his "plunder" trial is due on Wednesday. The current scandal is about a broadband contract with the Chinese where it is alleged that there is a $138 million kickback to the top officials of the department that negotiated the contract – the very top people. Perhaps that explains all these Pucci/Gucci/Versace etc…boutiques in all these malls throughout Makati and Ortigas.
3. The Air That We Breathe
This is a tough town. I think that the worst air in all of Makati must be outside our hotel. There is a concrete overhang between the door of our hotel and a very popular mall and all day long cars pull in to let their passengers out. The exhaust fumes build up with nowhere to go and by 7:00 or so when we go out to dinner, we literally hold our breath to walk (run) from our front door to the mall (22 steps).
This probably explains the mall culture. Inside there is the illusion of fresh air, as well as air conditioning. In our new apartment we are advised to have our air conditioning filters serviced monthly, and we may even want to look into additional air filter units, perhaps in the bedrooms.
But, you know what? It’s all relative. Someone told us about a woman who lived here for many years and has now been posted to Beijing. When she returned to Manila recently she said she gratefully breathed in deep – the fresh air!
4. The continuing saga of the dishwasher
I have talked about my insistence on finding an apartment with a dishwasher. Not an easy task in a place where everyone with money has a maid or two. Homes are just not equipped that way.
Our new apartment has two kitchens.
One is very North American in style (which was the selling point for us) and the other is basic, windowless and is called the 'dirty kitchen". The service area and maid's room are off of this one. We've been joking about the large kitchen being "for show". Well guess what - no joke! The previous tenants have moved out and the landlord's people are in the process of fixing it up for us. I was over there the other day and took some pictures, chose the paint colors and did a visual inspection. We sent in a property inspector to check it out thoroughly and when we got the report back I laughed and laughed. The dishwasher was not hooked up!I interviewed a potential maid on Saturday. When I told her there was a dishwasher in the new apartment, she repeated "Ah, a dishwasher" and glanced over at her husband. There was no mistaking the delight in her eyes. A girl after my own heart.
5. New Friends
It is SO easy to make friends here.
Before we came here I asked Christine, who has spent many years abroad in a number of countries, what advice she had for me. She said “Accept all invitations. See and do everything, and then later you can decide who you want to spend time with.”
In that spirit, I’ve been having the most amazing time. With the most amazing people! So far I've met people from Canada, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Viet Nam, India, Japan, Korea, Bhutan (had to look that one up on the map), Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland - and I'm sure I'm missing some. For the past 4 weeks since we went "social" I've been out to lunch (lots!), gone to dinner parties and cocktail parties several times a week plus enjoyed a memorable Friday afternoon with a few gals at the pool bar of the Polo Club over a pitcher of margaritas. Of course the other side to this is I'm on the treadmill every morning!
My new friends are not all expats, however. I have a great new galpal who is Filipina - lives part of the time here and part of the time in Vancouver. I had the wonderful pleasure to be invited to lunch at her home, where I met her family, sisters, brother, cousins. It was fascinating and judging from their questions of me, I was probably also a focus of fascination. My new friend has taken it upon herself to be my "cultural advisor" - I tell her she is also my "security consultant" as she is super-conscious of security and is always giving me advice.
6. Exploring the world
Tomorrow we head off to Sydney for a few days, after that we will rent a car and head along the coast to Melbourne. This will be my second trip to Australia and I never imagined I'd be back so soon. In November we're going to Laos with a side trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia to see the sunset over the temple ruins.
Then home (Victoria) for Christmas. No doubt there will also be some short trips outside of Manila as well.
So far…I have to say that I love this new life – having the time of my life.
Come visit!
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