Visit with my brother then on to Portals of Manila

Phillip and I spent a very nice five days in Bareto, Philippines, visiting my brother, Burt, and his wife, Connie. Burt is eight years older than me and is my half-brother.  He calls me "little sister" and refers to our sister, Margo, as "baby sister." That description explains the writing on the birthday cake that Burt and Connie bought.  My birthday is in less than a week, and they started my celebration early. 

Another photo that shows how much shorter Connie is than Burt. She fusses at Burt in a loving way and they get along very well. She takes great care of him.

One day during our visit, Burt and Connie walked to our hotel to join us for lunch at the hotel's restaurant/bar, on the patio between our room and the beach. We all ate some tasty chicken curry and enjoyed the overcast, not-so-hot day!

The last two days of our time in Bareto, rain bands from a tropical storm that moved north of Luzon (the large island we were on) passed over us. We had occasional but not constant rain, so we would wait for a dry time to walk to Burt's house or back to our hotel room.

During our last evening, we left Burt and Connie's while it was not raining; however, enough rain had already fallen that their street flooded during our visit. Connie said that construction on the beach side of their road had really messed up the drainage. She had plastic pants with feet that she gave us to wear to wade thru the flooded street. It was standing water, not flowing water, so we wore the pants. Phillip's pair worked well, but I did get wet feet. My sandals were still wet to pack the next morning, but I had plastic bags for wet items. 

Phillip wearing blue rain pants, walking 
in the flooded street

During our drive to Manila on Thursday, we were in rain for about 30 minutes, then the driver drove south enough for us to be out of it. We are in the BGC area of Manila, the most modern and fanciest area of town. We're in a serviced apartment on the 19th floor of a 35-floor apartment building and have a washer/dryer combo unit and a small kitchen. It's a great way to end our travels as we have things to see in BGC but also are comfortable when we return "home." 

kitchen in our apartment

I noted "portals" in the title of this blog. The first portal, and it is called a portal, is at the beginning of BGC High Street. High Street is a wide pedestrian walkway lined with shops and restaurants and is full of public art and landscaping. The portal is connected to five other portals around the world and broadcasts and receives live video streams to and from them, changing the feed location every three minutes.  I remember seeing a portal before. Looking at the list of cities with portals, it was probably in Dublin, Ireland. 

We could only stand and wave to people in Europe (I think this particular feed image was from England) for a few minutes, so we moved on down High Street. And we came to a large dragon's head.... It was a huge display advertising HBO's "House of the Dragon" show. People took turns taking photos in front of it. 

We saw an interesting water sculpture that I really liked. Phillip called it a wet rock with legs. 

Today, we found another portal. I noted earlier that BGC was modern and fancy. It is nothing like regular Manila. BGC has no jeepneys, motorcycle taxis or street vendor stalls. BGC is expensive compared to regular Manila, so its service workers don't live or eat here. There are buildings and walls to separate BGC from the rest of Manila. If they don't come in via the major roads, how do the workers get here? Phillip saw the answer on a vlogger's post and we checked it out. There is an almost hidden walkway called Butas, which translates to "hole" in English. This is the wall that covers the walkway entrance.

There's about a 12-foot opening in the wall, a portal, with a walkway that turns 180 degrees from the sidewalk we just walked on. 

The walkway runs directly along the other side of the patterned wall for about 40 feet, then makes a right turn to this, the Manila that is not BGC. 

This is what is immediately on the other side of the patterned wall, a totally different Manila, the one with street vendors and motorcycle taxis and worker housing. And cheaper prices! We bought pandasal (a Filipino cheese-filled breakfast roll) for 5 pesos each (8 cents US) here from a street vendor and a container of roasted peanuts for 40 pesos that would have been over 250 pesos in a BGC grocery store. It was raining and a Saturday morning, so not all the food vendors were working. We walked back thru the portal and continued our exploration of BGC. 

Electric scooters for rent are parked around BGC. We passed this cluster, but one scooter was already in use as a bed. Stray cats are neutered, fed, and microchipped by an organization that takes care of them here, according to signs in the area. 

Phillip and I went into a mall for a few minutes of air conditioning and came across a Suzuki media event. Suzuki was unveiling a new 150cc maxi scooter, the Burgman 15. 

Dancers put on a performance on stage before the Japanese Suzuki executive uncovered the new motorcycle. 

