Ok so we woke up and our colds have decided to get worse. We
decided to load up with aspirin and Sudafed and see if we can’t see at least a
few of the beautiful sights that this city has to offer. We decided to walk
from our hotel to the City Market. This would take us through Burnham Park and
then to Session road. We would check out the shops there and then head to the
market to see what it has to offer. Since it was a school day we had the park
mainly to ourselves. It is a beautiful park that has everything from
playgrounds to a lake that you can rent cool boats and paddle around in. There
were a lot of people exercising and we really enjoyed our walk through the park
and also enjoyed the cool air. When we were in the park I had a young man
approach me and ask if he could interview me. He had a friend with him and my
first instinct was that something bad might be getting ready to go down. Anyway
I quickly found out that he was a college student and his assignment was to
find a native English speaker and have a conversation with them in the form of
an interview. He ended up interviewing me while his friend videotaped it. He
was super nice and glad that he had found me and really glad when the interview
was over. He was very nervous but did a great job. He said I would be part of
his presentation in his class. Ha Ha I ended up in a classroom half way around
the world. Too cool!!! After that we went to a few stores on session road and
then headed to the Market. For some reason I thought I would see a few westerners
here but as usual I was the only one. I guess it is still off the beaten
path…well that is their loss for sure. On the way to the market Lyn bought some
cassava cake and bibingka. It cost 17 peso’s (39 cents US.) and was enough for
both of us for breakfast. Masarap! Finally we made it to the market. We were
both on sensory overload from the colors to the smells to the hustle bustle of
it all. They had everything from touristy type stuff to produce, meat, fish,
poultry and all kids of dry goods. Actually I am sure they had more selection
than your local Wal-Mart. It appeared to be randomly spread out but that just
made it more fun to walk through. You never knew what was around the corner and
believe me there were a lot of corners. We found a really cool coffee store and
had a bag ground up for us. We are looking forward to trying it when we get
home. After that we went to the grocery store and bought a lot of items that
you can only get in the Philippines. We will be bringing it all back in the
same suitcase that we brought all of the American products over in. I guess you
could call us importer exporters! J
We bought so much stuff that we decided to get a cab back out to the hotel and
take a nap. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the bus terminal to get
the tickets to Manila for the next day. We decided to get 1st class
tickets on the Victory Liner luxury bus. It was about $17 US per person and
well worth it as it has wifi a bathroom and gets to Manila two hours faster
than the regular buses. What a splurge! (So far most all of the cab rides have
been less than 3 dollars US.) After
our nap we decide to go to Wright Park. It has over 500 horses their as well as
“The Mansion” and a few other various shops. We toured everything and even had
our pictures taken in native apparel. After that we went back to Burnham and
had an early dinner at kamayan restaurant. They had a special shake called Puto Bumbong. It had ube in it and
actual pieces of puto in it as well. It tasted great and felt really good on
our throats as both of us now had some pretty sore throats. The meal came out
and it was equally as good. All of this for about $7 US. We decided to walk
home and call it an early night. We could only pretend for so long that we were
not sick. We watched a movie on TV and called it a night by about 9:30.
Tomorrow we will be leaving on a bus headed for Manila.
Coffee Shop at the Market
Always a smile even when sick.
The Market
Wright Park
Lunch
Puto Shakes!
Dinner
