Day 22, Summer in Asia, Manila, Philippines
Our flight left Vietnam at 1:35 am and got into Manila at 4:30 am. I was an airplane icicle, too cold to fall asleep. I’ll wear all my layers to avoid that next flight.
In Manila we decided to download the Grab app, Southeast Asia’s Uber but more popular and better priced. At first the Grab guy didn’t want to take us because somehow we’d put in the wrong number of people, and I think he thought it was intentional. But when I apologized and said we’d just downloaded the app and this was our first attempt, he quickly overlooked our error and told us to get in. He helped us readjust the fare and away we went.
First impressions of Manila is that it’s tropical, like home, with probably more people knowing English here than at home in Miami. We observed two new modes of transportation we had never seen, the sidecar tuk and the Jeepney (looks like a stretch Hummer) bus. Not as many scooters as in Vietnam or Cambodia, more cars. It feels very similar to North America, at least here in Mataki, a more affluent, developed part of greater Manila. We know there are parts of the city that are considerably poorer, I’m sure we will see them soon enough.
The Grab driver asked if I’m Filipino, as did others during the day. When I say no, they ask what I am, then, if not Filipino. Then they get all wide-eyed and say, “Oh, mixu!” Yes, I’m a mixu. It’s not the first time I’ve been asked if I’m Filipino, it happened in Canada multiple times. When Kier was a little blonde baby, women at Fairview Mall in Kitchener would ask if I was her nanny. I don’t think that would happen today with the current pc cultural hyper sensitivity. But they’re still asking here, and I don’t mind.
We arrived at the adorable La Casita Mercedes B&B.
Our rooms weren’t ready until 2 pm and the most anyone slept was a couple of hours on the plane. I was too cold to sleep. But out goal is to stay awake all day to keep on this time schedule. Gonna take some serious coffee for me. I’ve never seen the girls folded over sleeping on their knees–must be a college survival skill.
La Casita Mercedes is a traditionally styled home that looks like it belongs in New Orleans more than this neighborhood. Inside it has two staircases and a little courtyard. We are in 3 of the rooms, taking up almost half the house.
We left our stuff and went in search of the Starbucks, which was a couple of blocks away. I kept seeing Starbucks-green umbrellas, but they would end up being traffic cop shelters in the middle of the road. After not sleeping all night and really wanting coffee, it felt like I was searching for water in the desert, being all disappointed by traffic cops. We finally found a Starbucks even though it was hiding in dense foliage.
Paul took a stroll from our Starbucks home to find a river filled with floating plants. There seemed to be an entire eco-system happening on these floating islands of plants. called Kiapo or Quiapo. 
We stayed at Starbucks until the mall opened at 11 am, and what a mall it was! The Philippines takes shopping malls seriously and has 22 of the worlds top 100 in size. This one was named Power Plant, different for us. Lots to see and keep us awake. They had a mock-up of an entire 1 bedroom condo being sold, America food day was happening in the supermarket, and lots of Japanese and American restaurants. Japanese restaurants are extremely popular all over Southeast Asia. In Vietnam if you want to be taken seriously at all, you will need a fake cherry blossom tree out in front. Here in the Philippines, it’s not a requirement. There was a fresh market stand in middle of the food court floor.
The supermarket had an American food display. It was both funny and accurate at the same time. Don’t know what happened to the Cheesies.
Then I found they had an entire shelving section to themselves. These are my people.
Trying to stay awake, hour 33 of no sleep.
We had lunch at Chilis (the one you’re thinking of) and decided to go to a movie. It’s difficult to agree on one, so we split up and went to three. The popcorn was some of the best we’ve had. It was very light, no weird oil or greasy taste, then you choose a flavor and they toss your popcorn in a big bin with it before putting it in your bucket. We went to the fries station where they make them hot to order, also toss them in your choice of flavor, put them in a container and then a bag. The seats in the theater were all assigned. We noticed that no one laughs or reacts out loud in any way to the movie. We laughed once and a lady turned around and looked at us. So we tried not to do that again, although it felt unnatural.
It was raining for our short walk home, nothing torrential, but enough to soak one layer of clothing. We met the Golden Retriever Sam–it was nice seeing a doggie. Earlier in the day, Paul met the owner who is from Vancouver. He also had wine with a fellow guest from Belgium. We slept hard. The old house isn’t well sealed, so you feel a part of the busy street outside, which is buzzing at around 5 am. Maybe I am Filipino, because this is the only country I’ve visited that keeps my sleeping schedule.
