Tuesday, 8/25

Today, i had a migraine. not much happened, cuz i was mostly resting. i also did some research on the computer for something i am doing this weekend and talked to a few friends online (hi Shua, Jen, and Christina!) Scott and i watched The Soup when he got home and then went to Coquina for dinner. He got Pasta Alfredo, which looked so good, and i got the Coquina Club Special, which was like no club sandwich i've ever had. it had the customary 3 pieces of toasted bread, but the bottom layer was tomato, cucumber and sTEAK and the top layer was EGG and cheese. it was nommy. then we came bach up here and watched TV till 10:30 when it was time to conk out. :-)

Monday, 8/24

Well, if you've been reading this blog, you know what i did all day monday.... i worked on this lovely blog! When i'd finished, i was exhausted from all the thinking and writing, so i just vegged out in front of the tv till Scott got home. When he did arrive he was bearing our first try at Filipino Chinese takeout. He brought dumplings, lemon chicken, and sweet and sour pork- all things we were very familiar with at home. these were very different- overall just much sweeter. Still very edible, but very different. we made short work of the food and settled in to watch tV and unplug for the evening. we watched Wipeout, some reality stuff, and then National Treasure:Book of Secrets, which we had seen before but is always worth watching! then, arounf 11, we went to bed.

Sunday 8/23

Today we went to Intramuros- the oldest part of Manila, encased in walls, and containing ruins from before WWII, and some stuff from the 16th century even!
















We Started the afternoon at Malcolm's Place, where we went before when it was raining. We will probably be eating there a lot this week- it;s close by and inexpensive!


















This is the Manila Cathedral. There was a wedding about to happen, so we didn;t take pictures inside.























This is the old Governor's Palace. Apparently you can get tours, but by the time we knew this we were on our horse and Buggy tour


















This is the memorial to all the innocent lives lost in WWII. i found it very moving.



















This is the garden area in the center of Fort Santiago. By this time we were on our Horse and Buggy Ride with Jerry, a very nice and friendly man, who gave us a very unique and exciting tour.


























This is us in the buggy. Jerry got a very nice shot there, with this old building behind us.


















Here is where the tour started to get insane. Jerry took us across the river and into Manila's Chinatown! it was so crowded and full of stalls and food and animals. wow. we got some video, and it should be forthcoming soon. :-)



















we even went through some heavy auto traffic in this buggy on our way back to Intramuros! i think Scott got video of that as well.
After Jerry dropped us off, we walked back over to the Manila Ocean Park to have our sunset date in the White Moon Bar. possibly the coolest place we have ever been. it overlooks the bay, and the DJ was great, the drinks were good... perfect. Here is a shot of the sunset.



















GORGEOUS! Oh, and i finally tried the San Mig. I concieved this shot, but scott made it work. Teamwork!


















And, here we are with a lovely backdrop!


















It was a perfect night, but the best part was the company. I LOVE YOU SCOTT!

Saturday, 8/22

Today was crazy fun! We slept in, had a late breakfast, then headed down to close to the Manila Bay to the Manila Ocean Park. We didn't quite know what we'd find, since it is a relatively new attraction and i couldn't tell from the website what parts were open. Before we even got there though was an adventure! You see, today was a huge Celebration for the 25th anniversary of a Church Movement called El Shaddai which you can read about here. We didn't know this when we set out, but as the traffic got thicker along the way, our Cabbie explained. We had to be dropped off a distance of 4 blocks or so from the Ocean Park because the celebration was happening in the park directly in front of it. So, we started walkin. we walked along a road that usually jsut leads to the parking lots for the park and Ocean Park, but had becoem a bit of a Jeepney campground, as people from all over the country had come. I heard an estimate of over 1 Million people being there. it doesnt seem a stretch, as metro Manila has a population of 20 Million, and like i said, people came from all over. We reached the Ocean Park and decided to start with the Oceanarium, whic his an aquarum, and is really neat! The building also houses (or will house when it's finished) two open Marine Habitats where you can snorkle or dive (i was bummed this isn;t finished yet!) A central food court, a mall, which is still pretty incomplete, an amazing restaurant that i will get to later with a beautiful view of the bay, a super cool outdoor bar- which you will hear about tomorrow, and a hotel, which is still under construction. So, yeas, the Oceanarium. Let's tell the story with pictures!
























This Philippine Crocodile was just napping un the sun... :-)


















These are eggs sacs from Bamboo Sharks. they had 4 different stages of development to view- it was really neat!


















These are spotted garden eels. they were about 1/3 inch thick and would jsut stick partway out of the rocks- sometimes burrowing back down in.


















