Philippines Holiday
Trip to Manila ~
Arriving here with such familiarity in my hands made me happy. It didn't feel like i was home, but it felt like it was still a part of me, and that was such a wonderful feeling. A lot of urges came through me, what was the first dish i was going to eat?! When do i start drinking? Isaw? Barbeque?! It was all too exciting, so as i walked up to the immigration lady, with her grumpy face, i took in a deep breath and whispered i can do this. "Hello, how are yah?" i said with my Australian accent. "Great, just great.." i thought to myself as I was so sure that the words were going to come out in Filipino and yet it came out in English. "hmmrmph" she replied with no sense of welcoming tone at all. Maybe it was because i was down at the 'visitors' line not at the 'balikbayan' (home coming sort of thing) line.
The most scary part that happened to me on the plane on the way to Manila was that a man was in front of me. He was a bit intoxicated the time he started talking to me and Lily. He talked about random crap, it was funny you know, it was good, i loved socializing. "oh crap" i though to myself as I revealed an information every middle aged man wanted to know: 18, alone in Melbourne, visiting parents in the Philippines. Just great Alyssa you and your bloody big mouth. So he continues talking asking me for my number, he hesitates and then continues to talk about a lady in Melbourne that could take care of me, well i thought that's nice, maybe i could talk to her if ever i needed help or something, but then i thought, hmm, i have my mums friends there that can be trusted, like the man from the filipino store, and norm. So he said he'll give me her number instead of getting my number so that i don't get the wrong idea. Yeah right. Sleaze. We stopped talking, he starts talking to the man next to him. This Filipino man looked tiny compared to this man, he was offering to help him, but the man starts screaming at him with rage, anger… furious as he is, he complained that the Filipino man fiddled with his phone, *configuring* with his phone, he looked like he was hiding something or guilty of something, why else would he be so defensive. He demanded for the Filipino man’s passport details. The man kindly replied “Why? I did nothing, I was just trying to help you” now to me that is very polite, although he had fear in his eyes, he made it very convincing that he was calm and that he wasn’t guilty of anything, this probably made the other man even. By this time we were all standing getting our bags, waiting for the exit doors to open on the plane, man… still yelling at the filipino man. As I walked pass them, the Filipino man attempted to walk out ( he was sitting in the window seat, therefore trapped as the intoxicated angry ugly man was sitting on the isle seat – 2 seated ) The drunk man stood up and as I turned my head towards them, I saw the Filipino man helpless with his arms up, covering his face with his sling bag, and the tall angry man hitting him. I quickly ran to one of the steward man. I don’t know what you call them, and told them a man needed help as he was attacked by a drunk man. I’ve never had that happen to me on the plane before and it was just all too scary, as we were sitting right behind him.
Arrival ~
Arrived at Manila, felt the heat right away, as I walked out of the airport. Heat, noise, the smell was just different, it wasn’t disgusting, it was different and familiar, an I loved it. Loved every bit of my existence there at that moment. I walked out with a smile on my face, as a man with a broom said “Merry Christmas Maam” One of the thing I loved about the Philippines. They have so much faith in everything, regardless of how hard their life could be, and it’s inspiring. I wish I was like that. With so much faith. Maybe it could be because that they have limited knowledge about god and alll other things that they believe in it fully, whereas I cannot, I have y doubts and yet sometimes I still do choose to believe. Just not that much faith. So then I grabbed a cigarette, and quickly lit one, looking up at the roof above me, thinking “If this was Australia I would have gotten a fine” I was loving it even more. Sydney didn’t have one smoking area. NOT EVEN ONE TINY ONE. So I had to bare that for 10 hours.. So then I walked down the very steep ramp trying to help lily with the trolly that had a mind of it’s own and went down to “w” –Watt, my dad’s last name.
Our car was a monster, it was absolutely huge, that I wondered if at night it transformed and ate people. The traffic was hilarious, the 2 lanes became 4 or 3. I wonder what people think about their driving. It’s just plain stupid. When you indicate people behind you speed up, why? It won’t make a different because we’ll all get there anyway. I just don’t get it. I had my eye on the buses though, they were creeping the shit out of me, god it was horrible! I though it was going to break with screws flying everywhere ( I have a vivid imagination - damn cartoons! ) but I made it home safe without choking in one of the screws.