Phillip checked out the Burgman 15 after the ceremony was over. It's a good size for the Philippines, had plenty of storage compartments, and was reasonably priced here at 165,000 pesos (about $2700). It would cost much more if sold in the US. We walked away without buying one and came back to our room until later because the sun is out and it is hot outside now. 

The Philippines: the first and last country of this adventure

Phillip and I are in the Philippines, the country in which we began this trip. Although we refer to our current location as Subic Bay, we are actually about 15 km from the former US Navy base and its surrounding city. People have heard of Subic Bay, but no one has heard of Barretto or Baloy Beach. This is our fourth stop in the Philippines. We spent a few days in Manila in April to start this adventure before heading on to seven countries. We flew from Hanoi to Cebu last week. We visited Cebu before, but only for one night in 2014. This time, we stayed for three nights and had some Filipino classic food for our meals and snacks. We've eaten the traditional Filipino dessert, Halo-Halo several times. The purple color is from ube, a sweet root vegetable that is processed into ice cream and desserts. Those are corn flakes on top for a bit of crunch.

Phillip ordered sinigang, a sour pork and vegetable soup. I enjoyed it more than he did, although he did like it. Lots of veggies in broth.

We both liked the pork sisig and have eaten it several times. It reminded me of a pork hash without potatoes. A fried egg is served on top, but the waiter had already stirred the egg in when I took this picture. 

We ate pork sisig at our Clark hotel also, and I snapped a picture before the egg was stirred in. This restaurant added sliced peppers, spicy but not nearly as hot as Thai peppers. 

In Cebu, our hotel was in an area called "IT Park." IT Park is home to huge office buildings filled with call centers. If you call a major corporation, there's a good chance that your call may be routed to a worker in one of these buildings. Lots and lots of 20-somethings, male and female, all who speak English well, coming and going from these buildings. 

Other than walking around IT Park and noticing the hundreds of coffee shops (to fuel the workers), we went to only one tourist location, a spot called TOPS. It is an overlook about 30 minutes outside the city. Our hotel was just around the corner from the bus station that had a dedicated shuttle to TOPS. For 200 pesos each ($3.29), we got a round-trip shuttle ride and entrance into TOPS. 

entrance to TOPS on the top of the mountain

We could never have walked to TOPS, not that it was far, but the very steep road took us up the side of a mountain. At the top, we did have really nice views. 

The main viewing level was wide with clear views of Cebu. The facility had an even higher level that we went up, although the city view from there was basically the same as from the main level.

From the upper level, we did have a nice view of the mountains on the side and rear of TOPs.

For our final Cebu photo, I give you this guy. He was painted on the underside of a set of metal stairs. We walked under the stairs to find shade to finish our Halo-Halo (the first photo in this blog post) and noticed him.

We flew from Cebu to Clark on Thursday, spending two nights at Clark. Clark is a city, like Subic, that owes its existence to the US military, in Clark's case, the Air Force. Clark Air Base was closed in 1991-2 following disputes with local leaders and the eruption of nearby Mount Pinatubo. Phillip and I know the history of Clark Air Base and Mount Pinatubo because we visited the Clark Museum during our stay.

The two floors of the Clark Museum, about 1/2 mile from our hotel, held an eclectic array of exhibits. They jumped from indigenous people, to birds, to geology, to Clark Air Base history, to Mount Pinatubo to local artists with no transition from one topic to another. One local artist showcased in the exhibits used twisted copper wire in their artwork. It was fascinatingly beautiful and had it been for sale, I might have tried to fit a piece in my suitcase.

Since this was near a military base, the museum had a canon exhibit between it and the former Clark AFB parade grounds.

Visiting the museum wasn't the only thing we did at Clark. Our hotel was part of a 3-hotel complex, anchored by a casino! The casino had the same slots machines that we see on cruise ships. We visited the hotel casino both evenings we were there. I broke even with my slot betting. We won't talk about how lucky (or not lucky) Phillip was in the casino. 

I arranged for a car and driver for the 3-hour drive to take us to the next hotel, the Wild Orchid Beach Resort, just a few hundred yards from my brother's house in the town of Barretto. Although we have seen some ants, we are happy with our room which is about 30 feet from the beach. 

