2009-07 South East Asia (Part 4)

LONG DAY BACK TO MANILA

Prior to boarding the 7am GL Lizardo bus, I popped into a local eatery and got rice, eggs, and longanisa sausages for 70 pesos. Matthew stayed on the bus. He deals better with low blood sugar than I.

BALUT

Ria and co were on the bus and we talked about balut, a fertilized chicken egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. There are 4 parts to the balut - the liquid part, the yolk, the feathers (chick), and whites (which are usually too tough to eat). The rest stop sold them but I was too chicken to try. I bought a bao instead and ate only the bread part for lunch.

BANDANA

Ria had lent me a bandana to breath into but we got separated in Baguio, where we had to transfer to the Victory Liner via taxi. Matthew and I bought tickets for 2:30pm, and I waited by the entrance to give Ria her bandana. I really wanted to give it back to her because she was so kind to lend it to me. Finally they arrived and got on the same bus.

LIGHTNING AND THUNDER

The bus dropped us off at the Ayala stop. We stepped onto a slim island in the middle of the road with buses roaring by on both sides. I went into concentration mode to deal with the exhaust, noise, chaos, and rain. Then we saw a big bolt of lightning and immediately a loud crack of thunder. Matthew couldn't believe how close the lightning was to us, based on how quickly the sound traveled. I thought how sucky it would be to die by lightning right then.

TAXI RIP OFFS

We were near a mall with long lines for taxis. The ones we flagged down would not negotiate down given the rain and demand. After 5 minutes, I caved.

DINNER AT ZIGGURAT

We checked into a mid-range hotel, Isabella Royal, in the heart of the red light district. 1500 pesos (30 dollars). The dude sprayed the entire room with air freshener before letting us in and I wanted to gag. I really don't like air fresheners.

We headed back to Ziggurat (stone's throw away from Isabella) for dinner and ordered the same thing as last time - Afghan rice, Kashmiri chicken curry, some grilled veggies, and Ziggurat iced tea which is slushy arnold palmer. It was 10pm and the only other patrons in the air-conditioned room were a middle aged Caucasian with a pot belly and his Filipino "girlfriend" in knee high boots. I felt vaguely uncomfortable to be in the presence of paid companionship. He ordered another glass of wine and said to her, "Ask me why" and she said, "why?" I couldn't hear the rest. At one point she called him an idiot. When they got ready to leave, I noticed that my sneakers were in her way (we took off our shoes to dine) and she kicked them aside.

BREAKFAST AT COFFEE BEAN WITH PAM

The next morning, we met my high school friend, Pam, for breakfast and she sold us brand new snorkels and masks at wholesale. Her dad owns an import/export company in Manila. Matthew and Pam debated the merits of a libertarian vs. socialist society. Then Pam explained why she wanted a tiger tattooed on her biceps, clawing her shoulder and leaving scratch marks. Tigers, unlike lions, tend to operate better alone. If you pit a pack of lions against a pack of tigers, the lions will win. But put one lion against one tiger, the tiger will win. The attributes that make a tiger strong are also the source of its limitations - they are proud, arrogant, and isolated. I was totally memerized by Pam's explanation.