Philippines Trip Report: Day 1, City View

I landed in Manila at 5:30 a.m., and made it quickly through customs, and retrieved my bag. (I check all my bags, and don't use carry-on luggage anymore... just my plane ticket used as a marker in my book.)

I couldn't pass through Manila... especially with a 5-hour layover... without seeing an old friend of the family, Nathan. He was an exchange student who lived in my home in New York back in 1986. He is, of course, 20 years older now, married with 2 kids, and owns a textile business and some restaurants in Manila. He picked me up at the airport and took me out to a lovely breakfast at the Sofitel Plaza Hotel on Manila Bay. We sat around for 3 hours and chatted, catching up on the last 20 years.

After that, it was off to the domestic airport (which is completely disconnected from the international airport in Manila) to catch my next flight. I flew on Cebu Pacific, which is the new standard bearer for ultra-cheap, ultra-bad airlines. (8,000 baht round trip to Manila, and 3,000 baht round trip to the southern Philippine city of Cagayan de Oro.) Aside from feeling like I was on the airborne version of one of those rickety buses you see in travel documentaries about India, the trip went fine, and I arrived in Cagayan de Oro.

When I was in Bangkok, although I can't say why, I noticed this one fellow at the airport check-in. I saw him again waiting at the gate for the flight to Manila. Then, more strangely, I saw him at the domestic airport in Manila. Then, I saw him getting on my flight to Cagayan de Oro. Upon arrival at "CdO", while waiting to collect our bags, I introduced myself. In the most amazing of coincidences, it turns out that the fellow is an expatriate named Geoff from Pattaya who, like me, had met a lady on the internet, had flown down to meet her, and was, like me, flying back to Thailand with her on Monday's flight. Recognizing fate, we agreed that we and our newfound Filipina companions would be friends. (Unfortunately, Geoff would be staying in a city called Ozamis City, and not in CdO, so we wouldn't be hanging out together while in The Philippines.)

I met Epril (and her sisters, elder Susan and younger Ednil) at the airport. From all the time on the webcam, chatting, and talking, Epril was exactly as I expected... thus disproving the theory that you can't really know a person without meeting them in person.

We took a van to The Pryce Plaza hotel, where I had rented out the Presidential Suite. At only 2½ times the price of a standard room, and wanting the day to be memorable for both Epril and me, I figured it was worth the extra money. The Pryce Plaza sits on a tall hill overlooking the city, and the Presidential Suite has a monstrous hemi-circular floor-to-ceiling glass wall in the living room affording a spectacular view.

A fellow named Mike, whom I had met on the internet via his blog, and operates an internet-based business out of CdO, met us at the hotel, and took Epril and I on a tour of the city. (We left sisters Susan and Ednil at the suite with instructions to call Room Service.) CdO is a nice enough city, and compares favorably to your standard Thai provincial capital, but the traffic snarls are ridiculous. (The reason is that there are simply no traffic control devices... stop signs, traffic lights, road lines, anything.)

So after an hour of showing us around town, Mike dropped us back off at the hotel. It was really a nice thing for him to take an hour out of his day to show the new guy (and girl) around... I'll take this opportunity to thank him one more time.

After getting back to the hotel, the three sisters and I got back into the van and drove an hour up the coast to Epril's village of Jassan (pronounced "hassa-ahn"). It actually took us about 35 minutes to get out of CdO, and 25 minutes to drive the final 12 miles to Jassan.

In Jassan, I met Epril's parents, saw their neat little house (all carved wood and bamboo... small but darling), met the rest of Epril's family (mom, dad, 5 daughters, 1 dark-skinned granddaughter who was the result of a failed relationship between eldest daughter Susan and an African man). Epril's mom is exactly what you would expect of a Filipina matron: Short styled hair, big smile, rounded out a bit from age, with a pleasant grasp of the English language. Epril's father is exactly what you would expect of a Filipino fisherman: A serious man, built like a fireplug, with thick wavy hair over a round, flat, sun-bronzed face that is deeply chiseled with lines that gives him a permanent scowl, so that you pay close attention to the man to figure out how he is actually feeling.

Susan is the eldest at 26, and she works as a maid in CdO. Epril is 20. Next in line is Ednil, who just turned 16, and is still in school; a pretty girl who outdoes Epril in the thick-hair category. Next is Inday, at 12, but well-grown and filled out for her age, another pretty girl. Finally, there is little Dimple at 7. With her absent front teeth and chubby little cheeks, she is the definition of cute. At the bottom of the list is little granddaughter/niece Doreen, almost 3 years old, with dark brown skin, a shock of long, kinky black hair on her head, bright little eyes, and a perpetual smile, she became my little lapdog for the entire visit.

Everybody in the family speaks English quite well, as does pretty much everybody in the village, which I soon discovered as I was walked around the village to say hello to all of Epril's family... which essentially was the entire village. Epril and I did this while being followed by an entourage of about 15 little girls (aged from about 5 to 10) who would stand outside the various houses Epril and I visited and crowd at the windows and front door, and stare doe-eyed at me while I chatted with some relative of Epril's and bounced an infant baby on my knee. (I could see behind their eyes that they were vowing to get on the internet and find their own white man as soon as they were old enough.)

After 2 hours, Epril and I (and Susan) climbed back into the van and rode back to CdO. We dropped Susan off to catch a jeepney back to her aunt's house across town where she stays during the week while doing her maid's job. Epril and I went to one of the grand shopping malls of CdO, Limkatkai Mall. It was huge. I bought Epril a nice dress to wear to dinner. We also stopped by the Sony store to see about fixing my camera, but there was really nothing they could do in an hour, or even a few days.

We took the van back to the hotel, getting there just after 9:00. We wanted to use the pool, but they had closed it 5 minutes before. So then, Epril and I got all dressed up and went to the lounge where we listened to some live music, and had a few drinks. (Well... I had a few drinks. Epril had 2 sips of a margarita I ordered for her, and — although she loved it — was "so drunk" after just 2 sips... her first alcohol ever.) At just after 10:00, we moved over to the hotel's grand dining room, only to find that it had just closed 5 minutes earlier.

Well, that was probably just as well: We went back to the Presidential Suite, I ordered steaks from room service, and a waiter came and lit some candles, and served us a fairly good dinner in our room. Epril and I sat on our perch over the city lights and clinked our wine glasses together (Epril took just a sip) and toasted the future.