The Philippines (North Luzon)

Walking off the plane into the Manila airport is like opening a closet in the fall that you haven’t opened since putting some damp winter coats into it last spring. The smell of musty humidity is overpowering, quite in contrast to the sterile environment of the Tokyo airport, the previous stop on my twenty-hour flight to the Philippines. Most the Japanese workers wore doctor’s masks, but so far, the only masks I’ve seen in the Philippines were worn by Asian tourists while riding horses up a volcano ridge. I did the same trek, but unfortunately sans horse, sans mask and sans my little brother, who gave up a 1/3 of the way from the top. I’ve learned that attempting to keep pace with a practiced local is unadvisable, especially in the noontime sun. But that was yesterday. What, you might ask, have I been doing since I arrived here more than a week ago?

Not partaking in the typical backpacker lifestyle, that’s for sure. This part of my journey being a family trip, I’ve given up adventure for relaxation and luxury. Falling back into my status as daughter and dependent, I have resigned myself to seeing the Philippines in somewhat of an air-conditioned family-filled bubble. For once, my schedule is not dictated by my own whims and limitations, but by those of others. Although this has taken some getting used to, it’s probably good for me.

The majority of our trip has been centralized around the beautiful home and delicious meals of our hosts, family friends William and Robert, one local Filipino and one retired American. They live in a gated community a few hours outside of Manila called, of all things, Lakeshore. What I didn’t realize before coming to the Philippines is that ninety percent of all signs are in English and most everyone here also knows how to speak English. My expectations of this faraway country certainly didn’t include billboards for Oreos, skin whitening products and Nike outlets. Not surprisingly, there is also an excessive amount of McDonalds, but in the Philippines, they also deliver. Even in this island country there’s no escaping globalization.

While visiting Manila we did not visit the area hit by the typhoons, sticking to sights like churches and the famous Manila Hotel. It’s a bustling Asian city, and the traffic becomes so slow that even on freeways people bravely stand and peddle things in the middle of the road with seemingly no fear. But I have never really been a fan of big cities and Manila is no exception, overwhelming me with its overload of people and pollution. I prefer our drives through the countryside, with water buffalos and rice paddies as scenery. To dry out the rice from the fields, everyone spreads it out on the hot pavement of the public road. Vehicles sway in and out of their lanes every quarter mile or so to avoid the fruit of this labor.

The contrast between where we have been staying and eating versus the daily realities for the locals is stark. The Philippines are home to immense poverty and wealth juxtaposed side by side with tin roof shacks right next door to multi-million dollar developments. Most everything here is extremely cheap, but you can also go to the mall and buy American brands for top dollar. As some of the seemingly few white people around, people often mill about us begging for money. It’s hard to say no when what’s small change for us could buy a local person three meals.

Speaking of locals, I had the chance to meet some long lost Filipino relatives. With the help of our Filipino host my grandmother was able to find and reconnect with a cousin she hasn’t seen in over sixty years. My grandmother knew the town she was from, but that was all. After three hours of visiting various offices and talking to a lot of locals, we located her cousin. It was an emotional reunion. How unbelievable it was to be at the home of our distant counterparts. The children played in the dirt outside the modest cement home, taking turns roughhousing with a tiny kitten, testing its durability by poking it with rocks and swinging it by its front paws.

I wish I had taken more pictures of things here, but I always feel weird whipping out my camera to take pictures of what is a novelty for me, but daily life for someone else. I have not seen as much of the Philippines as I would’ve liked, but as I have said, this is a different kind of trip. These last few days we’ve spent in a beautiful hotel in an area called Tagaytay, but tomorrow I am flying solo to a different part of the Philippines (Legaspi) to meet a child I’ve sponsored through Children’s International for the last seven years. The following day I will leave for Thailand.

And so you have it, some major impressions of my time here so far. I should also note that the scenery of the Philippines is quite impressive, as well as the heat. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment, and I’ll post pictures and another entry soon.