Because the city was shut down, the usually packed/bustling streets were empty, and most businesses were closed. We figured this after out after spending hours each day the last two days desperately calling/messaging places trying to find an activity, ANY activity, that we could do:
Art in Island Museum? Closed.
Star City & Upside Down Museum? Still closed.
Segway Tour of Intramuros? Closed.
Malacanang Presidential Palace? Closed and you need to book in advance.
Baywalk? OPEN, but deserted. Hot. Smelly. So no.
Fresh balut*? (HA HA HA)
*Google this, and if you're smart, don't select a Google image.
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| What Gerry's Jeepney restaurant would have looked like... :-( |
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| The grub at Gerry's |
Despite the summit, we did our best to cruise the city that day, inside and out!
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| MORE Korean snow dessert, this time...mango! I'm in love. And two people told me I can get it in Kona at a certain restaurant...so yay! |
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| Winning! |
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| A win for his baby cousin! |
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| It was only $400, but today, for me only, $300! And *maybe* if he can call his boss on the phone, I can get it even lower! But just me. Only me. Shh. Don't tell. |
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| Broccoli or aloe juice, Ryan? No??? |
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| Final day, goodbye hugs from the staff. |
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| Hordes of these riot police on sooo many street corners for the summit. |
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| Though you cannot see it in this pic very easily, just to the right of the colorful wing of the flight is a gray helicopter that is lowering Donald Trump next to Air Force One. A few years ago, we witnessed the same thing with Obama in Cuba at the airport. We clearly use the same travel agency as the White House. ;-) |
X- Eat lots of Thai food.
X- Go to a fish spa.
X- Get a massage, or two. (Did this twice, and the second one was at a school for the blind...which was nice!)
X- Take the boys to Trapeze School!
X- Go to bed early, wake up late, a lot.
X- Run the AC a lot. (Don't judge, chubby people have their reasons.)
I have to remind myself that even though our last two days got jacked (by those ASEAN attendees...jerks), we still had a fun/safe trip and accomplished most of what we'd hoped. It's also good to know that Manila now makes the short list of places to hunker down when we're older/retired and need a getaway from the island.
Manila is colorful, international, inexpensive and the folks are kind. Wiki claims it is the most densely populated city in the world, but I wouldn't have guessed. The traffic is horrendous...and Divisoria (the 'shopping mecca of the country') will haunt my nightmares, but I never noticed it being any more crowded than any other major city. But again, we didn't cruise around quite as much as we'd hoped...so perhaps I just needed more time there to realize how crowded it is.
Many people have asked us, 'Why, Manila?' (Since most visitors there head straight to the gorgeous outer islands/beaches.) But, we do live in a rural town with access to so many beautiful beaches, so we went there for the exact opposite- urban activities. We enjoy cities because they're so multi-cultural and have so much to do.
Manila may not be restorative, conventionally beautiful or where we'd pick as our first choice to live or vacation, but we enjoyed our time there a lot. It also has a lot more soul and character than many other clean/wealthy/regulated cities we've been too (like say, Dubai). Plus, now we finally have some street cred with our Filipino family/friends, 'cause I can drop phrases like 'Magandag umaga, pinoy!' and 'Masarap!
Salamat po, Manila! I will definitely be back.
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