Laying in my soft white cushy hotel bed, resting in the cool clean blankets and sheets around the too many pillows to count, gazing out at the sky and skyscrapers. It's a dark and midnighty slate sky, calming grey-blue-black, and speckled with just more than a few of those big building name signs that look small atop the big hotels and offices, all red, white and yellow. My eyes heavy, wanting to shut, shutting........
........................
Oops, awake now, 8:21 am, sun out smog settling behind the skyscrapers, under and in the space where the low, long thin clouds hover over the earth, completely obscuring the hills and water far behind. Restful sleep, will head for some laps in the pool, a quick read of the Murakami book i picked up in place of the other that they didn't have in stock yet, then preparations for the anniversary ceremony at 2pm, and hotel ballroom party following at the Shangri-La mega luxury hotel. Not much time really.
Yesterday recovered from partying, hopped on 4 hour city tour, then off to dinner party with Anna's family in another outlying district of Metro-Manila.
(the tour, feeling mostly recovered)
City tour was nice, saw all sides of Manila, and then the beautiful, fancy, catered dinner party in the evening with another uber-friendly and welcoming well-to-do family was another great experience.
On the tour, 8 people came, plus the driver, Bernard, and the guide, Omar (both locals). There was a nice older couple from Bristol (outside London) who were here in the Philippines for a non-profit social justice type of conference, and there was a not so friendly and overly private couple from China (the guy was a chubby white guy from Philadelphia who lives and works now in China, he said, the only time he reluctantly talked to me), and there were 2 Hungarian men here for a world poker championship, Omar told me (they were a little frightening in size and demeanor, so i decided against engaging them in any significant discourse), and there was a friendly, tall, somewhat eager but pleasantly timid-enough-not-to-be-obnoxious thin Asian guy from Manhattan with a bright yellow polo t-shirt and dirty teeth and slightly googley eye, all of which combined bothered me just enough to avoid too many extended conversations. Omar had really bad false teeth that stuck out funny and gave him a slight effeminate lisp, but was very sweet and enjoyable to talk with, particularly since no one else was asking many questions. This makes my tour-mates sound pretty odd, and I suppose it was a bit strange in retrospect but i enjoyed it quite a lot nonetheless. It was an easy group to hmmm, control?... ignore?... they were a non-assuming group and just a little odd, but harmless and not entirely dull. My Boracay island hopping crew was more fun, though.
There was a Rhianna and Chris Brown concert here in Manila last night and tickets were relatively cheap, but sold out. It was kinda a big deal here. I talked to the driver Bernard about that and about nightlife in Manila, and he had a funny, smiling, surprised-sorta-humored twinkle when I told him I went with my friends to "The Embassy"in Fort Bonifacio Global City last night (the newest high-end district in Metro-Manila that began being built up about 5 years ago and is still in process). He told me i was likely rubbing shoulders (elbows?) with the kids of Manila's rich/powerful families (it's a pretty stratified society). It definitely was a funny party scene. It's referred to as the only "superclub" around but it's just like any big dance club (there are not too big dance clubs in the Philippines so it seems the most self-entitled kids -and they are mostly pretty young and seem stuck in their own world- think it's the place to be apparently. I always forget to take pictures of the people we meet, but it was a fun bunch we eventually ended up mingling with.
(early, outside)
(approaching the main bar/dance floor room)
(a bunch of little pics as the night went on....)
So with that dovetailing into the city tour and seeing all sides of Manila and the main historical places, and then with that dovetailing into the classy, upscale dinner party, i am slowly getting a good feel for the many layers of Filipino society. If I had more time i might be able to try to write about the shanty towns and squatters, or the bustling city streets filled with jeepneys (private owned buses/jeeps for the public) and pollution and the poor and the prosty's (prostitutes, as called for short) or the political history of how the country and language evolved from Negrito-Malay-Indonesia roots and Chinese traders and Spanish and American colonializations/occupations, or about the richest landowners and business families (Ayala's, Cy's, i forget the others...) and their similar business models, or the high female:male ratio in the city and the common danger (big social trend actually) of men divorcing their wives for young mistresses who are fighting/climbing for money and prestige, or a few many other things for that matter, but noooooooooo..... i will just post some pictures from my tour and other such adventures instead, and it's past 9am as I write this now and I'm hungry and the pool awaits and my nails need trimmed mighty bad and hair washed and muscles stretched all before 2pm.
(The city tours)
(The dinner party)
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