Manila July 17-18

After clearing customs at the airport in Manila, we went out the door and were hit with a wall of heat and humidity we'd known only in a sauna before this.  Wow.  And it wasn't even 5:00 a.m.  We prodeeded toward a booth where we could change our dollars to pesos, and we were greeted by name by an energetic man who introduced himself as 'Brother Clem.'  He was full of helpful information for us and ushered us to a minivan and introduced us to our driver.

We had hardly pulled away from the airport before we realized we were in for the ride of our lives!  Driving in Manila is terrifying!  Even at that early hour, the streets were jammed with all sorts of vehicles, all jockeying for position.  They seemed often to be just inches from each other.  They were in a constant state of changing lanes, and frequently honking their horns.  It just seemed chaotic to us.  We talked a bit with the driver, who was a retired kick-boxer, he said.  He told us that, in the Philippines, drivers don't honk their horns in anger.  It just means, "I'm here," or "Thank you."

This drive also provided our first glimpses of jeepneys and of motorcycles with multiple passengers.  More about those later.  : )

Eventually, we arrived at the Holiday Inn downtown, where we unloaded and went in.  We had a reservation there, but of course, it was way too early to be checking in, and our room wasn't available yet.  We really wanted to sleep, so we took another room, an upgrade.  It was a beautiful room - - a suite, actually -- on the 11th floor.  We took showers -- heavenly! -- then crashed for a few hours. 

This hotel is attached to a large, beautiful mall, so later we walked around over there.  The first thing I noticed was that several of the same kind of store were located right near each other.  In this case, about the first five stores I saw were jewelry stores.  Strange, I thought.  My second observation was that almost every shop had a uniformed guard at the door, or some other empoyee, greeting us as we went by.  "Hello, ma'am!"  "Hello, sir!"  All very friendly.

So we cruised around the whole mall, taking in the many different sights, and decided on a place to eat some dinner.  I had a chicken mango sandwich and Tony had rice and stir-fry -- delish!

The next morning, as we waited outside for Bro. Clem to pick us up, we marvelled at the heat and humidity and wondered if we could ever possibly get used to it.  Soon he arrived with another driver,  picking us up to go get our drivers' licenses.  (Do you think I'm ever going to drive in the Philippines?!)  First, we dropped off Bro. Clem at the Church Area Office.  This is also where the Philippines MTC is located - - a smaller MTC, mostly for Filipinos preparing for missions in the Philippines.  And across the street is the Manila Temple.  Beautiful!

 (drive-by photos)

Our driver, who didn't speak much English, took us to a little sidestreet in a part of town that was downright scary.  I thought, if I was in Portland, I would never go into a street that looked like this - - run-down little shops with men hanging around in front, watching us.  We stopped in front of a shabby-looking apartment building with an exterior staircase and got out.  Really?  We're getting licenses here??  Our driver led us up the stairs to one of the doors.  We went in to where a woman was sitting by a table.  She handed us forms to fill out, then we were called into another room, where we had our vision and blood-pressure checked.  Thank goodness, that was all!  (We're told most people are drug-tested, too.)  It was a grungy little place and the people working there were not particularly pleasant, as most are.  We paid and left, with our medical clearance forms stamped.  Back to the van.

Next we were taken to a large, gated complex, past a guard.  On the building it said, "Land Transportation Department."  We parked and went in.  At the corner of the building, a man was squatting near a water faucet, washing his dishes.  We went on through the door and saw several windows to a large office space along the left wall, and there were benches to the right, to sit and wait.  But looking farther to the right, I was startled to find that we were actually in a Catholic church!  Yep, the DMV is in a Catholic church.  (Maybe it looked more like a church from the other end.)  So, we filled out forms, turned them in, waited . . . oh, you know the drill . . . but we had to make an appearance at each window, get pictures taken twice (???), pay, and were finally given our Philippines drivers' licenses.  It took quite awhile, but, mission accomplished - - whew!

We picked up Bro. Clem again and he took us shopping at S&R, which is pretty much like Costco, where we could get some American items we weren't likely to see out in the provinces.  Also, we'd had cell phones given us by friends who'd lived here before, but needed to buy SIM cards for them, and load them.  Here, you buy 'load,' which is phone use, paid in advance.

 A long, long mural we passed several times in Manila.  This wall surrounds the military compound there and the mural was painted by families of the military personnel.

Our Manila chores accomplished, we spent one more night in our lovely hotel room before the trip to Urdaneta next morning.  I liked watching out the window of our room, though, the traffic below.  It was amazing, how it flowed, with all its crowding and honking and -- oh, yes -- whistling.  At any busy or congested spot, there would be someone directing traffic, whistle in his mouth.  It did keep things running pretty smoothly.

Also, from our vantage point, we could see something you couldn't see from the street.  Kitty-corner from our posh hotel was a vacant lot with vegetation surrounding it, and there were six or eight little hovels there, built of whatever was handy.  There was a laundry hanging on a clothesline there one day, gone the next.  Were people actually living there?  This was the first of many, many such places we'd see in the Philippines.
M.A.