Our house didn’t surprise me, our life in the Philippines is completely different. Although my life in Australia is absolutely wonderful, in the Philippines everything was just even more upsized. Can thing get anymore bigger? God. I loved the fact that the house had a pool, didn’t love the fact that the trees were covering the pool therefore making the pool freezing. I have only gone in it once since I got here.
We went to TGI Fridays and had my first legal beer in the Philippines! Haha. (not counting the years I spent here drinking red horse and san mig light. But that wasn’t legal. haha).
Christmas Shopping ~
On the 24th of December we went Christmas shopping, god that was horrible! We went to this big ass super mall “market market” in the fort, yes im a cheapy I like to buy cheap clothes that look decent. SO what?! Haha. They have good shops there too! Well anyway, I went in the area that was like “pipeworks” in Australia. It was fun everything was so cheap. HAhaha. It was hard at first because they’ll be like “250 maam” in my head im like “a-wah?? 250 bucks for that? Ehhh?” and then I realize its in pesos. So then we spent the whole day trying to look for presents and it took ages because we didn’t know where things were which made it hard for me. I went in to converse to buy my dad some cool shoes. Hahaha. Yeah, I had this argument with the lady, she didn’t seem to know the system of converse shoes -_- At first I acted all cool speaking in tagalog, and then she frustrated the shit out of me, that it was too hard to speak tagalog, because I had to carefully think about each word to use and how to construct it into a proper sentence, all this in a short second aryt. SO yes, my bad, I started speaking english. I felt so bad afterwards I must have sounded intimidating and demeaning. But that wasn’t my intention, so after that I kindly apologized and used the heat as an excuse, well it was part of it, but of it her.
Christmas ~
I love Christmas, seeing people smile with excitement as they see their names of the tags of the presents is wonderful, especially when it’s from you. I think that all little things matter, it’s always the thought that counts. And with my family, it think that matters.
Danielle, my little sister, had her own little tree. Around it were a lot of presents! More than what we had on our big tree, the presents that were supposed to be for everyone. Lol. SO then Lily was the first to open her present, from Danielle. It was a Philippine Jeepney! Haha! She loved it! I can’t enumerate everyone’s presents because that would take yonks. But, it was great, and oh my dad’s present, from me and lil, the converse, he loved it! Haha it was so cute!
Boracay ~
It was the funniest shit. The plane was so small! It was scary but the flight went smoothly. I can’t say much about Boracay, so many things happened. But digging my feet into the powder like white sand was so nice. This wasn’t the first time I went there, and yet every single time i went.. it was like my first time. Sitting there sipping on my beer watching the sun set was a wonderful feeling. Things like this, regardless of it being so normal, I still appreciate it. When you come to think of it, the beautiful things in life are taken for granted. I think about the many years that took for such beauty to exist. Boracay was still very beautiful, when I was there when I was 7 the very first time I came, it was less crowded, less building, everything was just beautifu and now there’s a lot of concrete. It became a tiny Manila.
Its sad that the beauty of the resources is ruined just for the convenience of people. My parents were awesome, they took us to go snorkling, and lily never did that before. Seeing her happy, it was like an achievement to me. It was great! It was also great to go on the “we found him!” boat that was painted like a clown fish “NEMO” in the movie “finding nemo” lol. It was glass bottom boat, it was a good experience to see all different fishes. I was going to pass on the snorlking but one of the guys on the boat was like “snorkling maam?” im like “nah.. ill pass, can’t be bothered” he goes “or are you scared?” Was he serious? Me, the water baby, and the beach bum? So I took my denim shorts off, my green sunnies, green top…flaunted my new belly piercing I bought for 500 pesos that had the dangly diamonds reflecting light from the sun. Grabbed a snorkel and dove in the water, I then bounced up into the surface and gave him a smirk, as I looked at everyone with a life jacket.
I tried going under water to get the star fish, the problem with snorkels is that because its blocking your nose, it makes your ears very painful when you dive under the water. So I didn’t want to do it. Lol.
Almost everyone had an underwater camera, it made me very conscious. I wondered of how many people that accidentally took a picture of my ass? Yeah… I wonder. Eww. My ass. ><” great.
We went back on the 31st. Everything was so busy.
