After the hotel breakfast I check my email (the internet connection in the room is very very very slow). I feel a bit bored--it is too hot to walk anywhere; and I am looking forward to getting over to Boracay. I read thru one of the local newspapers (Manila supports several daily newpapers). With all of the political intrigue and violence it reads like a tragic opera! The president,Gloria M. Arroyo (or GMA) is facing lots of opposition for next year's presidential election. The latest development is that a movie star, Fernando Poe (known as FPJ) is entering race. The comparisons to Arnold in California are obvious, and many filipinos ask me about Arnold. After a quiet morning I walk over to the mall for lunch. After lunch I meet R and we go to a movie--Matrix Revolutions. I can't believe the movie prices here. The cost for a first run movie is either 50P or 90P depending on where you sit. We sit in the 90P seats (which are the inclined seats in the rear half of the movie hall; the 50P seats are closer but are not inclined), but that is only about $1.65 US! I have not paid that little for a movie in a long long time! And the movie was pretty good, but not as good as the first one.
After the movie I go back to the room and within 15 minutes D's friend H arrives to pick me up. We are all going to a charity performance of the Phillipines Madrigal Singers which is being presented at the college that D and G went to, but the concert is for the benefit of the Houses Without Steps, a residential and training agency for disabled people. The Phillipines Madrigal Singers are a world renowned singing group of about 20 persons, about half men and half women. Tonight they sing without an instrumental back-up. Wow! Are they good! In fact the Phillipines has a reputation for chorale groups, and from my limited experience it is a well deserved one. The program begins with a few short pieces performed by Rondella On Wheels--and orchestra of disabled young people. What a great idea. The Phillipine Madrigal Singers then performed. The first half of their program was in english, a mixture if religious, classical, and pop tunes. The second half was in Tagalog, the Filipino language. It was a really nice program!
After the concert we all went to D's for dinner. D is friends with the president of the charity, and he joined us, along with the former Phillipines ambassador to an eastern European country. D's proves once again to be a gracious hostess with another great meal! Time flies and it is soon after midnight. I get a ride back to the hotel, for I must get up a bit earlier tomorrow for my flight to Boracay!
The breakfast was the same buffet today, except they also had some thick pancakes which were OK. At about 11:00 I was picked-up by E and her son C. E is the sister of N, a friend of mine in the LA area, who I met a few years ago as a result of one of my cases. N had told her sister E of my visit to Manila, and E had offered to let me stay a couple days at a time share resort in Boracay, a small island about one hour's flight south of Manila. This morning E and I would go to the local office of the resort to finalize the arrangements and the plane tickets. C, her son, is 15 and is an avid golfer with a 15 handicap. E and her husband operate a small hospital in the Manila area.
The ride to the local office of the resort was only about 10 minutes. While there I finalized my dates (I will go on Wednesday, and come back on Friday or Saturday) and paid for my plane fare (4715P, about $85 roundtrip) on Asian Spirit airline. The office had a large model of the resort. It looks really great! It extends from the east side of the island to the west side, near the north end of the island, and includes an 18 hole golf course and all of the usual amenities. There are many other smaller resorts and hotels on Boracay also, and I hope it will be an interesting few days.
We left the resort office and E drove us to Greenhills mall where we will have lunch. When we entered the mall each person was checked by security, and purses were also opened and checked. Later in the afternoon I went to another mall, and the same procedure was followed. This mall has hundreds of small booths selling items from other places in Asia. It is similar to the night markets that I have been to in Hong Kong, and to the markets in Shanghai and Beijing. We did not spend much time walking around, and instead went directly to the Sun and Moon Restaurant, a Chinese restaurant in the lower level of the mall. We ordered steamed fish, fried chicken, broccoli in crab sauce, and white rice. E would not let me pay the check! All of the food was really good. We then left the mall, made a quick stop at a nearby Citibank where I got some cash, and they dropped me back at the hotel.
I read the newspaper and relaxed for a couple hours. Outside it was raining lightly. It was easy to be lazy. About 4:30 I decided to walk over to the nearby Mega-Mall, about 2 blocks away. I can see it from my hotel room. The rain has stopped and it is actually quite pleasant outside--yes it's warm, but there is a nice breeze, and the sky is clear. It's a bit of a challenge to cross the street in front of the hotel, but I follow the crowd. I enter the mall at the entrance to the SM supermarket. I see there is also an SM department store. The supermarket is very large, and just outside of the check-out stands there is a line-up of small food booths serving all different kinds of food--Chinese, Filipino, Jamaican beef patties(!), etc. What an incredible selection! I then walked thru the mall. Yes, it's name was deserved! It is a very large mall, with 5 levels and two buildings, dozens of restaurants, an ice skating rink, a bowling alley, and all kinds of stores and businesses. It was very interesting to wander around and see the variety and activity. Xmas shopping season has already begun.
At about 8:00 I met my internet friend R, who works for the Phillipines government. We walked over to the restaurants near my hotel and decided on Italian--I had a taste for a pizza. She ordered some pasta and chicken, and I ordered a shrimp pizza with garlic and veggies. Well, the pizza should have been named a garlic pizza with a little shrimp and veggies. I will probably smell like garlic for a week! We talked for a while about her life here in Manila, and my trip. But it was getting late, and soon she hopped into a taxi to go home, and I went back to the room.
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