Consumed with nearly back-to-back diving, we spent little time in Indonesia thinking about where to go next. So with just 72 hours left on our Indenesian visa, we found ourselves scrambling to choose our next destination.
Fortunately, this was about the same time we finally sent out the first version of this blog. Robynn’s friend Gretchen immediately replied with a warm invitation to spend a few days with her and her family in Manila, which they now call home. How could we refuse?!
Manila is a fascinating city. Like so many former colonial countries that gained post-WW II independence, the food, language, politics, and culture of the Philippines are a complex mix of indigenous and colonial influences. As an American, however, visiting the Philippines an altogether different experience, because the country’s most-recent colonial power was the United States. American merchandise, American accents, and American culture abound. Turn on the radio and close your eyes, and you could be anywhere in the states.
We used our time in the Philippines to plan the next big phase of our adventure – China! We spent our first day in Manila assembling all the necessary paperwork for our China visas (there’s a lot, and heaven help you if you fill it out in the wrong color or accidentally staple or paper-clip a photograph that should be glued), and then headed to the Chinese embassy early the next morning. The Internet had suggested that getting a Chinese visa in Manila might be a challenge, but we had no trouble. With a small fee for an overnight rush, we quickly had ten-year multiple-entry visas in hand.
In between planning and logistics, we walked around two of Manila’s famous markets. In Binondo, Manila’s Chinatown, we indulged in a self-guided food tour shared by our hosts. It was all amazing, but the highlight was pork and chive dumplings, which were made as we watched, and steamed fresh. We also found some “dragon fruit” which we had to buy because we remain defenseless against dragon-branding!
In Cubao, we spent a morning walking around an open-air farmer’s market, with the delightful panoply of flowers, exotic fruits, piles of eggs, and fresh vegetables. The Cubao market’s main draw, however, is the “wet-market” section, where seafood of every size, color, and variety are on offer, many still flopping live on trays or in buckets and glass tanks.
We also spent an evening wandering around the beautifully-designed public spaces of the Bonifacio Global City. A world away from Binondo and Cubao, this upscale neighborhood is as clean, shiny, and expensive as any top pedestrian shopping hub the United States.
By far the best part of Manila, however, was catching up with Gretchen, her husband Neeraj, and their two ridiculously precocious and cute kids Naveen and Aria. Gretchen and Neeraj have built an amazing, adventurous life together, living in New Delhi, Washington, DC, and now Manila. In Manila, Gretchen is leading a consumer-goods startup that’s bringing responsible consumerism to the Philippines, while Neeraj is leading a full-on-charge to disrupt the country’s power markets as the head of a new entrant in Philippine power generation. They were fantastic hosts, and after two months away from friends and family, it was joyful and rejuvenating to spend some quality time with them.
As hard as it was to pull ourselves away from time in a real home with such welcoming friends, after a few days, with China plans and visas in hand, it was finally time to go. So we boarded our flight to Hong Kong, with anticipation and a hint of trepidation to entering – that’s right – the land of dragons.
Photos
Binondo (China Town)
Cubao Fish Market
Cubao Farmer’s Market
