Phabulous Philippines

In mid-January my friend, Isabelle, who is Canadian but originally from the Philippines, asked me if I wanted to spend ReadingWeek (Feb. 17-21) in the Philippines. She had to go to take care of some family business. I accepted her invitation without hesitation and I am so happy that I did. The Philippines is a country I never imagined I would visit. Of course, 4 years ago I never thought I'd see anything outside of North America!

We spent 2 nights in Manila, then 2 nights at Isabelle's brothers' dive resort in Anilau which is in the province of Batangas, south of Manila. We then returned to Manila for another couple of nights.

We started with a great walking tour of Intramuros - the old, old part of Manila. It is the old walled city which survived a number of earthquakes, typhoons, fires and wars and finally was destroyed when the Americans liberated the Philippines from Japan at the end of World War II in 1945.  In 1979 a degree was issued creating the Intramuros Administration which undertook the restoration and development of Intramuros as a historic site. The tour was guided by an actor who is passionate about the history of the country and also about sharing that history with his fellow Filipinos and visitors to the country. He is equally irreverent in his delivery taking jabs at the various invaders, Filipino leaders and the church. It was equal parts entertainment and education!

Shopping in Manila is as much a national pastime as it is in Qatar. The malls are huge and you can get anything there. In one of the malls there is an entire floor of spa, beauty and medico-cosmetic services. You could get anything waxed, massaged, injected, etc. - you could go in looking like Godzilla and come outlooking like Jennifer Aniston! The knock-off market where you can get knock-offs of shoes, clothes, purses, technology was also huge. When you have a population the size of the Philippines I guess you need a lot of markets.

We got up at 4:30 am to beat the traffic to get out of Manila to head down to Anilau.  It's about a 2 hour drive, but if we had started much later it would have take double that amount of time or more. The two days we spent at Planet Dive (Isabelle's brother's dive resort) were restful and relaxing. The staff there were wonderful to us, the food was plentiful and delicious, and I went scuba diving for the very first time ever!

Getting some last-minute instruction
















A smiling face after the dive.  I did it!













The resort is right in front of an area called Twin Rocks which is a world renown sanctuary for coral and sea life. I saw so many beautiful creatures and the colors of the fish and coral were amazing.

View from Planet Dive - reminds me of a tropical version of my friend Jean's cabin on Shuswap Lake









We drove up a mountain to catch a sunset view and along the way we saw this typical house. Even the most humble of homes has lots off flowers around them.

After another day of relaxing, touring some islands in the area and snorkelling, we headed back to Manila by way of a city called Taal which has retained many of its heritage homes and the traditional city square built during the Spanish colonial period.  We visited the market where they sell many of the national costumes from fabric make from bananas and pineapples.  From there we went up into the mountains to Tagaytay where we overlooked Taal Lake and the Taal Vocano Island which is in the middle of the lake. Tagaytay is a lovely resort area - a great place to escape the heat of Manila, so many wealthy Filipinos own property there. There is a lot of building of resort property going on there now.

Back in Manila, we went to the Ayala Museum which is an art and history museum where we saw exhibits of gold, ceramics, and textiles, as well as an exhibit of 60 dioramas that depict the history of the Philippines. There were also collections of paintings by two Filipinos artists. 

That evening we attended a play entitled “Livin’ La Vida Imelda” a play by the same actor who was our guide on the walking tour of Intramuros. The play chronicles the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos – another great history lesson; and quite hilarious!

The weather was wonderful – warm and humid, but not too humid.  Isabelle is a wonderful guide.  It was definitely helpful to have someone who spoke the language.  Even tho English is taught in the school system in the Philippines, when we got out of Manila not many people get to school and thus have very little, if any, English.

Now back in Doha . . .  awaiting the next adventure which will be Jordan in April. Can't wait for that!