Some of the events might be out of sequence, but hey, I’m a human with a lot of jet lag lol. I’ll try and keep the journal at a readable length, but no promises.

I arrived at the Manila airport after going through customs, walked outside and stood there looking around for where to go. I then noticed the “extension area” with many people behind barricades waiting for their people to come in. None of the signs that people were holding up said, “Tom Cruise” so I knew I had to wait a while lol.

I walked past all the waiting people to see if maybe the driver from the hotel was there or maybe Ronie and Mango, but not yet. A security guard must have seen a sign on my head that said, “Yes, I’m a newbie here and have no idea what’s going on.” He was kind enough to lend me his cell phone to make a call to Ron and Mango who said they were running late (which I found to be the theme of these two ladies for the entire trip) hahahaha.

We finally met and called the hotel driver who came to pick us up. Good thing too because I was starting to feel like a pork chop in the midst of some hungry Filipino’s. We got to the hotel and it looked a bit shabby from the outside. I checked in and dropped my bags off and then we went out. We all thought that the hotel was a dive and that I would have to move to another hotel. If I had seen roaches or the like I would have left, but interestingly enough with the lizards and a few cute rodents, I saw no such insects! I decided to stay.

We had some dinner at what I think was the greenbelt mall and caught up with events of my trip. After some ice cream, we decided to see the movie Halloween. Ronie assured me that we can share a regular size popcorn and no need to get the big bucket. Well, just before the movie was finished, she hands the now cold popcorn my way and asks if I would like some??? Yes, she is quite the wise guy I found out hahaha. I think Mango and I at least saw the movie whereas Ronie kept closing her eyes during the scary parts, what a chicken hehe. Then they dropped me off at the hotel with a friendly, “Hey Bobby, watch out for scorpions!” Gee thanks guys that made me sleep so well that night.

I woke up the next morning and found that I had to shower using a big ladle with water from a spigot. Hmmm this is interesting. Well, when in Rome do as the Romans I figured. I then went out to the common area and got some coffee. I found that the Filipino’s drink instant coffee normally and if you can find regular coffee, you have to ask for brewed. The instant wasn’t as bad as I though really, or maybe I just got used to it quickly because I needed my coffee fix?

The next day I went to the mall with Mango and Ronie to meet Mhae and her aunt, Pinky and her sister Jam to celebrate Mango’s birthday. And don’t listen to Pinky about her age when she tells you because she looks way younger than what she says! I also received a jeepney model from Pinky as a gift (Thanks so much Pinkster!) We ate at an all you can eat restaurant with a variety of dishes. Of course Ronie puts some unknown food on my dish telling me to try it and then asks me if I know what it is. She then informs me that it’s pig intestines??? Well, I normally wouldn’t be so bold as to try them if I knew what it was, aside from the fact that I don’t eat pork. It seems that Ronie has a “wise guy” streak running through her lol.

We all had a good time getting to know one another and I felt comfortable and welcomed by them all.

We all went to videoke to continue the fun. Jam had to leave unfortunately and couldn’t join us. Although Mhae and her aunt were fairly quite most of the evening, they both weren’t shy about singing some songs and had nice voices as well. Pinky seemed quite comfortable with that mic also. I could tell that Mango and Ronie loved to sing and had voices that belonged on stage. We all sang many songs (some of which are in the MP gallery) and had a really great time. We snuck out and got a birthday cake for Mango. We returned singing happy birthday to her and even the staff joined in hehe. I think she was surprised. It really was a nice get together and I enjoyed myself quite a bit! Mhae and her aunt left (it was great to meet you two!) and the rest of us went to coffee bean and talked up a storm. We did have to track down some mosquito spray though. Then the Pinkster got a car home and so did the rest of us.

Got picked up late by Mango and Ronie (seems normal to be late by these two lol) and went to the bus station to head out to Balibago after a quick breakfast. We got dropped off from the bus and then caught a jeepney to Mango’s family’s house in Laguna. They have a nice little house there and are very friendly people. I had the opportunity to eat, “Pasat” and had ice cream too. Mango’s sister has two twin girls and one of them, Mika seems to smile whenever Ronie asks her to, although Mika is supposed to be the temperamental one.

Mango’s car was in for repair so we ended up hiring her Dad’s friend with a van to drive us to, “Taygatay” to see the fantastic scenery of the volcano. It’s the kind of scenery you see in picture books!

We ate at Leslies which is a really nice outside restaurant with nice scenery and a mariachi band that will serenade your table with songs. We met Mango’s brother Marvin and his girlfriend there, both very nice people who made me feel very welcome. Then we all went back to Mango’s families house. Marvin then drove us to Mallati where we had some coffee and walked around getting solicited by those guys that hand out cards with naked girls on them or ask you if you want a sexy lady lol. Aside from this though, it was a great evening!

The next day I woke up and walked down to Max’s dinner, which has western as well as Filipino food. It’s a clean and fancy place, but they had brewed coffee and hey, does anything else really matter? Hahaha.

Met Ronie and did a walking marathon around the mall of Asia. Then when we were tired of walking around the mall, what did we do? We went to the coastal mall to, well, walk around. Good plan, huh? One thing I found to be different in the Phillipines was kind of a hard lesson for me to learn. While walking around the coastal mall, I got some heartburn. I told Ronie we need to get some Rolaids or something to relieve it. When she didn’t quite know what that was, I should have had an indication that I needed to find out what heartburn was called in the PI. It started getting worse and we, or I, decided to walk faster to get to a 7-11 or something. I dragged poor Ronie on a walk-a-thon all the length of Roxas BLVD to the 7-11 so I could get some Rolaids or tums. Of course, to my horror, they didn’t have any. Actually, they never heard of these items it seems? Ronie tries to figure out what my problem is and what I’m looking for. I tell her that I just have common heartburn and need some kind of ant-acid. Then she says, “Oh, you don’t have a burning heart. You have indigestion!” Um ok, at this point I don’t really care what we call it, but where can we get some relief? Then she tells me at the pharmacy. The pharmacy? To get something for heartburn? Well, seems she was correct and we found a pharmacy and Ronie told the woman I had indigestion. She gave me some packages of ant-acid and I was good to go.

So I learned that many of the common over the counter stuff we can get at almost any grocery store here in the States, has to be gotten at a pharmacy in the Philippines. Lesson learned!

Then we went to meet Mango who had finished her laundry by this time (Thank God too because she was starting to get a tad smelly!) Only kidding Mango hehe. We had some ice cream and had Mango laughing quite a bit as Ronie and I were going back and forth about something or other and neither of us would give in lol. It was kind of like a philosophical debate crossed with the “who’s on first” routine by Abbott and Costello. Well, that’s pretty much how we ended the evening and I went back to my lizard hotel for a quick coffee before hitting the bed.