This is me watching the sharks. i did this for a long time, because two of them were trying to sleep on ledges, and anotehr was trying to wake them-it was hilarious!



















This might be my favorite shot of the day. Scott timed it jsut right. As you can see, i was THRILLED when that Ray swam right over me!







































Then, after finishing the Oceanarium Tour, we went to the super elegant Restaurant attached to it. oh man it was good- a buffet of Japanese, Chinese and Mongolian foods. i ate lots of Salmon sashimi. Nom! The highlight of the meal was when the three piece band came and sang 4-5 songs for us, including some Elton John, James Taylor, and by my request, Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl. :-)


















After that giant meal, we went to see the Mermaids show, which was really cute and fun. They have 4 girls dress up as mermaids and swim around in a tank with the fish as the audience watches from a connected room.

After that, we considered staying to watch the sunset, but we were jsut too pooped, so we decided to give it a try tomorrow night and made the trek through Jeepney town (which was even more crowded by now and was beginning to smell a but because of the fact that people were creating makeshift potties below their jeepneys at best.) and out to the main road and fortunately we were able to find a taxi quickly and we jsut took it easy when we got back to the hotel, snuggling on the couch and watching TV.

Friday 8/21

Today we went to the second biggest mall in the WORLD! It was an awesome day! We woke around 9, went down to breakfast, came back up, got all cleaned up for the day ,and then fell beck into bed and napped till about noon. Yes, we are lazy lazy bums, but Scott had worked a 13 hour day the day before, so we were entitled. We grabbed a cab and thus began the adventure! it was a car that Scott termed a "death trap" and we were not entirely sure it was gonna hold together for the half hour ride down the highway! We were dropped at the main entrance and just dove right in and began our exploration of SM City North EDSA Mall. i didn't get any pictures that captured the scope of the place but did find this one. Almost immediately, we found a Seiko store and Scott and i each found watches we really liked. Scott was sure this was the one and bought his, while i wanted to keep looking. I found one at the second store we went to, but it was out of our price range, so we kept on looking. The main building of the mall is about the size of the average mall i have been to all by itself- and has 6 floors. we got through 2 of them before moving on to the Annex- the latest building, which is about the same size and has six floors. The first place we went in this building was a boutique called Tea, and it may have been the best shopping experience of my life- i felt like a princess. I chose a dress to try on, and while i was, the entire staff of the store- 4-5 girls and the owner rushed around trying to find more dresses to flatter my figure. it was really fun and i did purchase 2 dresses and a pair of shoes. :-) we continued looking around and scouring watch stores, and exploring all 6 floors of the Annex and i found i am a very picky gal! eventually, after 4 hours of shopping we collapsed at a table in Pizza Hut and shared a nice meal of salad, pizza and iced tea, and i decided that i'd go back to the Seiko store and purchase both the watches i tired on there instead of one watch for more than the two combined. I still came in under budget! Then, we grabbed some gifts for family and friends back home and ventured outside to explore the rooftop garden area which houses a bit of a food court. because of the huge population of Manila metro these malls are full to bursting and have tons of restaurants so that everyone can eatr without having to wait much. We made our way along this walkway of eateries to The Block- the third building of the mall, which is 5 floors also. we only made it throught 3 of these floors before we were jsut pooped. We found a cab and enjoyed our sunset ride back to Makati.

Thursday 8/20

this was a long long day and i didn't really do anything, i just read my book mostly and worked on ideas for my podcast. Scott worked really late and didn't get home till 10:30! He brought with him food from Jollibee which is apparently like the Filipino McDonalds (even though they do also have McDonalds) and is very popular. the fries were good, and i guess the burger was too, but it was diminished greatly by the amount of mayo on it and the fact that it was this disgusting sweet mayo. i don't mean to say the food was bad, just that i didn't like the mayo.the fried chicken wasn't too bad. i totally jsut dove into bed after eating, and scott came soon after.

Wednesday 8/19

Today i did laundry. it doesn't sound all that exciting, and it wasn't, but it did consume my morning. i went down to the second floor, got someone from the housekeeping office to let me in, and spent the next 3 hours reading in the laundry room while my clothes washed. Then, i returned to the room and worked on the project Scott and i started cooking up last night- a weekend getaway to Boracay- one of the most beautiful beach destinations in the world. We have 2 three day weekends in a row, so we are using the second to escape and experience this amazing place. we booked flights last night, and this afternoon i booked us a Regency Escapade Weekend here. The afternoon was filled with more reading, and then when Scott got home we went to a fancy Italian restaurant called Bravo. it was good, but not stellar. Scott's ravioli was actually pretty awesome, but i ordered the Osso Buco, and it was... meh. So excited about having a 3 day weekend after tomorrow!