Manila Trip - Part 3

Saturday started out with a bit of an adventure, as did Sunday. Sunday's was fun; Saturday's wasn't.

The training group that Chris was observing had finished a sequence of modules and was having a graduation party of sorts in a neighborhood resort with pool and bar not far from the office. Chris' colleagues wanted for me to attend the party, so I caught a cab to meet Chris at his office, which is in a Robinson's mall in Cainta. I packed a few things for the party, grabbed my mobile phone, a map of Manila, and some cash and headed out the door. Chris had mentioned that such a trip would cost about P200 (US$4). The hotel doorman offered to have the hotel car drive me ("It will be safer."), which would've cost P1,000 (US$20), but I elected for the cheaper cab. The doorman hailed a cab, took the cabbie's license and wrote down his name and registration number, then described to the cabbie where he understood that I wanted to go. I was off! I sent Chris a text message to let him know that I was on my way. I knew where I was going, so I followed along in my map for a while. Shortly, I noticed that the cabbie turned off of the street that'd've taken us from near the hotel to Chris' office in a straight shot. I paid close attention, but began to get a little worried. I worried a bit more when he turned off of this large boulevard onto a two-lane street that wound through a neighborhood and past a derelict freeway interchange that was intended to cross the Pasig River. There were still a lot of cabs around and I could tell where we were, so I figured that the cabbie knew a less-congested route. We ended up on another major boulevard that crossed the river and finally arrived at a destination -- a different Robinson's mall in another part of Cainta.

"Here you are, sir, Robinson's Cainta," the cabbie reported.

I didn't recognize the place and I knew from following the map that this wasn't where I wanted to go. "Is this Ortigas Avenue?", I asked somewhat rhetorically.

"Yes, sir," he replied, without hesitating to think about or acknowledge what I'd asked.

"No, it isn't!", I snapped. "This isn't where I wanted to go," I deadpanned as I handed the cabbie the map and pointed out my intended destination. The cabbie's eyes grew wide as he studied the map. I sent Chris another text message to report that we were lost. The phone rang shortly and Chris reported that one of his colleagues, Rio, was going to talk to the cabbie and tell him how to find where we needed to go. The cabbie took the phone and began speaking in Tagalog; I could tell that he was just as panicked as was I and I figured out that this is where the doorman had told him to take me. He handed the phone back to me and Rio reassured me that the cabbie now knew where he was going. I continued to follow along on the map until I was delivered to my correct destination just a few minutes later, aged and wizened from my experience!

I went inside the building and helped Chris for about an hour put together some things for a game night that we were to host on Sunday evening. About an hour later, we left for the resort. Our driver, Dante, whom Chris knows well, zig-zagged about the neighborhood where the resort was located for about 30 minutes before we found where we were going. The others followed about an hour later, then the food arrived an hour more later and was served just as we had to leave to arrive at another engagement. We scarfed down our barbecued tilapia with rice and hit the streets again.

We cabbed back to the hotel, changed clothes, and grabbed another cab that would take us to the Cultural Center of the Philippines, a large auditorium complex on Manila Bay, where Noel, a friend of Chris', was performing in a Tchaikovsky opera, Eugene Onégin. We travelled south on the EDSA expressway and turned north on Roxas Boulevard. We found the CCP complex and continued on through about a half-dozen more intersections, looking for one at which we could legally U-turn, a situation that amused me, considering how traffic works here. We u-turned and passed the CCP again. Frustrated, we stopped the cab and walked a couple of blocks to our destination. Inside, we dozed intermittently during the opera, but awoke when we heard Noel singing. After the performance, we greeted him in the lobby, then hopped in a cab for our next destination.

This driver was serious about getting us quickly to Mall of Asia for dinner and a concert with The Von Trapp Children. He sped up, braked, swerved, honked and wove his way through traffic in much the same way as do all other drivers here, though he was more determined in his pursuit of as many fares as possible. We walked about the mall, had a nice dinner, then made our way to the concert hall to see The Von Trapp Children, descendants of the real family on whose story The Sound of Music is based, who still tour and perform! It had been a long day for both of us and we slumped in our seats as we waited for the concert to begin, which it finally did 40 minutes late. We enjoyed about 45 minutes of singing until intermission, at which point we left. We were disheartened at the long taxi queue, but it moved quite quickly and we were home and in bed less than an hour later.

Sunday morning came early, though not quite as early as we'd thought it would. Dante, the driver, was to meet us and three of Chris' work friends at the hotel at 6 AM. When we awoke, the clock rudely reported that it was 6:20. We sprang from bed and began to buzz about getting ready. The phone rang; it was Jane calling from downstairs; she, Karen, and Lara had arrived, but Dante wasn't there yet. We readied ourselves and shot down in the elevator. Dante called to report that he'd just finished repairing a flat tire. We hit the road by 7 AM and made our way down the ESDA, past Mall of Asia, past the airport, and out of Metro Manila on the South Luzon Expressway into Cavite province. We drove the Aguinaldo Highway through Bacoor, Imus, and Silang. The terrain became more mountainous as we approached Tagaytay and then crossed into Batangas province just before arriving in our destination, Laurel, about two hours after setting out. In Laurel, we stopped at Natalia's Guest House, where we arranged for transportation across Lake Taal to Volcano Island and then up to the rim of Taal Volcano. A twenty-minute boat ride landed us on Volcano Island, where a twenty-minute donkey ride took us to the rim of Taal. That was the first time in my life that I'd ever ridden any sort of equine transport! The scenery was undeniably breath-taking and I took many photos. By the time that we returned to Natalia's, we were quite tired, even though we'd done nothing but ride all day -- van, boat, donkey! We lunched on grill-roasted tilapia from Lake Taal, stir-fried vegetables, rice, iced tea (quite popular here), and bananas. A sleepy-two hour drive returned us home to the hotel.

Jane, Karen, and Lara, who'd accompanied us to Taal, stayed on in anticipation of a game night that Chris had planned for some of his colleagues. We assembled the cards that we'd use for game play -- cutting, pasting, and laminating. Jane and I walked to the grocery store in the SM Megamall for drinks and snacks. John arrived at about 6 PM and Dianne arrived shortly afterwards. Chris ordered dinner from Yellow Cab Pizza and we set upon playing Scruples and having a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I enjoyed a Red Horse (strong Philippine beer) with my pizza. Though Chris intended to stay up through the night to get back on his work-week schedule, I couldn't keep my eyes open and lied down for a nap at about 10:30 PM, shortly before our guests left. It had been a fun weekend and I was completely worn out!