Newyears ~
Arriving here with such familiarity in my hands made me happy. It didn't feel like i was home, but it felt like it was still a part of me, and that was such a wonderful feeling. A lot of urges came through me, what was the first dish i was going to eat?! When do i start drinking? Isaw? Barbeque?! It was all too exciting, so as i walked up to the immigration lady, with her grumpy face, i took in a deep breath and whispered i can do this. "Hello, how are yah?" i said with my Australian accent. "Great, just great.." i thought to myself as I was so sure that the words were going to come out in Filipino and yet it came out in English. "hmmrmph" she replied with no sense of welcoming tone at all. Maybe it was because i was down at the 'visitors' line not at the 'balikbayan' (home coming sort of thing) line.
The most scary part that happened to me on the plane on the way to Manila was that a man was in front of me. He was a bit intoxicated the time he started talking to me and Lily. He talked about random crap, it was funny you know, it was good, i loved socializing. "oh crap" i though to myself as I revealed an information every middle aged man wanted to know: 18, alone in Melbourne, visiting parents in the Philippines. Just great Alyssa you and your bloody big mouth. So he continues talking asking me for my number, he hesitates and then continues to talk about a lady in Melbourne that could take care of me, well i thought that's nice, maybe i could talk to her if ever i needed help or something, but then i thought, hmm, i have my mums friends there that can be trusted, like the man from the filipino store, and norm. So he said he'll give me her number instead of getting my number so that i don't get the wrong idea. Yeah right. Sleaze. We stopped talking, he starts talking to the man next to him. This Filipino man looked tiny compared to this man, he was offering to help him, but the man starts screaming at him with rage, anger… furious as he is, he complained that the Filipino man fiddled with his phone, *configuring* with his phone, he looked like he was hiding something or guilty of something, why else would he be so defensive. He demanded for the Filipino man’s passport details. The man kindly replied “Why? I did nothing, I was just trying to help you” now to me that is very polite, although he had fear in his eyes, he made it very convincing that he was calm and that he wasn’t guilty of anything, this probably made the other man even. By this time we were all standing getting our bags, waiting for the exit doors to open on the plane, man… still yelling at the filipino man. As I walked pass them, the Filipino man attempted to walk out ( he was sitting in the window seat, therefore trapped as the intoxicated angry ugly man was sitting on the isle seat – 2 seated ) The drunk man stood up and as I turned my head towards them, I saw the Filipino man helpless with his arms up, covering his face with his sling bag, and the tall angry man hitting him. I quickly ran to one of the steward man. I don’t know what you call them, and told them a man needed help as he was attacked by a drunk man. I’ve never had that happen to me on the plane before and it was just all too scary, as we were sitting right behind him.
Arrival ~
Arrived at Manila, felt the heat right away, as I walked out of the airport. Heat, noise, the smell was just different, it wasn’t disgusting, it was different and familiar, an I loved it. Loved every bit of my existence there at that moment. I walked out with a smile on my face, as a man with a broom said “Merry Christmas Maam” One of the thing I loved about the Philippines. They have so much faith in everything, regardless of how hard their life could be, and it’s inspiring. I wish I was like that. With so much faith. Maybe it could be because that they have limited knowledge about god and alll other things that they believe in it fully, whereas I cannot, I have y doubts and yet sometimes I still do choose to believe. Just not that much faith. So then I grabbed a cigarette, and quickly lit one, looking up at the roof above me, thinking “If this was Australia I would have gotten a fine” I was loving it even more. Sydney didn’t have one smoking area. NOT EVEN ONE TINY ONE. So I had to bare that for 10 hours.. So then I walked down the very steep ramp trying to help lily with the trolly that had a mind of it’s own and went down to “w” –Watt, my dad’s last name.
Our car was a monster, it was absolutely huge, that I wondered if at night it transformed and ate people. The traffic was hilarious, the 2 lanes became 4 or 3. I wonder what people think about their driving. It’s just plain stupid. When you indicate people behind you speed up, why? It won’t make a different because we’ll all get there anyway. I just don’t get it. I had my eye on the buses though, they were creeping the shit out of me, god it was horrible! I though it was going to break with screws flying everywhere ( I have a vivid imagination - damn cartoons! ) but I made it home safe without choking in one of the screws.
Our house didn’t surprise me, our life in the Philippines is completely different. Although my life in Australia is absolutely wonderful, in the Philippines everything was just even more upsized. Can thing get anymore bigger? God. I loved the fact that the house had a pool, didn’t love the fact that the trees were covering the pool therefore making the pool freezing. I have only gone in it once since I got here.