We spend parts of each day at Burt and Connie's house, an easy walk on the same street as our hotel. We do have to walk about 2 km to the market. One day, after Connie and I walked to the market, we rode back with our purchases in the regular local transportation, a motorcycle tricycle taxi. 

my view from the motorcycle taxi

Yesterday, we went with Burt and Connie when they went to play pool. Burt has been told by his doctors to get some walking in each day. Connie can get him out to play pool, so it is a routine for them. It was about a 5-minute walk to the hotel/bar/pool hall, but the outing did ensure that Burt got his movement in by walking and playing. 

Phillip and I don't play, so we watched Connie and Burt. Burt won, but he has such a reach advantage over Connie that I don't think she could ever win against him! Phillip was happy to get a halo-halo while we were at the pool hall. 

We walked back along the beach just as the sun was setting, so here's a final picture, Baloy Beach at sunset. The sand is not white, but it is lighter in color than Galveston sand. 

 

Four Days in Hanoi

Phillip and I moved on to the Philippines yesterday, but we spent a most excellent four days in Hanoi after our mountain time in Sapa. We stayed at the same hotel we booked for the past two trips to Hanoi, the Tirant Hotel. The staff is so friendly and accommodating, with two of them remembering us after three years! Each time we’ve been there, they have upgraded our room. This time was no exception as they put us in a suite. 

Every day during our Hanoi stay, we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, which is less than two blocks from our hotel. Because we visited in June instead of May, the kids weren’t out in the park like before when they had school assignments to practice their English with tourists. The skies were overcast the first two days in Hanoi, so the temperatures were almost pleasant. However, the pictures during the cloudy days don't show how pretty the lake was.

The city still closes the ring street around the lake to traffic on the weekends so families can enjoy the lake. Phillip stood in the middle of the empty streets in the exact spot where he’s seen dance videos made on YouTube by young people. When he didn't start dancing, I just took a picture, not a video of him!  

An hour’s drive into the countryside outside of Hanoi, a cultural show, the Quintessence of Tonkin, is performed by local and professional dancers. We tried to see it when we were in Hanoi in 2023, but a storm made it too dangerous for the performers. We did get to see it on this trip. We arrived early enough to have dinner from food vendors and to watch kids play traditional games. Phillip is watching as the adults have bouncing long sticks that the kids are trying to jump thru.

The show was performed on a lake, with platforms just under the water that the performers used and various set pieces that moved up or in from the side.

Colored lights and lasers were used throughout the show.

Water puppets made an appearance!

One of my favorite parts was when the dancers twirled lighted dragonfly poles.  

Our seats were high, so we had a full view of the lake. During the finale, some of the performers were on the walkway between the seats and the lake. 

We arrived back near our hotel at about 10 pm and decided to join the evening family crowd walking around Hoan Kiem Lake on the closed streets. 

On Sunday, Phillip and I had another cooking class. We made papaya salad, fried spring rolls, and bun cha. Yes, we’ve made all of those in cooking classes before, but each instructor does things a bit differently. Our instructor for this class, Mango, did an excellent job explaining fruits and vegetables at the market. And I’m always amazed to see the tiny baby bananas inside a banana flower:

Two women from Malaysia also took the class. We made our salads first, shredding the green papaya and slicing and dicing the remaining ingredients. The Malaysian women made banana flower salad and we all made the bun cha. 

We sampled our salads as soon as they were made.

Bun cha is traditionally grilled and Mango had Phillip tend to the grilled meat while the other three of us fried the spring rolls. In the upper left of the photo, one of Mango's jackfruit trees is visible. 

And of course, we made more food than the four of us could eat, all of it delicious.

That evening, as it got dark, Phillip and I walked to the next street to the east of the hotel as we knew vendors set up in the street. We walked the six blocks of closed street as they were setting up, but the only thing we bought was a container of fresh jackfruit to snack on. By the time we were halfway back down that street, everyone had set up and was selling their wares: food, clothing, sunglasses, and all kinds of souvenirs.  

On Monday, we bid farewell to the staff at the Tirant Hotel, including the delightful Ms Na. 

Yesterday’s travel day was a long one as we flew from Hanoi to Hong Kong, changed planes, and flew to Cebu. About six hours of actual flight time, but an entire day devoted to travel. We had no problems during the flights and transiting in Hong Kong, although having to go back thru security screening at the Hong Kong airport even though we never left a secure area was a bit of a pain. We are in our last country before we fly home in 15 days.