We went to TGI Fridays and had my first legal beer in the Philippines! Haha. (not counting the years I spent here drinking red horse and san mig light. But that wasn’t legal. haha).
Christmas Shopping ~
On the 24th of December we went Christmas shopping, god that was horrible! We went to this big ass super mall “market market” in the fort, yes im a cheapy I like to buy cheap clothes that look decent. SO what?! Haha. They have good shops there too! Well anyway, I went in the area that was like “pipeworks” in Australia. It was fun everything was so cheap. HAhaha. It was hard at first because they’ll be like “250 maam” in my head im like “a-wah?? 250 bucks for that? Ehhh?” and then I realize its in pesos. So then we spent the whole day trying to look for presents and it took ages because we didn’t know where things were which made it hard for me. I went in to converse to buy my dad some cool shoes. Hahaha. Yeah, I had this argument with the lady, she didn’t seem to know the system of converse shoes -_- At first I acted all cool speaking in tagalog, and then she frustrated the shit out of me, that it was too hard to speak tagalog, because I had to carefully think about each word to use and how to construct it into a proper sentence, all this in a short second aryt. SO yes, my bad, I started speaking english. I felt so bad afterwards I must have sounded intimidating and demeaning. But that wasn’t my intention, so after that I kindly apologized and used the heat as an excuse, well it was part of it, but of it her.
Christmas ~
I love Christmas, seeing people smile with excitement as they see their names of the tags of the presents is wonderful, especially when it’s from you. I think that all little things matter, it’s always the thought that counts. And with my family, it think that matters.
Danielle, my little sister, had her own little tree. Around it were a lot of presents! More than what we had on our big tree, the presents that were supposed to be for everyone. Lol. SO then Lily was the first to open her present, from Danielle. It was a Philippine Jeepney! Haha! She loved it! I can’t enumerate everyone’s presents because that would take yonks. But, it was great, and oh my dad’s present, from me and lil, the converse, he loved it! Haha it was so cute!
Boracay ~
It was the funniest shit. The plane was so small! It was scary but the flight went smoothly. I can’t say much about Boracay, so many things happened. But digging my feet into the powder like white sand was so nice. This wasn’t the first time I went there, and yet every single time i went.. it was like my first time. Sitting there sipping on my beer watching the sun set was a wonderful feeling. Things like this, regardless of it being so normal, I still appreciate it. When you come to think of it, the beautiful things in life are taken for granted. I think about the many years that took for such beauty to exist. Boracay was still very beautiful, when I was there when I was 7 the very first time I came, it was less crowded, less building, everything was just beautifu and now there’s a lot of concrete. It became a tiny Manila.
Its sad that the beauty of the resources is ruined just for the convenience of people. My parents were awesome, they took us to go snorkling, and lily never did that before. Seeing her happy, it was like an achievement to me. It was great! It was also great to go on the “we found him!” boat that was painted like a clown fish “NEMO” in the movie “finding nemo” lol. It was glass bottom boat, it was a good experience to see all different fishes. I was going to pass on the snorlking but one of the guys on the boat was like “snorkling maam?” im like “nah.. ill pass, can’t be bothered” he goes “or are you scared?” Was he serious? Me, the water baby, and the beach bum? So I took my denim shorts off, my green sunnies, green top…flaunted my new belly piercing I bought for 500 pesos that had the dangly diamonds reflecting light from the sun. Grabbed a snorkel and dove in the water, I then bounced up into the surface and gave him a smirk, as I looked at everyone with a life jacket.
I tried going under water to get the star fish, the problem with snorkels is that because its blocking your nose, it makes your ears very painful when you dive under the water. So I didn’t want to do it. Lol.
Almost everyone had an underwater camera, it made me very conscious. I wondered of how many people that accidentally took a picture of my ass? Yeah… I wonder. Eww. My ass. ><” great.
We went back on the 31st. Everything was so busy.
Newyears ~
My dad’s idea of the fireworks is that you buy a few to intimated other houses in the Philippines and because they want to prove that they have better fireworks and more money, they’ll buy all they can get. So my dad doesn’t bother. We enjoyed watching the neighbours’ fireworks it was great. You don’t get to see that around Williamstown randomly you now? LOL.
I laid on the pavement and watched the fireworks.
As i heard my mum say "that's it. they burnt all their money" and it made me laugh. No wonder why they didn't buy so much. LOL.
posted by aL ♥ @ 2:34 pm
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